Officials celebrate cleanup of radioactive waste at INL complex
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ARCO – The U.S. Department of Energy and the Idaho Cleanup Project are celebrating the completion of a high-priority exhumation effort dating back to 2005.
For the last 17 years, workers with the Idaho Cleanup Project have been working to exhume 5.69 acres of transuranic waste materials at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex near Arco. Connie Flohr, manager of the project, tells EastIdahoNews.com the waste includes rubber gloves, personal protective equipment, test tubes and other items that had been contaminated through the processing of radioactive materials over the years.
Many of the items originated from the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado and dated back to the Cold War era.
The waste was buried in nine designated locations throughout the Butte County site. The exhumation was completed 18 months ahead of schedule as part of the Accelerated Retrieval Project. Flohr says the project’s early completion “demonstrates their ability to protect the underlying Snake River Plain Aquifer and allow for future research and development emissions at the Idaho National Laboratory site.”
“It is a commitment that we had made to the state of Idaho that by 2023, we would get this waste exhumed and out of here such that we were making the environment safer for the state of Idaho,” Flohr says.
Hundreds of workers have been involved in the cleanup effort over the years, many of whom have been there from the beginning. Flohr says the crew’s proficiency is the main factor that resulted in the project’s completion so far in advance of the deadline.
“When they first started out, it probably took them a little longer to get through any particular area,” Flohr says. “There were nine facilities out here … and as they went along, they got better and better at it. They got to the point where they could take a scoop of dirt out of the ground, look at it through the window of the excavator and determine if it had waste or not.”
Flohr and other dignitaries celebrated the early completion of the cleanup effort during a press conference at the complex Wednesday. Those in attendance included Governor Brad Little, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and DOE Office of Environmental Management Senior Advisor William “Ike” White.
During the event, White praised the efforts of the cleanup crew and their accomplishment in fulfilling their commitment to the state of Idaho.
“Eighteen months ahead of schedule and in the middle of a global pandemic — I can’t overstate how difficult that was,” said White. “It’s a remarkable feat and it’s a testament to the workforce that we have, all the men and women who make the important work that we do possible.”
The Radioactive Waste Management Complex has been an INL-generated waste landfill since 1952. From 1954 to 1970, it accepted waste from nuclear weapons, construction material, laboratory equipment and other contaminants related to the U.S. involvement in the Cold War.
Then in 1970, the country’s policy on how radioactive waste is disposed of changed.
“It went from shallow burial to somewhat monitored above-ground disposal,” says Erik Simpson, a spokesman for the Idaho Environmental Coalition.
This policy change led to the construction of the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant, where crews have been retrieving, repackaging and shipping waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for the last 20 years.
About 49,000 drums of waste were collected from the Advanced Retrieval Project over the last 17 years. With its completion, Dan Coyne with the Idaho Environmental Coalition says the RWMC plant will now be closed, and they’ll continue shipping it out.
“We’re reliant on shipments to WIPP and characterizations of waste (so there is no timeline for completion),” says Coyne. “This is a methodical process. You don’t want to rush it, and you want to make sure that what you’re putting on the road is safe for disposal.”
Coyne also notes the challenging working environment for those involved and says it wouldn’t have been possible without their knowledge and skill.
“You’re in there, wearing breathing air suits, running pieces of equipment in breathing air — this couldn’t have been done without the people,” Coyne says.