Year
2003
Abstract
A significant proportion of the Mixed Transuranic (TRU) waste scheduled to be consigned to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is located at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). It was sent to Idaho from a variety of generating sites across the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Complex, but the majority is from Rocky Flats. There is a tri-party agreement between the State of Idaho, the US Navy and the US DOE to remove 65,000 m3 of contact handled mixed alpha low-level waste and transuranic waste by the target date of 2015 and no later than 2018. To ensure this waste is sent to WIPP, the contract to prepare the waste was let as a privatization contract and in December 1996, the contract was awarded to BNFL Inc. This paper outlines the evolution for this project to the first shipments from award of the contract. One of the major events along this pathway was the removal of the incinerator from the design following litigation against the DOE. BNFL Inc., in conjunction with the DOE, devised a plan for shipping the bulk of the waste, without recourse to an incinerator, allowing decisions concerning the treatment of the remaining waste to be deferred until the latter years of the project.