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The Secretary of Energy’s Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance (OA) conducted an inspection of environment, safety, and health (ES&H) and emergency management programs at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) East Tennessee Technol...

Inspection of Environment, Safety, and Health and Emergency Management at the Oak Ridge Operations Office and East Tennessee Technology Park

In February 2000, the Department of Energy entered into a contract with Kaiser-Hill Company, LLC to close the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site by December 15,2006. Under the terms of the contract, Kaiser-Hill is responsible for treating and packaging low-level mixed waste (LLMW) greater than 10 nanocuries per gram, and the Department is responsible for providing a disposal site for the waste. Kaiser-Hill has about 1,300 cubic meters of this type of waste in its inventory and estimates that it could generate an additional 1,500 cubic meters prior to site closure. The waste consists mainly of sludge, metals, combustibles (e.g., rags, clothmg, and wood), lead solids, and lead gloves. Kaiser-Hill anticipates a need for a disposal site by August 2003.

Disposal of the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site's Low-Level Mixed Waste

Since the early 1970s, the Department of Energy has stored about 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic (TRU) waste and mixed low-level waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Most of the waste was generated at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado, and was shipped to the INEEL in drums and boxes. The preponderance of waste is stored on asphalt pads and covered with soil to form earthen-covered berms.