Tour Presents Cleanup Successes to Idaho State, Regional and Local Officials

Community leaders from eastern Idaho stand in front of transuranic waste shipping packages at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, where crews package, certify and ship transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — State legislators recently joined local and regional public officials from eastern Idaho for an Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) tour, where they learned how the cleanup ensures protection of people and the environment while meeting commitments in the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement.

The officials saw firsthand how crews have reduced risk to the underlying Snake River Plain Aquifer by exhuming targeted buried legacy waste from a Cold War-era landfill. Crews are packaging, certifying and shipping this waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

The group also visited the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, where workers demonstrated how used nuclear fuel from historic fuel recycling efforts is safely held in indoor and outdoor storage areas. In recent years, crews achieved a milestone under the agreement with the state by transferring used nuclear fuel from wet storage to safer dry storage to prepare for its final disposition when an offsite repository becomes available. Completing such milestones supports critical research at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.

“Tours like this give us the opportunity to demonstrate firsthand the success of cleanup activities in Idaho and show how the Energy Department has been a good steward of its responsibilities,” ICP Manager Nick Balsmeier said. “We appreciate the community’s continued support as we move this important work forward.”

-Contributor: Carter Harrison