Cleanup project nears completion

A delegation of statehouse officials will be on hand Thursday as Fluor Idaho commemorates the near completion of transuranic waste debris treatment under the Idaho Settlement Agreement.

Governor Brad Little, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality Director John Tippets, Idaho’s congressional delegation, DOE officials and other dignitaries will be at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project 50 miles west of Idaho Falls.

The 1995 Settlement Agreement between the state, Department of Energy, and U.S. Navy requires the removal of 65,000 cubic meters of stored transuranic and low-level radioactive waste that originated at the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado. The material was sent to Idaho for above-ground storage from 1970 through the 1980’s.

Treatment facility crews will complete treating the transuranic waste debris this fall. Shipments of the treated waste will be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico over the next 10 years.

The 5-year, $1.4 billion project is funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.

KIFI 2019