Contract to manage Idaho mixed waste

06 June 2011

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to a consortium of companies to manage and operate the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at its Idaho site. 

 

Idaho AMWTP (DoE)
Inside a boxline in the Treatment Facility, waste boxes are remotely opened, the waste is removed and sorted and the boxes are shredded (Image: DoE)
The DoE awarded the contract, worth some $417 million, to Idaho Treatment Group (ITG), a consortium of Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), Washington Group International and Energy Solutions. ITG's four pre-selected small business subcontractors include Safety & Risk Analysis Consulting; Strategic Management Solutions, Visionary Solutions and Cabrera Services.

 

Under the contract, ITG will be responsible for processing and disposing of transuranic waste and mixed low-level waste currently being stored at the Idaho site's Transuranic Storage Area (TSA). After characterization, treatment and packaging, the waste will be transported to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

 

ITG is set to assume operations at the site on or about 1 August 2011. The contract will run until the end of September 2015.

 

Under the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site Treatment Plan, the DoE is responsible for the characterization, treatment, packaging, shipment and disposal of some 26,500 cubic metres of AMWTP waste currently stored at the Idaho facility. This waste includes DoE laboratory and processing materials from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and various other DoE facilities in Idaho and across the USA.

 

The AMWTP waste may consist of mixtures of absorbed liquids with various solid materials, including paper, cloth, plastic, rubber, glass, concrete, metals and others. It is stored in drums, boxes and bins at the Idaho site.

 

Rick Provencher, manager of the DoE's Idaho Operations Office, said, "The Department of Energy takes our cleanup commitments to the state of Idaho seriously, and this contract with ITG will allow us to meet one of our Settlement Agreement milestones."

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News