The Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation is located within the security perimeter of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site. The storage system used at the TMI-2 ISFSI is the NUHOMS® - 12T cask system. A license was issued to the Department of Energy-Idaho Operations Office (DOE) by the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 19, 1999. On March 31, 1999, the first dry shielded canister (DSC) containing TMI-2 core debris was moved from the test area north facility to the ISFSI. Each DSC contained 12 TMI-2 canisters. The TMI-2 canisters contained the rubble from the TMI-2 reactor core. The 29th, and final DSC, was loaded into the ISFSI on April 20, 2001. This completed the loading of the TMI-2 ISFSI.

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* [2006-03-14] Lawyers say nuke policies ignored safety--Energy Department questions INL cleanup
Spokesman Review

August 23, 2005

DOE's plan to use steam reforming, instead of vitrification, on sodium waste in Idaho unites pro- and anti-nuclear groups in opposition

Nuclear-power advocates and a nuclear watchdog group have joined forces to oppose a federal plan to treat liquid nuclear waste at the Idaho Cleanup Project. After studying, since 1997, the best way to deal with 900,000 gallons of radioactive, sodium-bearing waste at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center tank farm, DOE wants to turn the thick liquid waste into a sand-like material. Opponents worry that in that form, it could dissolve in water or blow away in the wind if accidentally released. Members of Coalition 21, a pro-nuclear-power group, and the watchdog group Snake River Alliance prefer a method that would convert the waste into a glasslike solid. "If we're going to be transporting and storing this for a very long time, we want it to be in a form that's least likely to get into the environment," Snake River Alliance spokesman Jeremy Maxand said. "Aside from storing this stuff as a liquid, a powder form is the next worst thing, especially if they're transporting it." At a Coalition 21 meeting last week, Idaho Cleanup Project site employee Darryl Siemer said "I think it's a horrible idea."

DOE's preferred process, called steam reforming, uses super-hot steam to vaporize the waste liquid, which is then purified. A sandlike substance is left behind. Industrial sites have used the process since the mid-70s, and a Tennessee site has used it to treat commercial radioactive waste for six years, said Jim French, the Energy Department's director for liquid waste facility closure. Opponents say vitrification, is a better choice because it turns the waste into a glasslike solid that can't dissolve in water or spread in the wind. Officials say steam reforming will leave the waste in a form suitable for repositories in New Mexico or Nevada. DOE officials concede the final destination is still uncertain. "It will be treated and road-ready, and we'll manage it safely until we have a permanent repository," said Brad Bugger, a spokesman for the Energy Department's Idaho field office. But that uncertainty worries critics. "DOE is assuming they can change all the rules," Siemer said. "There's a high probability whatever we make will stay right here in Idaho."

The state's Idaho National Laboratory oversight office also wants the waste shipped elsewhere. State officials say they would prefer vitrification, but believe the steam process could get the waste into a solid form faster. "If there's a technology that can move forward and can produce a solid form, that's a good thing," said Kathleen Trever, state coordinator for INL oversight. "You can run into lots of entanglements if you wait for every last detail of getting it offsite to be worked out." DOE must ship the final product out of state to comply with terms of its settlement of a lawsuit filed by the state. On Monday, the agency announced it would extend to Sept. 21 the public comment period for the waste-treatment plan.

[Source: Associated Press, "Groups oppose plan for liquid waste", Jackson Hole Star-Tribune (WY), August 23, 2005]

April 16, 2005

* CDC says it's 'committed' to learning nuclear effects
Joe Bauman, Deseret News

Kathy Harben, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, responded to comments by Dr. Joseph L. Lyon, reported in Thursday's Deseret Morning News. After the CDC pulled funding for an extensive fallout-health effects study he and colleagues have been pursuing, Dr. Lyon wondered if someone was trying to cover up fallout harm. The study, which has cost about $8 million so far, has examined about one-third of the 4,000 subjects, seeking evidence of thyroid abnormalities. A subsection of the study also was planned to check for possible deaths from reasons other than thyroid disease that could be tied to fallout. According to Lyon, it was the only study in this country actually examining individuals who were exposed to radiation, looking for health effects. The main group in the study attended Washington County schools in 1965, and when Lyon and colleagues checked them years after fallout from the Nevada Test Site had ended, they found thyroid tumors at 3.4 times the expected rate. The follow-up study was launched because thyroid disease can materialize years after exposure to radiation. Some of the 4,000 make up a control group of Arizona residents. Lyon commented after reading a letter from CDC director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, whose points were covered in the article Thursday.

Ms. Harben read the article and said Gerberding had made a good analysis of the CDC's reasoning. "That is a very good summary for the basis for the CDC's decision not to continue funding," she said. "Besides that, the CDC remains committed to evaluating the exposure and possible effects related to past radiation released from nuclear weapons production facilities," she said. "We continue to study the health effects of these types of environmental radiation exposures through the Hanford (Washington) thyroid disease study, the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction Project, the Savannah River (Georgia and South Carolina) Dose Reconstruction Project, the Los Alamos (New Mexico) Dose Reconstruction Project and the Idaho National Laboratories (Idaho) Dose Reconstruction Project." Harben added, "We do expect that findings from these studies will provide valuable information on the health effects of past radiation exposures."

* Professor joins study of radioactive waste
Lawrence Journal World (Kansas)

Don Steeples, Kansas University professor of geophysics and vice provost for scholarly support, will be one of 20 scholars participating in a study, commissioned by the National Academy of Sciences, examining radioactive waste stored at three federal nuclear facilities. The group will examine the Bush administration's plan to pump out most nuclear material from a site in Savannah River, S.C., and move it to a facility near Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Officials plan to seal the remaining sludge inside the tanks and leave them in place at the Savannah River site. The group also will examine a plan to manage leftover waste at sites in Idaho and Washington state.

September 11, 2004

"Honesty and openness have got to be the hallmarks of this laboratory," said William Magwood, DOE's director of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology. "If they aren't, we're going to fail." He made the remarks Friday, speaking to about 60 people in Idaho Falls.

[Source: Paul Menser (pmenser@postregister.com), "Magwood: Nuclear energy coming back - DOE's nuclear energy director speaks to group of about 60 in Idaho Falls", Idaho Falls Post Register, September 11, 2004, p. A9]

* Idaho National Laboratory - hopeful home for Gen IV reactor prototype

March 18, 2004

INEEL: Underground grouting proposed around buried waste to isolate aquifer from C14 contamination

Carbon-14 contamination was identified in 2002 near buried blocks of irradiated beryllium at INEEL. As an immediate risk reduction measure, before completing investigation and remediation plan for the entire Subsurface Disposal Area at the lab, officials have proposed injecting grout into the soil to isolate the blocks from water percolating down from the surface, and to isolate the contamination from the Snake River Plain aquifer.

[Ref: Associated Press, "Underground nuclear waste threatens aquifer", The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho), March 17, 2004]

December 1, 2003

* Spent fuel shipments from Oak Ridge to INEEL, planned for November, did not involve notification of potential emergency responders or general public

* Oak Ridge - spent fuel to be removed from Milton Valley site by 2006; destinations: Savannah River and INEEL

* INEEL allowed to receive 497 spent fuel truck shipments; and all must be removed by 2035