Department of Energy officials began discussing alternatives to incinerating nuclear waste the same day Jackson residents pledged $500,000 to destroy a proposal to burn such waste in Idaho.

In an Aug. 24 national workshop, Environmental Protection Agency and DOE officials gathered in Washington, D.C., to mull various means to treat mixed waste. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents gathered that evening in Jackson Hole as lawyer Gerry Spence vowed to destroy a proposal to incinerate hazardous and radioactive waste in eastern Idaho.

While energy representatives in Idaho maintain incineration is a safe means to treat mixed waste, a report at the three-day national workshop cited "emission challenges" as one reason alternatives to incineration are needed.

Moreover, a workshop document stated that alternatives are needed most:

• at DOE sites that have transuranic waste destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico;
• in locations where incineration is not perceived as an option - in California, for instance;
• at sites where there are small quantities of organic-contaminated mixed wastes.

At the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab, officials have been going through an extensive permit process for years to treat 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic and alpha low-level mixed waste. The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project is officially scheduled to begin in 2003 provided that all permits are acquired.

Some of the waste is proposed for incineration, and residents here are worried that some emissions will enter the atmosphere and reach Jackson Hole.

Workshop results suggest that officials have been considering alternatives to incineration at the INEEL - one of the largest DOE sites in the nation - although energy department representatives in Idaho have told the Guide they are not aware of current alternatives to treat a portion of the waste involved in the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project.