By Josh Long
Jackson Hole Guide

The Department of Energy may treat an additional 2 million cubic feet of nuclear and hazardous waste - some with incineration - if it digs up materials that are stored underground at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab.

State officials have conceded that some of the underground waste has probably leaked into the aquifer, although they are still mulling over the best way to handle the problem.

And while area residents here are alarmed about the proposal at the INEEL to burn and treat 65,000 cubic meters of nuclear waste, officials might incinerate more in the future if the DOE decides to unearth the underground waste or accept waste from other sites.

No decision or time frame, however, has been announced concerning how to treat the materials underground or whether to accept waste from other sites, said DOE spokesman Brad Bugger.

In striking contrast, though, the plan to incinerate some of the nuclear waste containing PCBs - highly carcinogenic organics - in Idaho could become obsolete. That would reduce the amount of emissions, but not completely eliminate the plan for incineration.

Although in its "pre-embryonic stages" - as one official put it - if the Department of Energy obtained a permit to allow for disposal of untreated PCBs in New Mexico, nuclear burning in 2003 may cause less reason for panic - at least in Jackson.

PCBs are one of the primary reasons for the proposal to burn nuclear and hazardous waste at the INEEL, state and federal officials said. The organic materials don't meet the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requirements for disposal in New Mexico and need to be incinerated, according to officials. Incineration will destroy those compounds, they said. However, if a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit were modified to allow for disposal of untreated PCBs, incineration of those organics may not be required, said WIPP spokesman Donovan Mager.

PCBs, not all organics, may bypass incinerator

Other organics, primarily degreasing solvents, still could not be transported to WIPP even if a modification were obtained on the transportation of untreated PCBs. They would still be burned at INEEL.

While the Environmental Protection Agency has imposed strong requirements on the quantities of PCBs allowed without treatment, other organics have less stringent regulations governing them, and can be stored in larger amounts. But they could potentially react with radioactive waste and cause an explosion, said Ann Riedesel, BNFL, Inc. spokesperson. BNFL, Inc., has been awarded the DOE contract to treat the nuclear and hazardous waste beginning in 2003 for a 13-year period.

A large quantity of organics stored in a mixed waste container might react with radioactive elements and build up gases, which could breach the container or cause an explosion, Riedesel said. That possibility is grounds for alarm while in transit for disposal at WIPP, or after reaching its final destination. Why then could the DOE obtain a permit to transport untreated PCBs? Those elements are stored in much smaller quantities, and moreover, "PCBs don't react quite as quickly," Riedesel said.

Donovan said officials have not applied for a permit, although they have mused over the notion, to modify the PCB requirements. He added the disposal facility has not even received a RCRA permit, but anticipates obtaining one this year or early next year.

Modifying the RCRA permit would require a revised Environmental Impact Statement to determine such issues as how the transportation of untreated PCBs would affect the environment. The Secretary of Energy would have to approve the permit, Mager said.

The proposed incinerator will reportedly destroy PCBs and reduce the volume of other organics, primarily degreasing solvents, that were used to clean metal fabrication equipment at Rocky Flats in Colorado, where components of nuclear weapons were made.

Residents here believe emissions from the proposed incinerator will carry waste particles in prevailing winds to Jackson Hole. If permit modifications were obtained on the treatment of PCBs - which are cancer-causing agents - it's possible airborne worries would be greatly diminished, although transportation of nuclear and hazardous waste still poses environmental concerns as well. In the meantime, employees at the INEEL Waste Experimental Reduction Facility continue to burn mixed low-level waste PCBs, said facility spokesperson Stacey Francis. The facility commenced operation in 1982 and treated 205 cubic meters of waste in 1998, Francis said. In 1997, 151.5 cubic meters of waste were treated.

Why the rush?

Under the DOE's settlement agreement with the state of Idaho, said Francis, the facility has six months to treat waste accepted from off-site and another six months to get the residual waste off the premises. Frances said the current plan calls for the facility to end operation when the proposed incinerator to treat nuclear waste begins operation in 2003.

In Jackson Hole, many residents have opposed the nuclear incinerator, inquiring about alternatives in recent months. In June, locals sought a public comment extension from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on an air quality permit, and though Teton County officials passed a resolution last week to request an extension, DEQ has not responded to the county's formal resolution. Although DEQ officials - while justifying their grounds earlier last month to deny the extension - maintain they received some 400 comments from residents of Jackson Hole on the air quality permit, many wonder why officials are in such a rush to pass an air permit for a nuclear incinerator that has many residents in a panic.

The timeline, however, is related to Idaho's settlement agreement with the Energy Department, which stipulates that the DOE shall transport all transuranic waste - waste with high levels of radioactivity - located at INEEL by 2015 "and in no event later than Dec. 21, 2018."

Frances added that some of the waste has been contained for nearly 20 years - its life expectancy before it starts to decompose - and officials fear that although metal drums that store the waste are placed on an asphalt pad, the materials could decompose and leak into the soil over time.

Why not just repackage the waste? The facility could do that, said Francis, although that would be a short-term solution. She said, for example, that plutonium 241 has a "half life" of 240,000 years before it becomes "non-dangerous to human health and the environment."