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AskOversight@deq.idaho.gov Contact INL Oversight
Boise
Office
1410
N. Hilton
Boise,
ID 83706
ph:
(208) 373-0498
fx: (208) 373-0429
Idaho
Falls Office
900
N. Skyline Dr.
Idaho
Falls, ID 83402
ph:
(208) 528-2600
fx:
(208) 528-2605
INL
Oversight Staff List
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Waste at INL: Hazardous/Mixed Waste
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| What
is Hazardous Waste? |
| The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) defines hazardous waste as, "By-products
of society that can pose a substantial or potential hazard to
human health or the environment when improperly managed."
A waste may be considered hazardous if it is ignitable (i.e.,
burns readily), corrosive, or reactive (e.g., explosive). A
waste may also be considered hazardous if it contains certain
amounts of toxic chemicals. Hazardous waste takes many physical
forms and may be solid, semi-solid, or even liquid. These by-products
are not normally, however, radioactive. |
The
INTEC facility is the storage location for INL's high level
waste.
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| What
is Mixed Waste? |
| At the INL, mixed waste is generated
by defense nuclear facility dismantlement and research activities.
Mixed waste is both hazardous and radioactive, so is covered
by regulations for hazardous waste and regulations for radioactive
waste. Mixed waste often includes metals, organic solvents,
cyanides, explosive compounds, acids and caustic chemicals:
the management of mixed waste is therefore under the state's
regulatory authority. Under agreement with the state of Idaho,
mixed waste managed at the INL will be disposed outside the
INL. |
The
Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project treats "mixed" waste.
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| Additional information about
mixed waste can be found at the Environmental Protection Agency Mixed
Waste Home Page. |
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| How
is Hazardous Waste Regulated at the INL? |
| The
Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a federal law, provides
for regulation of treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous
and mixed wastes. The RCRA hazardous waste program
regulates commercial businesses as well as federal, state,
and local government facilities that generate, transport,
treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste. Each of these
entities is regulated to ensure proper management of hazardous
waste from the moment it is generated until its ultimate disposal
or destruction.
The federal Environmental
Protection Agency is responsible for implementing RCRA, and
gives authorization to individual states to operate RCRA programs.
Idaho has RCRA authorization, so the Idaho
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) runs a state
hazardous waste regulatory program. |
Calcined
waste is stored in "bin sets," such as shown. |
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| Under
the RCRA regulations, any newly created hazardous waste at
the INL must be characterized and shipped out of Idaho to
commercial treatment and disposal facilities within a 90-day
time frame. Alternatively, it can be transferred to an approved
hazardous waste storage facility on the INL where it can remain
for up to two years.
Mixed waste requires
different management, and is treated differently under the
regulations. Mixed waste must still meet the regulations for
hazardous waste, but in some cases there is not the capability
to send the waste to an approved disposal facility within
the stated timeframe. In those cases, special agreements are
made between the generator and the state or EPA such that
the mixed waste is properly managed until it can be sent to
an approved disposal facility. |
Transuranic
waste includes not only the transuranic elements themselves,
but also ordinary items contaminated with transuranic elements:
tools, gloves, protective suits, tarpaulins, soil and sludge.
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| What
Hazardous or Mixed Waste is at the INL? |
| Waste
that is only hazardous and not radioactive is produced in
a variety of processes at the INL. Metals, compressed gasses,
solvents and other research and analytical chemicals are just
a few examples. Significantly, a vast majority of the radioactive
waste at the INL has components that are hazardous, making
them "mixed wastes."
The
high-level waste calcine and sodium bearing liquid wastes
have hazardous constituents, including heavy metals and acids.
The
spent nuclear fuel has a wide range of hazardous metals included
in its matrix.
The
transuranic waste that will be treated at the Advanced
Mixed Waste Treatment Facility contains a variety
of hazardous chemicals and waste materials. |
Low-level
waste can include a huge variety of materials, including
solids, liquids, sludge, debris, etc. Some specific examples
of low-level wastes at the INL include air emission control
filters from facilities that handle radioactive material,
water from spent nuclear fuel storage basins, sludge from
storage tanks, pieces of radioactive reactor components,
and radioactively contaminated clothing and equipment.
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All
of these mixed wastes require removal from Idaho. Some other
low-level radioactive waste from building demolition and cleanup
activities contains hazardous constituents but is allowed
to be disposed at the INL CERCLA Disposal Facility—a
lined landfill with a leachate collection and monitoring system.
In
June 2000, DEQ and INL negotiated a Voluntary Consent
Order, an agreement made without a notice of violation
being issued or fines levied. DEQ has used such orders to
address problems that were voluntarily disclosed by regulated
parties. It's an important agreement, with wide-ranging implications
as significant as those in the first RCRA agreement between
the state and INL. The agreement focuses on tanks,
with an important provision relating to identifying wastes
that are hazardous. Key provisions of the agreement include
the following: |
Spent
nuclear fuel (SNF) consists of nuclear fuel rods and other
fuel material that no longer have enough of the fissionable
material needed to efficiently "burn" in a reactor.
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- Identifying wastes
that are hazardous: each Notice of Violation INL
has received included several citations for "failure to characterize."
That means that wastes that were hazardous were not identified
and managed as such. INL managers agreed to put measures in place
to ensure this doesn't occur.
- The undiscovered
tanks: INL told DEQ about 44 hazardous waste tanks
DEQ had not known of. These tanks, all located at INTEC, must
now be marked, and a regulatory determination must be made for
each to determine if it meets the definition of a "tank." For
those that do, INL has a deadline by which it must decide whether
to close each tank or work with DEQ to get an appropriate permit.
- The mystery tanks:
INL told DEQ about 720 tanks whose contents were not identified.
These tanks are all over the site. Some are empty, some hold hazardous
waste, and others hold non-hazardous waste. Under the Voluntary
Consent Order agreement, the contents of each tank must be sampled
and identified. This process is expected to take at least seven
years.
- Tank farm tanks:
about a hundred tanks or components at INTEC were identified as
part of the tank farm system. To avoid duplication of effort and
confusion, it was agreed that these tanks would be closed as part
of the large-scale effort that had been agreed to in a consent
order signed in 1992.
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