INEEL uses many sites (in addition to dumps) for permanent disposal of transuranic waste including injection wells into the aquifer and unlined percolation ponds. [4]  The largest and most significant INEEL disposal sites are the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) dump, and the Argonne National Laboratory-West, Radioactive Scrap and Waste Facility, located on the INEEL site. [5]  Internal DOE documents, gained by EDI through Freedom of Information Act requests and other state and federal agency records, show more than ninety (90) metric tons of high-level irradiated reactor fuel was dumped.  EDI’s Amicus brief shows the itemized listing of this irradiated reactor fuel interned at the dump. [6]  Generally, in the first several decades of INEEL operation, the only reactor fuel put into storage was fuel the DOE intended to reprocess, the rest, apparently was simply dumped in the burial ground.

            DOE’s Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado shipped substantial quantities of plutonium waste to INEEL.  EDI’s investigations into these Rocky Flats shipments show that considerably more plutonium was shipped to INEEL and dumped than is disclosed by Idaho or DOE.  EDI’s documentation  contends and further shows that the concentrations of plutonium and highly enriched uranium waste dumped in the INEEL dump poses a significant criticality hazard. [7]

         Prior to 1973, all waste shipped to INEEL for burial was simply dumped from the truck into an open pit or trench. Normally only one pit or trench was open at any given time, no sorting or assessment of what was in the barrels or boxes was made. Nuclear waste shippers like the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado knew there would be no assessment of what was listed on the shipping manifest so there was no incentive to do thorough characterization prior to shipment.  Although DOE is not publicly acknowledging the fact, its internal reports show the buried waste contains 11,000,000 curies [8] of radioactivity including 1,455 kilograms of plutonium from Rocky Flats alone. [9]  According to DOE, the total buried plutonium (2,160 kg) from both Rocky Flats and other sources contains 700,400 curies of radioactivity.  [10] 

          The above DOE totals are now known to be grossly understated due to 1996 revelations about Rocky Flats plutonium waste shipments to INEEL. The radioactivity in the INEEL buried waste cited above is still significantly understated because it relies on original Rocky Flats shipping manifest records that are completely unreliable. There were no checks at the INEEL dump to confirm the accuracy of the manifests because these were shipments between DOE facilities.

            These discrepancies were revealed only in the last few years when DOE was forced to disclose (stipulated in international nuclear non-proliferation treaty agreements) where all its nuclear bomb material is located and give precise inventories.  Rocky Flats Plant (largest plutonium waste shipper to INEEL) conducted a physical inventory of plutonium, compared it to the book inventory, and determined that 1,191.8 kg of plutonium was unaccounted for and 953 kg of that total was shipped as waste to INEEL, and not previously acknowledged in shipping manifests. [11]

            So how much plutonium is dumped in Idaho?  If the unreported Rocky Flats plutonium shortfall shipped to INEEL (953 kg) is added to what DOE previously thought was in the INEEL dump (2,160 kg) from Rocky Flats and other sources, it adds up to 3,113 kg in the dump from all sources. This is an enormous amount of plutonium (enough for about 1,000 bombs) given that it takes only about three to four kg of plutonium to make a nuclear bomb.[12]  A July, 2000 article in the Twin Falls, Idaho Times News discussed how much trouble INEEL is having shipping waste to the DOE’s New Mexico transuranic waste dump (WIPP), due mainly to serious underestimates of the total plutonium in each drum. [13] Forty-seven barrels of plutonium-contaminated waste couldn’t be shipped because they contained too much plutonium.

Snake River Plain Aquifer at Risk

            Flooding of the INEEL dump and other radioactive waste disposal sites poses a significant hazard due to contaminates being flushed through the soil column to the aquifer.  US Geological Survey (USGS) reports show the hydro-geologic vulnerability of the INEEL buried waste sites. Flooding incidents have already occurred in 1962, 1969, and 1982, and these sites are within the Big Lost River 100-year flood plain.  This is where DOE plans to permanently dispose of high-level and transuranic waste currently in tank sediments.  The INEEL dump is located in a regional depression about 40 feet lower than the Big Lost River that flows immediately north of the dump.

            Buried or otherwise dumped radioactive high-level and transuranic waste is currently contaminating the Snake River Plain Aquifer. The State of Idaho reported plutonium in the aquifer under the INEEL dump at 66 pCi/L or 4.4 times above the drinking water standard of 15 pCi/L. [14] Depending on the species of plutonium, its toxic half-live can be as long as 24,000 years. [15]  USGS reports show plutonium-239/239/240, amercium-241, and cesium-137 in aquifer wells some twenty miles southwest of the INEEL boundary.[16] Although these off-site plutonium concentrations (0.013 pCi/L) are well below the EPA safe drinking water standard, independent scientists argue the standard is not protective of human health. Arjun Makhijani, a nationally recognized independent analyst of DOE’s operations, discusses risks to the Snake River Aquifer from INEEL waste in a recently written book:

“It should be noted, however, the Safe Drinking Water standard of 15 picocuries per liter for alpha emitting transuranics like plutonium-238, 239, or amercium-241 allows doses on the order of a hundred times higher than the 4 millirem annual limit specified for most beta emitters.  A concentration of plutonium of only about 0.08 picocuries per liter in drinking water is required to produce a dose of 4 millirem per year to the bone surface (the critical organ for plutonium).  The Safe Drinking Water standard specifies dose limits, concentrations limits, and calculation procedures for doses that are not consistent and are more stringent in some cases (such as nickel-63, cesium-137, and tritium) and less stringent in others, notably transuranic radionuclides and strontium-90.  Since the latter are among those presenting the most serious threats in Idaho, a more conservative approach that would limit groundwater contamination from transuranics is warranted.  None of these limits take into account the potentially more serious problems arising from fetal [unborn baby] exposure.” [17]

            USGS samples taken in 1991 at INTEC found radioactive Iodine-129 near INTEC 3.82 times above the drinking water standard. [18]   A 1993 USGS report found Iodine-129 from INEEL INTEC’s 3.4 square mile ground water plume, in two wells eight miles south of the INEEL boundary near Big Southern Butte. [19]  Iodine-129, a byproduct of the fission or uranium is of concern because of its 15.7 million-year half-life.  Because of this it is considered by EPA to be a permanent environmental pollutant and the drinking water standard for I-129 is set by EPA at one pCi/l.

            Radioactive tritium from INEEL dumping reported by DOE in 1992 at 3,940,000 pCi/L [20] has migrated the 50 miles via the aquifer to the Snake River.  USGS 1994-99 spring discharges to the Snake River sampling data show significant tritium concentrations of 65 pCi/L in the Twin Falls and Hagerman areas.  [21]     USGS reports also show groundwater flow, or “conductivity” in the Snake River Plain Aquifer can reach 32,000 feet per day, or 6.06 miles per day. [22] Contaminates discharged at INEEL have the potential to move rapidly through the aquifer to public water sources and to the Snake River.            INEEL over its operating history has received significant quantities of spent reactor fuel from dozens of sources.  A high percentage of this irradiated reactor fuel was “reprocessed” using an aqueous process which dissolves the fuel rods in acid/solvent solution that then makes it possible to extract highly enriched uranium and other nuclear isotopes for various United States nuclear military programs.  The mixed hazardous and high-level radioactive liquid waste and transuranic waste left over from this extraction process was then interned primarily but not exclusively in underground storage tanks.  These fifty-year-old tanks were never intended to be the permanent repository for this waste because of the known toxicity of the waste, the limited service life of the tanks themselves, and the fact that at the time (and arguably currently) it was illegal under federal statute. The concrete vaults that encase the eleven high-level 300,000-gallon tanks at the Idaho Nuclear and Environmental Technology Center (INTEC) are known to leak.  A 1994 State of Idaho investigation showed that over a twenty-three month period (11/92 - 9/94) about 123,500 gallons of contaminated water was pumped from the tank vault sumps.  The investigation concluded that the source of the water was precipitation, irrigation, and leaking high-level tank waste system lines.[23]               DOE’s reliance on these failed high-level tank containment systems for permanent disposal of high-level waste under a new DOE Order 435.1 is misguided and puts the general public and future generations at significant risk. The Natural Resources Defense Council, together with numerous Native American Tribes, is currently challenging this DOE Order in US Federal Court. [24]  The INEEL sits directly atop the Snake River Plain Aquifer, designated by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a regional sole source aquifer. Protection of this aquifer is a main component of the 1995 Settlement Agreement between the State of Idaho and DOE. [25]   Past and current high-level and transuranic waste mismanagement practices have resulted in massive contamination of the groundwater under the INEEL operations. This recognized groundwater contaminate pathway represents a significant hazard to the general public solely with current contaminate levels. Migration of buried waste contaminates into underlying soil and perched ground-water zones is extensively studied by US Geologic Survey and their report notes:  “These zones are an integral part of the pathway for contaminates to move to the Snake River Plain Aquifer.  Water moves rapidly through surficial [sic] sediments ...” [26]   Plutonium-239-240 have been detected under INEEL at 66 pCi/L, or 4.4 times the drinking water standard . [27]

INEEL Waste Tank Hazard

            At INEEL, the primary facility for reprocessing irradiated nuclear reactor fuel, is the Idaho Nuclear and Environmental Technology Center (INTEC) formerly known as the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP).  The INTEC underground high-level Tank Farm, consisting of eleven 300,000-gallon tanks with a current volume of about 1.4 million gallons, [28]  is only part of a large complex of an additional 127 high-level waste tanks that are part of the INTEC high-level waste treatment operations.  EDI  has listed these 127 tanks, their location and what process they are attached too, however the waste volume of their sediment contents is uncertain. [29]  Some of these tanks are a significant criticality hazard due to the high concentration of fissile (uranium and plutonium) material content of the tanks. [30] 

            If DOE’s new attempt to obfuscate the legal requirements and allow permanent disposal in these already leaking waste tank units is not stopped, more pollution will migrate to the aquifer, further putting the general public at risk. [31]  DOE’s own reports show radioactive groundwater contamination under INTEC greater than 60,000 times, and at Test Reactor Area 176,000 times, the EPA-regulated maximum radionuclide concentration level for drinking water. [32]

            The hazard is intensified by the fact that the U.S. Geological Survey report shows that the top ground level of the INTEC high-level Tank Farm is within the Big Lost River 100-year flood plain, which means the bottom of the tanks are some 50 feet below the flood levels. [33]  Flooding of these tanks and the related high-level waste processing buildings will flush pollutants into the aquifer and endanger the general public, since these radionuclides are toxic for tens of thousands of years.

Tank Closure Begins

            The process of closure of these high-level waste tanks at INEEL has begun.  At issue here is not the need to close the tanks, but what federal statutes and the Settlement Agreement stipulations on buried high-level and transuranic waste will be appropriately implemented and enforced to assure proper closure in order to protect the public and environment.  The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) issued a high-level waste tank Closure Plan for two INTEC tanks. [34]

     The IDEQ Tank Closure Plan violates environmental regulation that states in pertinent part, “A detailed description of the steps needed to remove or decontaminate all hazardous waste residues and contaminated containment system components, equipment, structures, and soils during partial and final closure including, but not limited to, procedures for cleaning equipment and removing contaminated soils, methods for sampling and testing surrounding soils, and criteria for determining the extent of decontamination necessary to satisfy the closure performance standard.” (Emphasis added). [35]  Closure and post-closure care regulation also states “ At closure of a tank system, the owner or operator must remove or decontaminate all waste residues, contaminated containment system components (liners, etc.), contaminated soils, and structures and equipment contaminated with waste, and manage them as hazardous waste.” [Emphasis added] [36]  “As such, these liquids contain radioactive fission products in sufficient concentrations to warrant permanent isolation in a geologic repository.” [37]

        DOE’s attempt to delist the high-level tank wastes defies its own internal contractor documents that show the history of these tanks.  DOE estimates that about 20,000 gallons of  tank sediment heels are in each of the eleven Tank Farm units which would leave a total of  220,000 gallons permanently interned. [38]  

            The bottom line is Idahoans and all communities downstream from INEEL can ill afford to compromise the region’s  most valuable water resource for this and future generations.  The state has already demonstrated by approving a tank closure plan that will permanently leave thousands of gallons of high-level and transuranic waste in place over the aquifer.  This is as much an issue of “homeland security” that the Bush Administration must commit the requisite resources to cleaning up the INEEL nuclear legacy of the cold war.  It’s unconscionable that the State of Idaho is actively blocking crucial information offered by EDI, and needed by the federal court and the general public to make informed decisions about the disposition of the INEEL massive waste problem. One can only assume that both the state and DOE want to keep both the court and the public in the dark about the extent of the INEEL problems.