Bechtel is managing operations at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment project in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is DOE’s most advanced waste treatment facility, where transuranic waste is safely treated and packaged for shipment and final disposal.
Bechtel National is the lead partner in Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC, which operates the project, located at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory.
Waste originally was sent to the Idaho site during the 1970s and 1980s from DOE’s Rocky Flats site near Denver, Colorado. It contains industrial debris such as rags, work clothing, machine parts and tools, as well as soil and sludge contaminated with transuranic radioactive elements, primarily plutonium. In addition to the radioactive contamination, most of the waste is also contaminated with hazardous chemicals.
The waste is stored in four-cubic-meter large boxes and 208-liter drums. It is retrieved and then characterized to determine the contents, using radiography, gamma spectrometry, coring, and headspace gas samples. The waste is then repackaged and shipped by truck to the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, for permanent disposal.
Using an aggressive project management approach, the Bechtel-led team is revamping operations at the AMWTP and aligning operations with court-mandated milestones contained in a 1995 settlement agreement between the state of Idaho, the U.S. Navy and DOE to remove the waste from Idaho.
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