Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project

Bechtel and partner BWX Technologies managed and operated the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project—the Department of Energy’s (DOE) most advanced radioactive waste treatment facility--in Idaho Falls, Idaho from 2005 to 2011. Work at the project included the retrieval, identification, treatment, packaging, and shipment of radioactive and chemically contaminated waste from the site to federal and commercial facilities for permanent disposal.

Waste originally was sent to the Idaho site during the 1970s and 1980s from DOE’s Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado. The waste includes 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  large boxes and drums. Their contents are identified, using radiography, gamma spectrometry, coring, and headspace gas samples. The radioactive transuranic waste is repackaged and shipped by truck to the DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

During the course of the project, the AMWTP team treated and shipped more radioactive waste than any other site in the DOE complex—and did it nearly three years ahead of schedule.