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Workers start digging at INEEL's Pit 9 ahead of schedule By Steven Friederich - Journal Writer POCATELLO - Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC has broken ground on an acre of buried nuclear waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. That's three months ahead of schedule and the first time in the facility's history that dirt has actually moved. Bechtel is contracted to dig 75 to 100 cubic yards of soil and material from the 1-acre, 17-foot-deep Pit 9 for its initial studies. The company has used probes and old shipping records to reveal some of the pit's contents ranging from radioactive gloves and clothing to dozens of barrels. Workers started removing topsoil last Friday and will start excavating radioactive material the week of Jan. 5, 2004, said Stacey Francis, INEEL's environmental management programs liaison. As of the close of business Monday, workers had removed 11 of the 35 bags of topsoil expected, Francis said. "I'm pleased that this important milestone is moving forward," said Jessie Roberson, the U.S. Department of Energy's assistant secretary for Environmental Management, in a prepared statement. "With excavation under way in Pit 9, workers will soon start removing transuranic waste from the pit. The Pit 9 Glovebox Excavator Method will provide information on the condition of the buried waste, and other information useful in determining and designing future remediation projects." The project is costing DOE $78 million or about $1 million per cubic yard. Using a backhoe, workers are removing an overburden of 3- to 5-feet of soil, which provides a protective layer over radioactive waste buried in Pit 9. Once the overburden is removed from the enclosed excavation area, the buried waste material and soils will then be retrieved. Workers will then place each backhoe bucket of contaminated soil and debris into a glovebox, and scan it to determine radioactivity levels. Using the enclosed glovebox system, workers will then sort, sample and repackage the waste material into new barrels. DOE had already spent $179 million on the project when it initially hired Lockheed Martin Corp. to clean up Pit 9 between 1994 and 1998. Lockheed failed to start digging because of fears of high-energy gamma emitters, which are lethal and costly to contain, and high-fired plutonium, which cannot have its radiation leached with acid. As a result of several delays, Lockheed was removed from the contract and DOE is asking a federal judge for a refund of its money. A decision on that case is still pending. Bechtel's studies have indicated no such gamma emitters or high-fired plutonium are in the pit. Initially, the entire 97-acre Radioactive Waste Management Complex, which has about 88 acres of waste, was to be cleaned by this year. The deadline was extended to 2016. DOE has already paid the state $800,000 in fines for missing past deadlines and could be assessed $5 million in additional fines if future deadlines are not met.
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