INEEL removes water from aging spent fuel basins to further protect aquifer

Further protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer has been achieved with the removal of water from four aging spent nuclear fuel basins at the INEEL.

Bechtel BWXT Idaho's Idaho Completion Project is continuing to use smarter, safer ways to accelerate cleanup and further protect workers, the environment and the public. In February, BBWI awarded a subcontract to Florida-based S.G. Pinney and Associates, Inc. to prepare unused INEEL storage basins to be emptied and closed.

Commercial nuclear divers cleaned and prepared the four basins for closure in an aggressive project that made it possible to remove the water well ahead of the original schedule. Water in the older basins posed a potential risk to the aquifer if the aging structures developed cracks.

To avoid the risk of contamination on the basin walls and floors becoming airborne, specially trained commercial divers entered the basins to remove debris, clean the pools and apply an epoxy fixative that traps any residual contamination on the basin walls and floors. more...