Risk-Based End State Planning
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management has asked
each site where cleanup is taking place to examine its previous and planned
cleanup decisions and prepare an end state vision document. The purpose of
the examination is to help DOE insure the the most appropriate and cost-effective
cleanup decisions have and will be made.
The new vision for the end state at the INEEL when environmental cleanup is
completed is that DOE will maintain control of the 890-square-mile facility
in perpetuity. This vision is different than the one previously held. The
vision changed when the INEEL was named the DOE's lead lab for nuclear research
in 2002. With the focus of the facility changing from cleanup to nuclear research,
previously recommended cleanup levels may not be appropriate.
In the draft risk-based
end state vision document, the DOE Idaho Operations Office will layout
a proposed new approach for cleanup at the INEEL. Under the new approach cleanup
standards would be made under the assumption that DOE will control the INEEL
into the foreseeable future, instead of assuming that residents may one day
occupy the land. A variance table showing how this new assumption would change
previously made decisions is part of the draft document.