Office of Environmental Management August 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In October 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE or the Department) issued the Final Idaho High-Level Waste (HLW) and Facilities Disposition Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0287 (Final EIS)). The Final EIS contains an evaluation of reasonable alternatives for the management of mixed transuranic waste/sodium bearing waste (SBW),\1\ mixed HLW calcine, and associated low-level waste (LLW), as well as disposition alternatives for HLW facilities when their missions are completed. DOE's preferred alternative in the Final EIS for SBW waste processing was to implement the proposed action by selecting from among the action alternatives, options, and technologies analyzed in the Final EIS, and to construct facilities necessary to prepare the SBW located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) for the preferred disposition path to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). In the Final EIS DOE did not identify a preferred treatment technology for SBW from among the several technology options evaluated.