Spent Nuclear Fuel Management

The ICP has managed many types of spent nuclear fuel at five different INTEC storage facilities. Until 2023, Chemical Processing Plant 666 stored some spent nuclear fuel in a large, modern storage basin that contained some three million gallons of water. The fuel was stored in racks underwater to provide shielding that protected the workforce and the environment. Marking the achievement of a major cleanup milestone outlined in an agreement made to the state of Idaho, all spent nuclear fuel was removed from underwater storage and placed in dry storage environments. The four other spent nuclear fuel storage facilities at INTEC are dry storage facilities.

The ICP must also prepare spent nuclear fuel for its eventual shipment offsite. In the absence of a geologic repository or Consolidated Interim Storage Facility, ICP contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition is preparing an existing dry storage facility at INTEC and developing the equipment to package spent nuclear fuel into a “road ready” state. The spent nuclear fuel “road ready” packages will consist of several filled DOE Standardized Canister that are sealed and placed into an overpack system for storage. A Spent Nuclear Fuel Staging Facility will be constructed at INTEC to store the “road ready” packages until they can be transported off-site at a future date.