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IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY

Waste Reduction Operations Complex

The Waste Reduction Operations Complex (WROC), originally the Special Power Excursion Reactor Tests (SPERT) and then the PBF, was made up of five sub-areas before operation of WROC was officially terminated on June 3, 2004. Starting in the late 1950s the facilities' four reactors were used in the study of reactor behavior under abnormal operating conditions and of safety on light-water-moderated, enriched-fuel reactor systems. In 1955, SPERT tests confirmed that nuclear explosions could not happen in power reactors.

Operations began at the SPERT-I reactor in June 1955 and were ended in 1964. It was dismantled, leaving a terminal building, a small instrument cell, decomposing pavement, a seepage pit, and a leech pond. Just north of the site, the Power Burst Facility replaced it in 1970. In March 1960 SPERT-II started up. In October 1964 the reactor was closed and the reactor was removed, leaving an electrical substation, a leaching pond, a seepage pit, and some underground tanks, the facility was converted for research purposes. It was later replaced by the Waste Engineering Development Facility/WROC Lead Storage Facility for the temporary storage of uncontaminated lead in outdoor cargo containers. It has since been designated as the Special Programs Facility for CITRC.

SPERT-III began operation in December 1958 and continued to operate until June 1968. After decontamination and decommission from 1980 to 1982, it housed the Waste Experimental Reduction Facility (WERF). By the 1980s the reactors had been removed and the space they occupied designated as the WROC, which would treat, store, dispose, and recycle low-level radioactive, hazardous, mixed, industrial waste. The WERF had two support buildings to aid in those missions: the Sizing and Compaction Building (PER-622) and the Waste Storage Building (PER-623). Besides waste incineration, processes included waste receiving, sizing and compaction, stabilization, and packaging, and shipment off-site for incineration at Scientific Ecology Group in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The facility housed a metal processing facility, an electrical substation, two exhaust stacks, and underground tanks.

The WERF incinerator (PER-609) began burning low-level waste in September 1984. Two years later, in 1986, the WERF incinerator's first Resource Conservation and Recovery Act trial burn was conducted, after which it began processing mixed low-level waste. Its operations were suspended on February 14, 1991 while control systems were modified and operating procedures were improved. Also, the WERF was awaiting the approval of National Environmental Protection Act documentation. On July 12, 1995 low-level waste processing resumed and on September 20, 1995 mixed low-level waste incineration was reinitiated. A second trial burn began in July 1997 and was successfully completed in August 1998. In 1999 the WERF incinerator was the only on-site incinerator treating solid mixed low-level waste. It continued to burn waste until 2001 after a decision made in 2000 by the DOE to not upgrade the WERF incinerator to meet the Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards required by the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Hazardous Waste Combustors. In 2002 the WERF incinerator was shutdown. From 2002 to 2003, the area was decontaminated and partially dismantled. The incinerator and other facilities were removed from the site. The area has since been designated the Large Scale Development Facility for CITRC.

In July 1962 SPERT-IV opened. It operated until August 1970, after which the Mixed Waste Storage Facility took its place. Mixed low-level waste was kept in the former reactor pit. It later underwent D&D and has since been designated as the Contraband Detection Facility for CITRC. The fifth sub-area, the Control Area, which was centrally located, was the SPERT reactor control center and was later converted into administrative office space. It included raw water storage and distribution facilities, mechanical work areas, and data acquisition resources. The area has since been designated as the CITRC Support Area.