Idaho Operations Office

The Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID)/INL mission is: Department of Energy The Department of Energy’s mission is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. Office of Nuclear Energy The Office of Nuclear Energy’s mission is to advance nuclear energy science and technology to meet U.S. energy, environmental, and economic needs. Idaho Operations Office Through excellence in federal stewardship, the Idaho Operation’s Office will advance sustainable energy solutions, ensure secure and resilient critical infrastructure, equip the defenders of our nation, protect Idaho’s natural resources, and fulfill legacy environmental commitments. Environment Management The Office of Environmental Management’s (EM) mission is to complete the safe cleanup of environmental legacy resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research. EM is responsible for managing and directing the cleanup of contaminated nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing sites across the United States. Integral to that responsibility is the need to safely disposition large volumes of nuclear waste, safeguard and prepare for disposition of nuclear materials that could be used in nuclear weapons, deactivate, and decommission several thousand radiologically and chemically contaminated facilities no longer needed to support the Department of Energy's mission and remediate extensive surface and groundwater contamination. Idaho Cleanup Project The primary missions of the Idaho Cleanup Program (ICP) are: - Protection of the Snake River Plain Aquifer, a critical source of groundwater for Idaho agriculture and domestic uses, by removing, containing, or remediating potential sources of contamination from past INL Site operations. - Processing 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid radioactive waste and completing closure of the underground storage tanks holding that waste at the Idaho Nuclear Technical and Engineering Center (INTEC). - Removal of the primary contaminants of concern from waste buried above the aquifer at the INL’s Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC), removal and closure of the facilities used to remove and process this waste, and, finally, capping the burial ground to prevent migration of any remaining contaminants. - Removal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored in pools to dry, onsite storage and cleaning and closure of the underwater pools. - Completion of the remediation of past releases of contaminants into the soil and water, as outlined in the cleanup agreement among DOE, the State of Idaho, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). - Removal and transport of all remaining stored waste (transuranic, mixed, and low-level) to appropriate permanent repositories for disposal. - Decontamination and decommissioning of any contaminated facilities that are no longer essential to the INL’s ongoing research and development missions. - Decontamination and decommissioning of nuclear reactor prototypes at the Naval Reactors Facility.