Processing and certification of defense transuranic waste at the INEL

Since 1970, defense-generated transuranic waste has been placed into 20-year retrievable storage at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). A major objective of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Waste Management Program is to remove all retrievable stored transuranic waste from the INEL. To support this objective, the Stored Waste Examination Pilot Plant (SWEPP) and the Process Experimental Pilot Plant (PREPP) are currently being constructed. SWEPP will certify waste, using non-destructive examination techniques, for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). PREPP will process uncertifiable waste into a certifiable waste form. (orig.)