With the publication of its report on alternatives to incineration, a blue ribbon panel outlines a rational approach for DOE to follow in structuring a comprehensive research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) program to move forward the technologies the panel identifies as “promising.”

The panel was born out of an out-of-court settlement between DOE and environmental activist groups who sued the department in September 1999 over the department’s plan to build an incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) for treating radioactive mixed waste. The groups bringing the suit were concerned about the potential for release of plutonium. Under the terms of the settlement, DOE agreed to reconsider its plan to build a new incinerator and create an independent panel to investigate emerging technological alternatives to incineration. The panel issued its report in December 2000.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Emerging Technological Alternatives to Incineration, which was established as a task force of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, was charged to evaluate technologies to treat low-level, alpha low-level, and transuranic (TRU) wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls and hazardous constituents, including the up to 14,000 cubic meters of such waste that DOE had planned to incinerate at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility at INEEL. The panel was also asked to evaluate whether these technologies could be implemented in a manner timely enough to enable DOE to comply with a consent order requiring it to remove from Idaho 65,000 cubic meters of INEEL waste by the end of 2018.

The nine-member panel was composed of five members appointed by the Secretary of Energy, one member appointed by each of the governors of Idaho and Wyoming, and two members appointed by public interest groups. During five formal meetings over six months, the panel was briefed on applicable regulations, inventory, and characteristics of the mixed transuranic waste stored at INEEL, and DOE’s research and development plans on alternatives to incineration. A five-member subpanel, reporting to the full panel, also reviewed information on technology options submitted by firms and other parties that responded to a panel-issued Request for Information (RFI). Also, as part of its deliberations, the panel considered comments it heard from the public, who were invited to attend each of the five formal meetings.

The panel adopted seven criteria in evaluating viable technology options. These criteria were specified in the August 2000 RFI:

While the panel was supportive of DOE’s plans to conduct comparative and integrated testing of candidate technologies, it argued that such a testing program must use the actual materials to be treated. The panel also stated that a comprehensive testing program would require funding levels much higher than DOE has budgeted. The panel supported a budget that would provide approximately $91 million to the Transuranic and Mixed Waste Focus Area over the four fiscal years beginning in 2001. The panel questioned whether currently budgeted funding levels would be adequate to ensure that technologies will be ready to meet DOE’s legally enforceable deadlines.

The panel also urged that DOE commit to deploying the technologies that prove themselves during proof testing and not abdicate to commercial interests its responsibility for solving DOE’s mixed waste problems. In conjunction with an extensive testing program for near-term problems, the panel strongly supported increased and continuing basic scientific and development work over the longer term to address problems for which there are no currently acceptable solutions. Finally, the panel recommended that DOE broaden stakeholder outreach beyond the department’s site-based citizen advisory boards by making sufficient, specific budgetary provision for technical assistance to citizen committees. DOE should ensure that these citizen committees have ongoing involvement in the RDD&D process.

The panel called for a 2001 conference to begin a national dialogue on alternative technologies to incineration. The panel recommended that a broad base of participants be invited, including state, local, and tribal governments and national environmental, labor, and other groups having interests, commitment, and expertise on the issues. DOE began the planning process for this national stakeholder forum by convening a special session during a recent DOE-sponsored conference—Developing Strategies to Accelerate Federal Agency Environmental Cleanup—held near Salt Lake City in April 2001. Approximately 40 stakeholders, DOE staff, and other interested parties discussed an effective approach for achieving the goals of the national forum recommended by the panel.


Although the panel disbanded with the publication of its report, the Environmental Management Advisory Board, recognizing the significance of developing publicly acceptable alternatives to incineration, has established a new EMAB committee. The Alternative Technologies to Incineration Committee will facilitate stakeholder comment and communications on issues related to emerging alternative technologies to incineration for the treatment of mixed TRU and low-level wastes. The first meeting of the ATIC was June 13, 2001.

To download a copy of the Report of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board's Panel on Emerging Technological Alternatives to Incineration, see http://www.hr.doe.gov/seab/.