IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - EM’s cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory site is helping protect the environment, reduce energy costs, and save taxpayer funds by replacing two 10,000-pound “chillers" that cool the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project’s (AMWTP) treatment facility and its associated equipment.
The original chillers went online in 2003 when the AMWTP began transuranic waste treatment. Those chillers have required significant maintenance lately because they’ve operated five years beyond their design lives.
A Boise, Idaho, firm provided the new chillers, which were manufactured without the ozone-depleting refrigerants of the prior model used at the site. The new chillers use only one-eighth the energy of that previous model, allowing Fluor Idaho to apply for an Idaho Power rebate that benefits taxpayers.
Idaho Power’s Custom Efficiency program is a cash incentive program for large commercial and industrial customers that undertake complex projects to improve the efficiency of electrical systems or processes. The cleanup program has taken advantage of that program several times in the past by installing energy-efficient lighting and reconfiguring a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system at a large Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center building.
Taxpayers will also benefit from the avoidance of costs to repair the older units. The new chillers will cost half as much as the units they replace when factoring in the reduced energy and maintenance costs.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
