ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Federal officials on Tuesday commemorated the 25th anniversary of the nation’s only underground repository for radioactive waste from decades of nuclear research and bomb-making in southern New Mexico. gathered at.
The waste isolation pilot plant, located outside Carlsbad, is carved out of an ancient salt formation about a half-mile (800 meters) deep and has been used since 1999 to remove approximately We have received 13,850 shipments.
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The anniversary comes after the state of New Mexico responded to a federal plan to repack and ship to WIPP a collection of drums filled with the same type of material that caused the radiation release at the repository in 2014. This was done amid concerns expressed.
A sign indicating a waste isolation pilot plant, March 6, 2014, near Carlsbad, New Mexico Government officials gathered in southern New Mexico on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, to discuss decades of radioactive waste It commemorated the 25th anniversary of the only underground disposal site. Nuclear research and bomb making. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
The accident contaminated parts of the underground facility, forcing a costly closure for about three years. It also delayed the federal government’s multibillion-dollar cleanup program and prompted policy changes at laboratories and other sites across the country.
Meanwhile, dozens of boxes containing drums of nuclear waste packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for storage at WIPP were transferred to Texas, where they have remained in above-ground storage ever since.
After years of pressure from environmental regulators in Texas, the U.S. Department of Energy announced last year that it would begin evaluating ways to safely transport and dispose of the waste at WIPP.
But the New Mexico Department of the Environment has requested more safety information and expressed a number of concerns in a letter to federal officials and the contractors operating New Mexico’s landfills.
“Parking it in the West Texas desert for 10 years and shipping it back is not therapeutic,” New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s my most fundamental problem. Time doesn’t dispose of hazardous waste. Processing does dispose of hazardous waste.”
The 2014 radiation release was caused by improper packaging of waste at Los Alamos. Investigators determined that the runaway chemical reaction inside the drum was caused by nitrates being mixed with organic kitty litter to keep the drum dry.
Mr Kenny said there was awareness after the break-in that drums containing the same substance could react. He questioned how the risks could change even though the nature and composition of the waste remained the same.
Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque were commissioned by the Department of Energy to study this problem. They published a report in November that said the federal government’s plan to repackage waste with an insulating layer of air-filled glass microbubbles would provide “additional thermal protection.”
The study also noted that ongoing monitoring showed that the temperature in the drums was decreasing, suggesting that the waste was becoming more stable.
DOE officials asked whether other methods were considered to change the composition of the waste and what guarantees DOE would provide to ensure no new thermal reactions occur inside the drums. did not immediately answer questions.
A timeline for moving the waste was also not immediately clear, as the plan requires approval from state and federal regulators.
Kenney said some of the state’s concerns could have been addressed if the federal government had consulted with New Mexico regulators before announcing the plan. In the letter, the state pointed to repository permitting and federal law requirements for handling radioactive and hazardous waste.
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Don Hancock of the Albuquerque-based watchdog group Southwest Research and Information Center said transportation of untreated waste also may not meet Nuclear Regulatory Commission certification for the containers used. .
“This is a classic case of waste arriving somewhere and then getting stuck. In the case of this waste, it takes 10 years,” Hancock said. “This is a lesson for Texas, New Mexico and other states that they need to make sure their waste is safe to transport before it is allowed to be transported.”
