CEAC-2022-05-May

Discovery of Radioactive Liquid Pauses
Work at US Nuke Dump
By Susan Montoya Bryan | Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An area at the U.S. government’s
nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico
was recently evacuated after workers handling a shipping
container discovered a small amount of radioactive liquid
inside it.
There was no indication of airborne contamination and testing
of workers’ hands and feet turned up no contamination
after the discovery was made April 9 in a bay where containers
are processed before being taken underground for
disposal, officials said in a statement issued that night.
“The event at the site has been secured. There is no risk of
radiological release and there is no risk to the public or the
environment,” plant officials said in the statement.
Officials confirmed Monday, April 11, that the shipment was
packed and sent from Idaho National Laboratory, but investigators
were trying to determine the source of the liquid
found inside the container, said Bobby St. John, a spokesperson
for the contractor that manages the repository for the
federal government.
The waste containers were securely placed back into the
special shipping container, St. John said.
“We have written processes and protocols in place for this
type of situation and all protocols were followed,” he said in
an email to The Associated Press. “Additionally, the [contact-handled
waste] bay is designed to contain radiological
contaminants in order to protect the workforce, surrounding
ecology and the local community.”
The repository is the backbone of a multibillion-dollar cleanup
program that involves tons of Cold War-era waste from
federal labs and defense-related sites around the country.
The waste — remnants of decades of nuclear research and
bomb making — typically consists of lab coats, gloves, tools
and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive
elements.
Independent federal investigators raised concerns in March
about whether cost overruns and missed construction deadlines
will continue at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
A multimillion-dollar project is underway at the underground
facility to install a new ventilation system so that full
operations can resume, following a radiation leak in 2014
that forced the repository’s closure for nearly three years and
The idled Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation’s only underground nuclear
waste repository, near Carlsbad, N.M. There’s no way of knowing if cost increases
and missed construction deadlines will continue at the nation’s only
underground nuclear waste repository. That’s according to a report made
public Tuesday, March 15, 2022, by Government Accountability Office. (AP
Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)
led to major policy overhauls.
The container that caused that release had been inappropriately
packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern
New Mexico.
Operations had to be reduced after the waste plant reopened
in 2017 because areas of the facility were contaminated,
and airflow needed for mining and disposal operations
was limited.
It was unclear April 11 whether operations had resumed in
the area where shipments are processed. St. John said only
that the shipping container with the radioactive liquid was
placed in a “safe configuration, pending results of the investigation
and resulting mitigation actions.”
The repository was carved out of an ancient salt formation
about a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) below the ground because
officials say that the shifting salt will eventually entomb the
radioactive waste.
Its current footprint includes eight sections, which the U.S.
Energy Department estimates will be filled in 2025.
State regulators are weighing a permit change that some
critics have said could lead to expanded repository operations.
A decision is expected later this year.
Volume 87 · Number 5 | 25