Citizen groups were largely unimpressed by a Department of Energy plan to define and give priority to what the agency calls “legacy” transuranic waste sent to a deep underground disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., but the mayor of the city endorsed the approach.
That is according to a review of public comments, due Jan. 3, on the legacy transuranic waste disposal plan written by DOE and its Bechtel National-led contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
Carlsbad Mayor Richard Lopez said DOE and the Bechtel-led prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors were wise not to define legacy waste too narrowly.
WIPP is vital for disposing of weapons-related waste from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management as well as DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Lopez said in comments for the mayor’s nuclear task force.
On the other hand, an advocacy group, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, panned the plan.
“The plan ignores promises DOE made to New Mexico and New Mexicans, “Concerned Citizens said. “WIPP was sold as a pilot project to clean up Cold War legacy waste at LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory], Sandia and other DOE sites across the county; as a test case for deep geologic nuclear waste disposal; and after 25 years of operations,” the group’s statement reads.
Concerned Citizens endorsed detailed comments by Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center. Hancock said legacy waste should be defined as waste deemed transuranic when WIPP opened in 1999.
Scott Kovac, with Nuclear Watch New Mexico struck a similar cord. “In order to protect the 3,000 square mile regional Española Basin Sole Source Drinking Water Aquifer, LANL pre-1999 legacy waste must be prioritized for disposal now over other waste,” Kovac said.
A simple way for DOE to define legacy waste would hinge on the funding source, said Steve Zappe, a retired New Mexico Environment Department supervisor. Waste funded by Environmental Management should be considered legacy waste and waste funded at least 50% by NNSA would not be deemed legacy waste, Zappe said in his comments.
The plan rolled out by DOE in November said waste from planned plutonium pit production by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and some other wastes generated pre-1970, would not get priority at WIPP’s planned Panel 12.
The plan, defining legacy waste and giving it priority over newly-generated waste, was required by DOE’s latest 10-year state hazardous waste permit. DOE sites broadly lack a uniform definition of legacy waste.
