The Energy Department and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) are seeking to preserve their recently won change to the way in which transuranic waste volume is recorded at the New Mexico disposal facility.
Both DOE and AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership have been authorized to intervene in the legal challenge brought last month against the change by two advocacy groups, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC), in the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
The court approved the motions to intervene on Feb. 8. No date has been set yet for mediation in the case, which is typically part of the process in administrative appeals before the state court.
A revised state permit, approved in December by then-New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Butch Tongate, allowed DOE to and its contractor to stop recording waste, under the 1992 WIPP Land Disposal Act, based on the size of the outer disposal container.
The change, which went into effect on Jan. 20, means packing material and empty spaces between drums wither larger containers are no longer recorded as waste under the Land Withdrawal Act. The change was retroactive and cut the official total of TRU waste at WIPP from roughly one-half to one-third of its 176,000 cubic meter limit. Proponents say this is a more accurate way of recording radioactive waste and prevents premature closure of the underground salt mine.
The advocacy groups believe they can show the December decision was legally incorrect.
