DOE Gearing Up to Return Workers to Mine
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
3/28/2014
As the Department of Energy prepares to re-enter the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant six weeks after a radiation release, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said this week that a poor initial response to the event led to unnecessary worker contamination. DOE has said that it can’t pinpoint the cause of the Feb. 14 release until workers re-enter the mine, but an initial DNFSB assessment has found numerous faults with the site’s response to the event. In a letter to New Mexico lawmakers posted this week, the DNFSB noted: “Shelter in place instructions were not given until ten hours after the first indication of a problem, and over four hours after a release had been confirmed by local readings. As a result, the internal contamination level of workers, although minor, was nevertheless greater than necessary.”
Other response problems noted by the DNFSB include an “ineffective” local WIPP Emergency Operations Center as well as a failure to notify the emergency center at DOE headquarters. But the 10-hour lag in giving shelter in place instructions was a major concern—the release was detected at 11:45 p.m and workers arrived at the site the following day. New Mexico’s Environment Department also took issue with the response. “NMED agrees with DNFSB’s conclusion that some of the worker contamination was preventable due to the poor initial response. As soon as a radiological release is suspected, the facility should begin taking steps to protect workers from being exposed to a potential release,” NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn said in a statement.
So far, 17 WIPP employees have been found to have some internal exposure as a result of the Feb. 14 incident, but the number may further increase as the site’s managing contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, has decided to take “a more conservative approach” to compare bioassay results, according to a DOE release issued late this week. “Using these more conservative criteria, four additional employees will undergo additional evaluation to see if they received a small dose of radiation. As with the previous 17 employees who were identified as having some internal radiological activity from the February 14 event, the estimated dose from these exposures is well below the level that would cause health concerns,” the release says.
Air Monitors Had Been Out For Six Days
The DNFSB said that “significant improvements” are necessary to WIPP’s safety strategy. “For example, neither the filtered ventilation system nor the underground air monitor that triggered the ventilation system to switch to filtered mode is a credited safety system. In fact, for six days after the fire, no underground air monitors were operational,” the letter states. “Had there been a failure on February 14 of the air monitor or filtered ventilation system, or if the release event had occurred three days earlier, the release of radioactive material from the aboveground mine exhaust would have been orders of magnitude larger.” The Department this week declined an interview request with DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Joe Franco and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership did not respond to an interview request.
The Board’s assessment was in response to a request from New Mexico Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall. The findings are “deeply troubling,” Udall said in a statement. “Fortunately, no one was hurt in either incident, and the release of radiation was not a significant threat to the community. But the board makes it clear that both were near misses. WIPP had a good record for nearly 15 years. But we need a zero-tolerance approach to serious accidents.”
Another major concern has been that issues with ventilation filters in the wake of the Feb. 5 fire, Udall said. “The fact that the filters at WIPP were not operating for a short time after the fire, and that the board has ongoing concerns with those filters, is a key issue for me. Thankfully the filters were restored prior to the release, and worked to protect the workers and public. The filters that seal off WIPP must be 100 percent functional and operational at all times. I expect DOE to take those points very, very seriously. Assessments like this are tough—but that is why we need strong, independent oversight,” he said.
Heinrich said in a statement:”The oversight role of the Board is critical and the troubling safety concerns it identified must be taken very seriously by all levels of management at the Department of Energy and at WIPP. The community of Carlsbad and the nation expect WIPP to operate with the highest level of safety. The Accident Investigation Board’s forthcoming report on the release will be critical to fully understand what caused the radiation leak that occurred on February 14 and the steps that must be taken to ensure the safety of WIPP personnel and the Carlsbad community.”
Senators Want Info on Missed Mine Inspections
Late this week, Heinrich and Udall sent a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez seeking an explanation as to why the Mine Safety and Health Administration did not conduct legally required regular inspections at WIPP. According to the two senators, while the MSHA is required to inspect WIPP at least four times each year, DOE’s recently released report into a Feb. 5 truck fire at WIPP indicated that MSHA had only performed two inspections in the last three years. “We would appreciate a better understanding of the factors that led to the apparently missed inspections by MSHA, and a summary of the findings of recent inspections that MSHA did complete,” the senators wrote Perez. “Additionally, we would appreciate a fuller understanding of any response to the events at WIPP that MSHA is preparing to ensure that such an accident does not occur again. Finally, we also seek assurance that MSHA staff will be available at WIPP throughout the recovery process to ensure safety of the investigations, remediation, and future re-opening of WIPP, and that in the future all inspection requirements will be strictly adhered to,” the wrote.
DOE Preparing for Mine Reentry
Meanwhile, DOE is preparing for manned re-entry into the WIPP underground to find the source of the leak, inspecting this week shafts leading from the surface into the underground. “We have been proceeding very carefully,” DOE cleanup chief Dave Huizenga said at a House Cleanup Caucus briefing held March 27. “We sent some probes down to make sure that a certain area that we didn’t think was contaminated was indeed clear of contamination. It was. So we sent teams down to inspect the air intake shaft and the salt handling shaft yesterday and the day before. We are going to try and establish a clean zone, a base of operations down in the mine. Once that happens we’ll proceed methodically over to the waste base to try and better understand what happened.” According to DOE, the first personnel entry is expected early next week.
NMED Withdraws Permit Request
In addition, NMED announced late last week that the state has withdrawn a pending draft permit modification for WIPP in the wake of the fire and subsequent radiological release at the site. “NMED cannot move forward on the WIPP’s request to open additional underground storage panels and for the other requested permit modifications until more information is known about the recent events at the WIPP,” Flynn said in a statement. “Just as NMED needs more information to make informed decisions on permit modifications, the public also needs more information about the radiation release in order to provide informed input during the public comment period. Once NMED has all of our questions answered, we will proceed with consideration of a revised draft Permit.”
The Department of Energy requested the permit modification in March 2013. “NMED may issue a revised draft when it is appropriate, but no timetable has been set for a possible reissuance due to the WIPP shutdown and ongoing incident investigation. In such a case, a revised draft Permit will be issued for public comment and a new public comment period will begin in accordance with the regulations.”
