The U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) wants information from the Energy Department by mid-November on potentially flammable radioactive waste storage drums at sites other than the Idaho National Laboratory.
To date, DOE has only partly provided the federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog with requested information regarding its review of an April 2018 incident in which four waste drums over-pressurized, blew off their lids, and spewed radiological waste inside a repackaging site at the lab.
The DNFSB in March issued a reporting requirement asking whether the Energy Department knows of other waste drums stored above-ground away from INL where flammable gas levels have yet to be measured. The board also wants to know if sampling in vented drums at other sites indicates flammable or near-flammable levels of gas buildup, and whether there are other defense nuclear facilities with solid nuclear waste that includes metal carbides.
In May, the Energy Department provided data on flammable gas hazards associated with solid waste at the Idaho National Laboratory, but not at other DOE sites, according to an Oct. 18 letter from DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton to Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
The DNFSB is still waiting for DOE to provide it with information on potential similar hazards at other sites.
Flammable gases generated by the waste might have played a part in the Idaho accident, which Hamilton has previously likened to an explosion.
The DNFSB is requesting the non-INL data by Nov. 15. The board has no actual regulatory power over the Energy Department but can issue safety recommendations that must be responded to by the secretary of energy.
The waste in the 2018 Idaho incident was stored on-site for decades at INL after being generated at the old Rocky Flats weapons plant in Colorado. It had already been examined for possible ignition sources, but overheated to about 150 degrees Celsius after being placed into four new drums.
Reports from DOE and contractor Fluor Idaho say the over-pressurization occurred when depleted uranium contacted air for the first time in years. Also, material from the drums produced methane, a flammable gas, which contributed to the blast.
