The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has determined it has jurisdiction over the Mixed Waste Landfill at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, but will forgo oversight of the facility, DNFSB Chairman Joyce Connery said in an Oct. 27 letter to a nongovernmental watchdog organization.
The closed landfill covers 2.6 acres at the Department of Energy facility in northern New Mexico. It accepted low-level and mixed waste from 1959 to 1988, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. A vegetative cover was installed over the site in 2009.
Connery was responding to two 2016 letters from David McCoy, executive director of Citizen Action New Mexico, which has warned of the threat posed by the radioactive waste to area groundwater and called for the landfill to be excavated.
She said the landfill is a defense nuclear facility that would fall under board jurisdiction. The DNFSB, in consultation with the Department of Energy, determined that the landfill held roughly 6,300 curies of radioactivity during disposal, that the cap is more than 4 feet in depth, that there is no known groundwater contamination, and there is no documentation showing disposal of bulk metallic sodium, Connery stated in her letter to McCoy.
A recent DOE Inspector General’s Office evaluation also determined there was no indication that high-level waste had been buried in the landfill, the DNFSB chair said.
“Even though the jurisdictional predicate is established, we must prioritize when and where to exercise our oversight function. The Board focuses on defense nuclear facilities that are operational and pose the highest risk,” Connery wrote. “The Board is also aware of the comprehensive state and federal regulatory activity directed at the MWL. Given these facts, the Board has decided not to apply oversight resources to the MWL at this time.”
Connery added that the board could reconsider its decision based on any new information regarding the landfill’s disposal history or if the Department of Energy excavates the site.
