The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking public comment on the proposed five-year recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico as meeting radiation standards for disposal of defense-related transuranic waste.
The Energy Department filed the compliance recertification application with the EPA in March. Under the WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, EPA recertification is required every five years to ensure the underground disposal site near the city of Carlsbad complies with EPA disposal requirements for radiation protection.
The EPA is seeking public comment on “all aspects of the DOE’s application,” according to a Federal Register notice Wednesday. The EPA will decide when the Energy Department application is “complete,” and additional comments could be solicited at that time.
The EPA is most interested in “changes to the disposal system” with the potential to affect WIPP’s compliance with the regulator’s radiation standards. The WIPP Land Withdrawal Act requires the facility to pass muster with EPA standards.
The EPA review could examine issues such as DOE’s plan – currently being appealed in a New Mexico court — to alter the manner in which the volume of waste is calculated underground, and plans for development of additional panels to emplace the waste, according to DOE documents filed in March.
While no explicit deadline is listed for comments, the notice indicates all information on the application should be submitted by December.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was first certified in 1998. This is the fourth time it has sought recertification. Ironically, the DOE filed its third recertification application with the EPA in March 2014, weeks after an underground radiation leak that kept the facility offline for about three years.
Transuranic waste includes material such as rags, equipment, tools, and sludge, with more than 100 nanocuries per gram of alpha-emitting radioactive isotopes and half-lives of more than 20 years, according to EPA.
Comments can be emailed to [email protected].
For more information contact EPA’s Ray Lee, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, Radiation Protection Division, at [email protected].
