Alissa Tabirian
WC Monitor
9/18/2015

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is taking steps to address materials-at-risk (MAR) concerns to resume transuranic (TRU) waste receipts at its Area G nuclear waste disposal site, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) site representative report released last week. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management officials and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Field Office worked with LANL to explore "necessary safety basis changes to allow limited [TRU] waste receipts and a return to OPERATIONS mode in Area G," the Aug. 21 report says. Waste receipts were paused "due to exceedance of composite source term (CST) [MAR] limits," it adds.

The report notes that LANL drafted an Evaluation of the Safety of the Situation/Justification for Continued Operations (ESS/JCO) "that will lower overall facility MAR limits and replace the CST limit with new limits on combustible waste," and conducted an accident analysis "for the 17 design basis accidents affected by the CST issues." It also says personnel placed the facility in operations mode to conduct sampling activities on waste drums as part of their effort "to improve the safety posture of Area G while the facility is in WARM STANDBY mode."

LANL spokesman Peter Hyde said by email that the “analysis and development” of the ESS/JCO for Area G “is on-going” and that “the final document has not been submitted to Los Alamos Field Office for review and approval.”

“Upon approval of the ESS/JCO, LANL will be authorized to safely return to operations mode following an independent verification review that all controls are properly implemented,” Hyde said. “It is not possible at this time to project a date as to when this would be completed but it is expected to occur within the next several weeks.”