The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has as of this week treated half of its stock of containers filled with a volatile mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Thirty of 60 drums of waste from Cold War-era nuclear weapons operations have been processed at the Energy Department site’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility (WCRRF). In each case, workers use a glove box to add an inert substance to the material to prevent combustion akin to the 2014 incident in which a nitrate-salt container from Los Alamos blew open and released radiation into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
After the remediated nitrate salts are processed, the laboratory will process another 29 drums of unremediated nitrate salts. Los Alamos had earlier this year anticipated completing all work by Sept. 30, but on June 30 informed DOE that the closeout date has been pushed back to April 10, 2018.
“If it’s a competition between schedule and safety we’re going to pick safety every time,” lab Director Charles McMillan said Tuesday during a meeting of the Los Alamos County Council.
The final cost of the project will only be known once work is complete, the DOE spokesman said by email
The nitrate salts work is managed by the lab’s current cleanup contractor, management and operations prime Los Alamos National Security (LANS). While LANS’ environmental management contract expires on Sept. 30, and a new contractor should named in coming weeks, the company, is expected to complete the nitrate container project, said Andrea Romero, executive director of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communites. DOE recently informed local officials of this, Romero added.
Los Alamos has faced a number of challenges in the buildup and start of processing in May, including working within the confines of the glove box; controlling the zeolite, the inorganic feed material used in repackaging the waste; and procedural developments including work pauses by operators.
Treatment halted briefly last week after a worker accidentally damaged the WCRRF fire suppression system. At 9:28 a.m. on Aug. 22, the employee’s coveralls became tangled with a part used in monitoring the suppression system’s water pressure, leading to piping breaking off and 50 gallons of water spilling out, according to an Aug. 25 update on DOE’s Occurrence Reporting and Processing System.
The incident led to activation of the facility’s emergency response procedure and notification of the Los Alamos Fire Department.
Less than 90 minutes after the accident, the remediated nitrate salts in glove boxes at WCRRF were placed in “safe configuration,” the ORPS update says. The facility was shifted from operations into warm standby at 11:27 a.m.
The fire suppression system was fixed and returned to operation by Aug. 24. Waste processing then resumed, DOE said.
The treated waste for now is stored in the laboratory’s Area G. It will ultimately be shipped to WIPP, which reopened in December after a nearly three-year closure and in April began accepting waste from other DOE facilities.
