The Los Alamos National Laboratory has finished technical preparations to vent the headspace of some tritium-bearing waste drums that cannot be disposed of until they’re depressurized, but the operation is on hold until after the winter, pending the approval of the state of New Mexico.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and lab contractor Triad National Security “have completed Contractor and Federal Readiness Assessments for the technical and operational activities associated with conducting a safe headspace gas venting operation of four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers,” an NNSA spokesperson wrote in an email just before Christmas. “NNSA is currently awaiting a final decision from the New Mexico Environment Department as to whether we can proceed with the venting operation in Spring/Summer 2021.”
The lab wants to vent headspace gas in four 50-gallon containers of tritium-contaminated waste now held in Building 1028 in the lab’s Technical Area 54, Area G so that it can remediate and eventually dispose of the waste in the containers. The agency said it will probably move the containers to another building for venting, and that the proposed operation complies with federal rules about emissions from Department of Energy facilities.
The lab previously wanted to vent the containers this year, but the New Mexico Environment Department has to approve the action, which it so far has not.
Environmental groups in the state have complained that the lab could remediate the containers without venting the headspace, or just leave the containers as they are.
Los Alamos estimates that off-site does from venting the containers might range from fewer than 6 millirem per year to as many as 20.2 millirem a year. The top of that range is a worst-case bounding scenario that the lab calculated to show what would happen if it vented the headspace gas in the containers without any of the planned protections such as air filters.
