The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) expects by the end of this month to receive additional U.S. Energy Department information on numerous shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).
After reviewing the latest material from DOE, the state “will determine whether the material is stable in the current disposal area, and what statutory and regulatory violations have occurred,” said Samantha Thompson, a spokeswoman with NDEP’s parent agency, the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Thompson did not specify what sort of information state agencies have reviewed so far, or the additional details DOE is expected to produce within a few weeks.
The state is already “carefully reviewing” the preliminary information provided by DOE, Thompson said in a Tuesday email. The initial data came in response to letters from Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) and members of the Nevada congressional delegation.
The state will “remain vigilant in holding all federal agencies accountable” and protect the health and safety of all Nevadans, including the thousands of federal employees and contractors based in the Silver State,” Thompson wrote.
The state agency’s statement came days after Energy Secretary Rick Perry and other federal officials joined Sisolak on Aug. 1 at the Nevada National Security Site. The in-person visit occurred weeks after news broke regarding numerous shipments of mislabeled radioactive waste to the site over several years.
The Energy Department acknowledged last month that nine improperly characterized shipments of mixed low-level radioactive waste were sent from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee to the NNSS for disposal from 2013 through December 2018. The site is allowed to receive both low-level and mixed-low-level waste for permanent disposal.
The shipments were “potentially mischaracterized as low-level waste rather than mixed low-level waste,” the Energy Department said last month.
Sisolak, Perry, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty received classified and unclassified briefings on national security work at the former Nevada Test Site, Sisolak noted in an Aug. 2 press release. They also toured the NNSS’s Radioactive Waste Management Complex, the Device Assembly Facility, and the underground “U1a” facility.
Sisolak thanked the Energy Department for the meeting, but said his office and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection continue to press the federal government for more information on the mislabeled shipments.
“It is unfortunate that the important national security efforts conducted at NNSS have been overshadowed by the DOE’s recent shipment missteps, and I remain committed to holding them accountable and establishing a more transparent working relationship with the State of Nevada and the many local communities impacted by the Department’s actions,” Sisolak said.
Sisolak has publicly criticized DOE’s decision to send weapon-usable plutonium to the Nevada National Security Site last year to comply with a federal court order to remove the material from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“The Department remains committed to working closely with Nevada state officials in an open and transparent way to support this great resource and maintain our trust and credibility with the people of Nevada,” Perry said in an Aug. 1 statement.
Last month, Brouillette ordered DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments to review past and present waste-packaging-and-shipping programs across the agency’s weapons complex. No timetable has been set for completion of that review.
