In a paperwork milestone that speeds but does not clear the way to start treating a potentially explosive stream of transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico will allow the Energy Department to use a forklift as part of the agency’s planned treatment regimen.
The state approved forklift use and other elements of DOE’s treatment plan for the waste in a letter from J.C. Borrego, deputy secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, to Doug Hintze and John Bretzke —respectively, the manager of DOE Environmental Management’s Los Alamos Field Office and the head of the lab’s environmental protection and compliance division.
Forklifts would be used “to assist in the safe movement of waste prior to treatment,” according to the letter, which was dated April 20 and posted online by the lab this week. DOE requested permission to use forklifts on April 13 as part of a broader revision to the lab’s Nitrate Salt-Bearing Waste Container Isolation Plan.
The forklifts will help DOE treat the stream of improperly packaged nitrate salt waste responsible for the 2014 underground radiation leak that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transuranic-waste disposal facility near Carlsbad, N.M., for almost three years.
Last week, local media reported DOE and lab prime Los Alamos National Security expected to start treating the nitrate salts by May. Earlier this year, LANL management said treatment could begin by mid-April.
The local DOE office and its contractor cannot begin treatment until they address safety issues uncovered in March during a federal inspection of Los Alamos’ Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility — the building where DOE will clean up the potentially explosive waste and make it safe for disposal at WIPP.
DOE has not replied to multiple requests for comment about whether it has cleared the Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility to begin treatment of the nitrate salts.
