Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/9/2015
The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) complied with Department of Energy (DOE) regulations and environmental standards in calendar year 2014, according to the NNSS Environmental Report prepared by site managing contractor National Security Technologies and released on Thursday. The site that conducts high-hazard operations for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s stockpile stewardship, nonproliferation, waste management, and other programs is required to report its DOE regulations compliance status annually. According to the latest report, “no unplanned airborne releases and no unplanned releases of radioactive liquids occurred,” radiation doses in the environment remained below DOE limits, and low-level radioactive wastes were disposed of within permit limits.
The report notes that three reportable environmental occurrences last year were addressed with the proper corrective actions. One of these incidents involved the discovery of radiological contamination “at a lined well sump in Area 19 outside of a posted area,” after which operations were discontinued and the area was posted as a “Radioactive Material Area,” it says. Twenty-two minor spills, or “small-volume releases” of radioactive material, also occurred last year at NNSS, “none of which met regulatory agency reporting criteria” and were subsequently cleaned up.
