The Energy Department and its contractor at the Los Alamos National Laboratory might not clean up the stream of waste that leaked radiation into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant three years ago until May due to lingering concerns about the facility in which the waste will be treated.
The local Santa Fe New Mexican, citing a “senior lab official” who accompanied members of local media on a recent tour of the facility, reported this week the nitrate salts would begin “by May.”
The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in Washington did not reply to multiple phone calls and emails for comment from Weapons Complex Monitor either this week or last week. The New Mexico Environment Department did not reply to requests for comment this week.
DOE had planned to start treatment by April 19, but the 60 barrels of problematic nitrate salts had not even been moved by then to LANL’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility from the nearby Perma-Con facility, according to public correspondence between lab contractor Los Alamos National Security and the state Environment Department.
The 60 waste containers hold a mixture of nitrate salts left over from Cold War weapons production and organic kitty litter, which a Los Alamos National Security subcontractor mistakenly packed into the barrels to keep the irradiated salts dry. A similarly packaged container that made it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 2014 exploded underground and leaked radiation into the mine near Carlsbad, N.M., after the organic material reacted with the nitrate salts.
“Preparation for [nitrate salt] shipment to the Waste Characterization, Reduction and Packaging Facility (WCRRF) will occur when pre-start readiness activities are complete,” according to the monthly technical summary Los Alamos National Security sent to the New Mexico Environment Department on April 19. The document was posted online by LANL.
Pre-start readiness activities may refer to red flags discovered during a federal readiness assessment of the WCRRF, which concluded in March. According to public reports written by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, inspectors said DOE and its contractor cannot begin using the facility until, among other things, they improve their emergency communications capabilities and correct “procedural and radiological posting deficiencies.”
