The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering action against Waste Control Specialists for an apparent license violation in 2014 in which the company improperly moved some 70 waste box containers of transuranic waste between two facilities at its storage complex in Andrews, Texas.
According to NRC documents, WCS moved the containers from a storage pad outside of its “Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility” building to its Federal Waste Facility, which was not authorized to hold the material. The containers in question included some of the federal transuranic waste that originated at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and was moved to WCS for temporary storage following the 2014 closure of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to NRC spokeswoman Maureen Conley.
The NRC and WCS discussed the apparent violation during a Sept. 26 meeting. WCS spokesman Chuck McDonald said by email Tuesday that it’s company policy not to comment on open enforcement matters.
A Sept. 26 letter from NRC Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs Division Deputy Director Andrea Kock to WCS President and CEO Rod Baltzer provides the company’s reasoning for moving the containers.
“Based on the results of our investigation and records inspection, the NRC staff understands that WCS moved the waste to an unauthorized location in an effort to ensure the internal temperature of the waste did not exceed a 130 °F threshold and attempted to mitigate any potential risk to public health and safety,” the letter reads. “In making its final enforcement decision, the NRC will consider this information.”
LANL scientists have told WCS that the waste in question may be more reactive at temperatures exceeding 130 °F, according to DOE documents.
Waste Control Specialists received NRC permission this week to keep a potentially dangerous batch of radioactive nitrate-salt waste, which was improperly packaged at LANL, at its Texas facility until Dec. 23, 2018, extending the storage timeline by two years. WCS’ LANL waste is similar to the batch blamed for the 2014 underground radiation leak that shut down WIPP. WCS secured the storage contract after WIPP closed and DOE faced a legally binding deadline to move a large cache of nitrate salts intended for disposal at the facility out of LANL. WIPP isn’t expected to reopen until December or January, and might not accept new waste shipments until April.
“The failure to comply with the regulatory or order requirements is significant because it resulted in the NRC not being able to conduct its regulatory responsibilities to ensure that the activities did not pose a significant risk to the public or environment,” according to the letter from the NRC, which said a civil penalty may not be warranted, given WCS’ clean enforcement record at the facility. “The final decision will be based on you confirming on the license docket that the corrective actions previously described to the NRC staff have been or are being taken.
Conley said by email Thursday that the NRC expects WCS to conduct a root cause analysis of the incident and on the basis of its finding to develop corrective actions it believes are appropriate. The NRC would then determine if that corrective action plan is adequate.
Though WCS faces a potential civil penalty of $280,000 or $140,000, depending on NRC’s determination, Kock wrote in the letter to the company: “Since your facility has not been the subject of escalated enforcement actions and based on our understanding of your corrective action, a civil penalty may not be warranted.”
