The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) last recertification of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico lasted more than three years.
The protracted review followed the February 2014 underground radiological accident at the DOE transuranic waste disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M., according to April 16 slide presentation by EPA supervisory environmental scientist Thomas Peake to the National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board in Washington, D.C.
The Energy Department submitted its recertification application to the EPA in March 2014, only weeks after a vehicle fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release at WIPP. The application only included performance data through the end of 2012, Peake said.
The agency formally recertified WIPP in a July 2017 Federal Register notice.
Between 2014 and 2016, roughly the period in which the facility was offline. the EPA and the Energy Department exchanged many letters and held many technical discussions, Peake said. The Environmental Protection Agency also held a public meeting in New Mexico as part of its research.
The Energy Department filed its latest five-year recertification application in late March. This document does address the changes it made, and plans to make, following the accident.
Under the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act, EPA must determine every five years if the facility continues to adhere to federal radioactive waste disposal regulations.
