Initial Tests at Los Alamos Inconclusive
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
6/6/2014
Efforts continue to determine the cause of the radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after initial tests at Los Alamos National Laboratory so far have not been able to confirm a leading theory. After the discovery last month of a breached Los Alamos waste drum in WIPP, officials believed that nitrate salts in the drum may have reacted with either an organic absorbent or acid and base neutralizers used in waste processing, resulting in the heat damage discovered underground. But LANL has not been able to replicate a reaction that could have breached the drum, WC Monitor has learned. When asked during a town hall meeting in Carlsbad, N.M., June 5 about the inconclusive test results to date, Department of Energy Carlsbad Field Office Manager Joe Franco said, “I don’t believe all the testing is complete,” adding, “We’ll continue to work with the science group that’s tied in with this, and the [DOE] Accident Investigation Board yesterday is trying to figure out what was the actual initiator for this event. So there’s still quite a bit of active work going on.”
Tests have also been ongoing at Savannah River National Laboratory and other sites. “There’s a technical assistance team that has been established from five different national laboratories that is providing oversight and is looking at what happened at WIPP. They are working with the Los Alamos group and also with us and headquarters,” Franco said. The SRNL analysis so far shows “some chemicals that match items that are of concern,” Franco noted. “We haven’t completed all of the analysis, so you’re only hearing a portion of that is coming out now of the tests that have been completed, but there’s still several other tests being done and as the information comes out we’ll continue to provide that,” he said.
More Samples Collected in Latest Entry
The last entry to the WIPP underground took place on May 30. In that entry the team collected six samples from Panel 7 Room 7, where the Feb. 14 radiation release is thought to have occurred, for further laboratory analysis. That includes one sample of waste from the breached drum, which had landed on an adjacent drum, while five other samples are from the piles of disturbed magnesium oxide that were used to cover the waste drums. There will be no more entries into the underground for the next several weeks as the site’s managing contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, changes out filters that exchange air between the aboveground and the WIPP underground that were contaminated by the February events. The switch will allow for better ventilation in the underground and ultimately for more work to be conducted.
Questions Remain Over Panel Closure Timeline
Meanwhile, DOE and NWP late last week submitted a plan to the New Mexico Environment Department for accelerated closure of open panels in the WIPP underground that contain hundreds of additional suspect drums from LANL. Carlsbad officials and the state have called for closure of the panels given the potential risk of the waste underground. NMED last month ordered DOE to complete the plan by May 30 for expedited closure of the site of the release at Panel 7 Room 7, which contains 55 drums containing nitrate salts. It also asks for closure of Panel 6, a full panel that contains 313 similar drums that has not yet been sealed.
The plan contains a list of steps and activities necessary for expedited closure that together total to over 400 work days, but there is no schedule provided as to what date the closure of the panels will occur. “The timelines of this report are very confusing, as this proposal does not delineate what can be done concurrently and what can’t,” Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway said at the town hall. “It would be helpful to see a timeline for when the recovery effort is done concurrently and uses the workforce to its maximal effectiveness to accomplish its goals as efficiently as possible.”
Many of the activities outlined for panel closure can be performed in parallel, according to a DOE spokesperson. “CBFO and NWP are developing the closure schedule that reflects all of the parallel activities,” the spokesperson said in a written response. “Once the ventilation filter replacement activities are complete, we must prepare the mine to enable workers to conduct activities in the mine for sustained periods of time before we begin panel closure activities. We are working to finalize an agreement with our regulators on the specific plan and schedule for panel closure.”
Waste Still Stranded at WIPP, Idaho
Meanwhile, with disposal in WIPP shut down 144 waste containers remain stranded aboveground at WIPP. Those drums had been awaiting disposal in the WIPP underground at the time of the February events, and have been moved into the site’s Waste Handling Building for storage. The drums came from the Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Savannah River Site, according to DOE. “None of the 144 containers stored in the Waste Handling Building contain the nitrate salt bearing waste stream, which is the waste stream within the breached drum,” the spokesperson said. While an NMED permit originally had a 60-day limit for aboveground storage of waste, extensions “allow this waste to remain in the Waste Handling Building at this time,” according to DOE.
LANL waste that was processed at Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Plant also remains stranded there and is required to be out of the Idaho by late this year. “The waste has been processed in compliance with the requirements of the INL Site Treatment Plan and was treated to meet both the WIPP and WCS waste acceptance criteria. DOE intends to fulfill its commitments within the Site Treatment Plan,” according to DOE.
