A Texas congressman wants to grant the Energy Department authority to dispose of certain foreign-generated radioactive material at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
Rep. Pete Olson (R) is proposing an amendment to the House of Representatives’ fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to allow disposal of americium-241 in the WIPP underground.
The amendment, which is similar to one Olson unsuccessfully tried last year, notes americium-241 is often co-located with material that is eligible for disposal at the United States’ sole repository for defense-related transuranic waste.
The House could start voting on NDAA amendments this morning.
Olson has also this year drafted legislation, H.R. 7558, the Foreign Americium Disposal and Storage Act, which would direct the same objective of disposing of americium-241 at WIPP. The bill, which would clarify DOE’s authority to dispose of certain foreign-sourced material at the facility, was proposed this month and referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Official text of the bill was not available as of this morning, according to a congressional website.
In a House Energy and Commerce Committee’s energy subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Olson also asked Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette to support disposal of the americium-241 at WIPP.
Americium-241 is a radioactive isotope found in smoke detectors and certain other products. The Energy Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the international community have all identified it as a radioisotope that “should be protected due to the possibility of its use in a radiological dispersal device,” or dirty bomb, according to a draft of the bill provided by Olson’s office.
The United States stopped making americium-241 in 2005, Olson said, describing it as very radioactive and cancer-causing. But the americium-241 in the country currently has no disposal path, although it would meet the risk profile of TRU waste being disposed of at the underground salt mine, and would only generate one or two shipments per year to WIPP, Olson said during the hearing.
The lawmaker noted there was an April 2015 spill of americium-241 and cesium-137 from a Thermo Fisher Scientific building in Sugar Land, Texas, not far from the high school his son attended.
“So, there it sits, a national security risk and an environmental risk when it spills,” Olson said.
