The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for removing leftover Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste from a privately held facility in Texas.
The Energy Department could either technically confirm the waste can be safely shipped straight to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, or send it back to Los Alamos for further treatment prior to eventual shipment to WIPP.
In a Tuesday letter, the agency told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality there is little chance of meeting the state directive to move the potentially combustible material out of the Waste Control Specialists disposal complex in Andrews County by the end of 2020.
The letter and supporting document sent to TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker by DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White indicate the waste might remain in Texas until April 2022, based on timelines in a new technical assessment. “I assure you DOE takes serious its commitments to safely remove the LANL waste,” White said. The process, however, is “challenging,” he added.
The waste was shipped to Waste Control Specialists in 2014, following WIPP’s closure that February after a drum of TRU waste from Los Alamos overheated and caused a radiation leak underground. It was subsequently learned some of the drums taken to the Texas site might also be potentially combustible.
The state agreed in March 2014 to hold the waste for DOE up to a year, and until lately has been willing to extend the agreement. In November, Baker told then-Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette in a letter the state is no longer willing to store the TRU material beyond December 2020, when the latest extension expires.
The federal agency has already removed 320 containers deemed safe to ship. Most of the remaining 113 containers, currently labeled “hazardous” by federal transport officials, are buried at WCS.
A DOE spokesperson also noted the uncertainties surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic could delay scheduling.
