The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted one-time approval for the Department of Energy to return a problem container of transuranic waste with expired paperwork to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant parking lot in New Mexico.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorized the return in a June 2 letter to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors.
The commission’s intervention was needed because the container was caught in limbo – potentially too contaminated to go into the WIPP underground, but potentially ineligible to ship out, with the five-year maintenance certification for its HalfPACT package expired.
The HalfPACT package in question was received at WIPP from Savannah River on Aug. 26, 2022. But while preparing the container for disposal in the underground salt mine, WIPP workers discovered it was potentially contaminated, citing airborne plutonium-238 and americium-241, according to DOE.
WIPP’s safety protocol basically forbids opening such a container, and says the package should be returned to sender so the Savannah River Site can investigate the possible source of contamination, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The WIPP request sought to count the outer confinement vessel “as the HalfPACT package’s containment boundary,” and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed provided certain conditions are met.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authorization expires Oct. 31, so WIPP officials need to send it back to the Savannah River Site before then.
