Details Failures by WIPP and Los Alamos Contractors and DOE Oversight
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
4/17/2015
After nearly a year of focusing on the root causes of the 2014 radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy’s Accident Investigation Board released a report this week declaring the release “preventable” and detailing failures across the board by contractors and DOE oversight. The report is the last in a string of DOE reviews of the February 2014 events at WIPP that also involved an earlier truck fire, including two previous AIB efforts and a Technical Assistance Team Report. The latest report found shortcomings at “all layers of oversight,” AIB Chair Ted Wyka said this week at a town hall meeting in Carlsbad, N.M. That includes the National TRU Program at DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, DOE’s Los Alamos Field Office, lab contractor Los Alamos National Security and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. The AIB identified 40 “judgments of need,” a type of corrective action to address issues uncovered.
As expected, the AIB concluded that the release stemmed from a reaction between volatile materials inside of a single drum in the WIPP underground that was processed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a theory that lines up with the results of other reviews. As a result of the incident, WIPP remains shut down, transuranic waste shipments across the country ground to a halt and DOE is facing $54 million in fines from New Mexico due to violations at Los Alamos and WIPP. The AIB report states that “if LANL had adequately developed and implemented repackaging and treatment procedures that incorporated suitable hazard controls and included a rigorous review and approval process, the release would have been preventable.”
Local Root Cause a Failure at Los Alamos
The AIB included both a local root cause and a systemic root cause for the release. The local root cause is “the failure of LANS to understand and effectively implement the LANL Hazardous Waste Facility Permit and Carlsbad Field Office directed controls,” the report states. That relates to the use of an organic absorbent in processing waste containing nitrate salts, which resulted in a noncompliant, ignitable form. Nobody at Los Alamos halted the use of the organic absorbent, allowing the dangerous mix to ultimately be sent to WIPP.
Workers Reported Foaming and Smoking Waste
For example, subcontractor workers repackaging the waste at Los Alamos occasionally reported unusual reactions. “They saw a little bit of foaming action on occasions, they saw some reactions, a little bit of green smoke or yellowish, and they reported it to their first-level supervisors and they had a short discussion and then they were back on the assembly line working again,” Wyka said. “That information did not make its way to LANS. … It was more of an issue of not understanding both at the worker level and the first-level supervisor level at the subcontractor the issue with the reactions they were working with.”
Systemic Root Cause Includes National TRU Program Failures
The systemic root cause is the failure of DOE oversight at Los Alamos and WIPP, along with the National TRU Program, to “ensure that LANL had adequately developed and implemented repackaging and treatment procedures that incorporated suitable hazard controls and included a rigorous review and approval process,” the report states.
The National TRU Program, developed as a layer of oversight at transuranic waste generator sites before shipping waste to WIPP, was “ineffective in identifying programmatic weaknesses through the execution of certification audits and surveillances at Los Alamos,” Wyka said. He added later: “The roles, responsibilities and expectations, as documented in the National TRU Program policies and procedures, appeared to limit the ability of the national TRU Program to analyze and assess the generator site waste activities.”
A Lack of Documentation on Processed Waste
The AIB also faulted Carlsbad’s Central Characterization Project, which characterizes waste before it is emplaced in WIPP, for not effectively reviewing “significant technical changes” to how waste was being processed at Los Alamos, Wyka said. That information was not included in the acceptable knowledge, which is the history of any waste stream designated for WIPP disposal. At Los Alamos, many of the contents of the waste drums, including PH, absorbent added and neutralizer used, was not recorded.
AIB Notes ‘Immense’ Improvements in the Last Year
Over the course of the year-long investigation, the AIB noted “an immense amount of improvement” in many of the areas it has focused on, Wyka said. That follows an AIB report released last year uncovering numerous issues regarding the Feb. 5, 2014, fire in the WIPP underground and a second AIB report outlining concerns with the response to the Feb. 14, 2014, release. For example, Wyka said that the radiation protection program at WIPP has improved. “Now I think these folks here, the workforce, is up to par with the rest of the complex, and you can probably say the same thing in a lot of those areas. So a lot of improvements in the last year,” he said.
NMED Applauds DOE Investigation
The New Mexico Environment Department is currently undertaking its own investigation into the events at WIPP and Los Alamos following compliance orders it has levied against DOE for violations at the sites. NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn said this week he is pleased with the “rigorous analysis” by the AIB. “They truly appear driven to figure out what went on and identify weaknesses so that they can fix those problems and move forward,” Flynn told WC Monitor. “They could have approached this differently and the final results would have probably been less critical and less helpful. I really applaud Secretary [of Energy Ernest] Moniz and his team for taking a different tack, which is let’s not pull any punches, let’s get to the bottom of this and let’s figure out exactly what the weaknesses are so that we can make our whole system and our enterprise stronger going forward.”
New Mexico Lawmakers: DOE and Contractors ‘Failed to Keep Faith’
Members of New Mexico’s Congressional delegation, including Sens. Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D) and Reps. Steve Pearce (R) and Ben Lujan (D), said the AIB report found “a series of critical failures of leadership at every level led to the very serious accident and release that put numerous New Mexicans at risk, shuttered WIPP for over a year, and have already cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” according to a joint statement.
The lawmakers added: “New Mexico is unique in the nation as the only state that houses an underground repository for transuranic waste. New Mexicans understand the incredible value of the contributions that Los Alamos National Laboratory and WIPP make to science, national security and our state’s economy. But with our unique acceptance of such facilities, we also have high expectations of the Department of Energy and its contractors that they will go above and beyond to ensure our communities are not endangered. This report makes clear that the DOE and its contractors failed to keep faith with the people of New Mexico. We will continue doing everything we can to ensure resources are available to complete the cleanup work at Los Alamos and safely reopen WIPP.”
NWP Will Address All of AIB’s Recommendations
WIPP contractor NWP said it plans to address the AIB’s findings. “We will commence our review process immediately and will promptly address all of AIB’s recommendations to protect worker health, public health and the environment,” according to an NWP statement. “We have made significant progress in restoring WIPP’s nuclear safety programs as part of our Corrective Action Plans that address the previous two AIB reports and we will revise those Plans to incorporate anything new from this Phase 2 AIB Report. Our team continues to work closely with the U.S. Department of Energy to execute our integrated Recovery Plan, restore operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and resume waste disposal operations in a safe, systematic manner.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated from an earlier version to correct the spelling of DOE Accident Investigation Board Chair Ted Wyka’s name.
