Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
4/10/2015
The long-awaited final Department of Energy Accident Investigation Board report on last year’s radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant appears set to be released by late next week, as DOE has set a public meeting for April 16 in Carlsbad, N.M., to discuss the report. The third and final DOE AIB report will focus on the root cause of the radiological release and will wrap up DOE’s investigation into the February 2014 incidents at WIPP, which also included an earlier truck fire, as the focus shifts to corrective actions and reopening the facility. It comes after DOE released in late March the Technical Assistance Team report finding that the release at WIPP stemmed from a reaction within a waste drum processed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The final report comes after the previous release of an initial AIB report into the Feb. 5, 2014, fire in the WIPP underground and a second AIB report focusing on the response to the Feb. 14, 2014, release that contaminated workers and shut down the nation’s transuranic waste program for years. Those reports found that a lack of maintenance led to the fire and concluded that the radiation release was “preventable” and was preceded by poor maintenance, safety culture issues by Nuclear Waste Partnership, the managing contractor at WIPP; and lax oversight by DOE headquarters and the Carlsbad Field Office.
DNFSB Schedules Public Hearing for April 29
In addition, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has scheduled a public hearing April 29 in Carlsbad, N.M., on last year’s incidents at WIPP. In the all-day meeting, the Board will receive testimony and will deliberate and vote on a senior DNFSB staff proposal that would update the Board’s oversight of WIPP recovery and corrective actions to resume waste operations. The DNFSB this week invited DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz to participate in the hearing, but it is unclear if he will attend—DOE did not respond to request for comment this week.
The Board has scheduled four sessions from noon to 9 p.m. In the first session, a Department of Energy official will testify on recovery actions at WIPP following the salt haul truck fire and radiological release in February 2014. The second session will include testimony from DOE officials and officials from the contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. The third session, which includes DOE and contractor officials as well as the WIPP Accident Investigation Board chairman, involves “a discussion of DOE’s strategy for improving the effectiveness of federal oversight of contractor activities, including specific actions to ensure that improvements made by the site contractor and DOE are sustained over the long term,” according to the DNFSB notice. The fourth session will include DNFSB staff testimony on “the Board’s proposed oversight actions associated with safe recovery of the underground, and oversight of corrective actions to resume and sustain safe waste operations,” the notice states.
WIPP Panel Closure Begins
Meanwhile, initial closure of Panel 6 in the WIPP underground is underway, DOE said late this week. It will be the first to be closed since the WIPP incidents, and is an open panel is where hundreds of drums are stored that are from the same waste stream as the container that caused the radiological release. Following that discovery, the New Mexico Environment Department released an administrative order calling for the expedited closure of panel 6 and panel 7 room 7, where the radiological release originated. “With the entrance side of Panel 6 closed, workers are now making their way toward the exhaust side of the panel to perform ground control activities,” a DOE release says. “This includes bolt installation to stabilize the walls and ceilings so that a similar bulkhead can be installed on the exhaust side, completing initial closure.”
