Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
7/3/2014
Entries are scheduled to resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to begin some initial cleanup work as the second phase of recovery is launched, the Department of Energy said this week. No teams have entered the mine since May 30, when it was shut down for filter replacement and ventilation upgrades necessary after the February incidents that have suspended operations at WIPP. “Once employees perform initial underground safety checks, they will begin conducting additional radiological surveys, restoring mine habitability, removing soot from the Feb. 5 truck fire, and performing ground control and monitoring,” DOE said in a release this week.
It is unclear when the first entry will occur, as DOE and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership did not respond to request for comment on the reentry schedule. “The first entries involve evaluating underground equipment and verifying specific areas are contamination-free and that the passageways are safe following filter replacement activities. Then, workers will restore these areas to conditions that support employees working in the underground facility,” according to the DOE release.
Notably, as the investigation continues into the actual cause of the radiation release, the suspension of WIPP entries meant that no additional information from the underground was collected in June from the site of the release: Panel 7, Room 7 in the WIPP underground. When entries resume, other teams will continue explorations in the room where the Feb. 14 radiation release originated, the exact cause of which hasn’t yet been identified. “Simultaneously, another team is exploring designs and options for ongoing investigations in Panel 7, Room 7. Controlled entries will continue into Room 7 to determine the cause of the radiological event and if any additional waste containers were affected,” DOE said.
Meanwhile, laboratories have continued tests and analysis of samples from the mine in an effort to determine the cause of the radiation release. Last month entries discovered a breached drum from Los Alamos National Laboratory that is thought to be the source of the release, and theories have focused on the high levels of nitrate salts and acidity of the drum as possible contributing factors to the event.
