Mine Recovery Continues
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
1/16/2014
The investigation into last year’s radiological release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that has shut down the facility took a step forward last week with the inauguration of Project Reach, the specialized camera system designed to take photos and video of underground waste drums that haven’t been reached since the incident. The system has been deployed in Panel 7 Room 7, where the Feb. 14 radiological release is believed to have originated. While photos have been taken of some of the damaged waste drums, many of the other drums are tightly stacked in a way inaccessible to cameras and other equipment, and workers can’t reach them due to contamination concerns. That has left lingering questions as to the extent of the event and how many drums may have been impacted.
The project, in development since last summer, involves a 90-foot boom with a camera that is designed to be able to reach all of the drums in the room. It has been a key requirement of the Department of Energy’s Accident Investigation Board examining the events at WIPP, which has yet to fully detail the root cause of the event. Project Reach is now installed in Room 7 and is taking photos and video under the supervision of an AIB team lead giving direction on the surface, Jim Blankenhorn, WIPP recovery manager for the site’s managing contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, said last week at a WIPP town hall meeting. The contractor expects to complete the video and photo survey of the room by the end of the month.
Project Challenging to Implement
While officials had hoped to deploy the camera system long before the end of 2014, Blankenhorn said that getting Project Reach in place proved challenging. First, the equipment was partially assembled and staged underground in a clean, controlled area to minimize the amount of time spent in a contaminated environment. Then there were several large pieces of equipment parked in the route to Panel 7. “We had to physically clear the path,” Blankenhorn said. The equipment was inspected, brought into service and then moved several hundred feet. The equipment was then brought into Room 7. “The crews entered in full protective equipment for the radiological conditions. They finished the assembly and field tested the equipment itself to make sure they could extend the boom,” Blankenhorn said.
The camera is now in operation and will continue methodically moving along the rows of drums and taking images unless an unexpected find crops up. “As long as we are seeing things that we expect, meaning we don’t see an anomaly that we hadn’t previously noted, we’ll let the let do its AIB analysis of data and eventually we’ll package that for release,” Blankenhorn said. If something unusual is found then the information would go out quickly, he said. “Those protocols have already been worked out and are in place to execute if we find something unexpected or anomalous as we go through this evolution,” according to Blankenhorn.
Progress Made on Roof Bolting
Additionally, progress is being made at restoring roof bolts that are used to stabilize the mine’s structure–work that had been deferred for months due to the closure of WIPP and limitations on operating equipment due to airflow. Bolting operations restarted in mid-November. “Since then they’ve had very good success. The workforce is engaged. We have removed just over 300 damaged bolts from various areas and we have installed 280,” Blankenhorn said. Additionally, teams restored areas of the wall that were starting to crack and separate. “We had one specific area that had a large section that was starting to separate from the wall itself. We finished repairing that area with the second bolter. It was about a 200 foot area we put new bolts in and we put chain mesh up and returned it to a safe configuration,” Blankenhorn said.
Closure of Panel 6 Delayed
On another front, the closure of WIPP’s Panel 6, mandated by the New Mexico Environment Department, is facing schedule delays after missing an original target date. The WIPP recovery plan targeted closure in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2015, but other activities must be completed “including roof bolting, radiological surveys, volatile organic compound monitoring and other safety functions,” according to a DOE release this week. “We are making good progress in these areas and will close Panel 6 as safely and expeditiously as possible. While DOE does not expect this change to impact the overall project schedule, changes like this will be made as necessary to ensure worker safety and regulatory compliance and can be expected as efforts progress,” the release says.
