Canadian Regulator: DOE’s Many Roles at WIPP ‘Potentially Problematic’

As Canada examines the implications of recent incidents at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant on its own repository planning efforts, DOE’s multiple roles at WIPP can be “potentially problematic,” Canadian regulators said at a meeting yesterday of the panel reviewing plans for a repository in Ontario. The Joint Review Panel is holding a string of public meetings this month on Ontario Power Generation’s effort to license a low and intermediate level radioactive waste repository in Kincardine, Ont., and Canadian officials yesterday focused on implications of the recent incidents at WIPP. While DOE is the owner and designer of WIPP, it is also the operator through its contractor and has established many of the regulations the facility must comply with, according to Kathleen Klassen of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. “So the DOE implements the regulations that they have established and must demonstrate the adequacy of this implementation to themselves,” Klassen said. “This is potentially problematic because there may be a lack of impartiality and an inability to separate roles. DOE is the operator, and as a regulator must also coordinate and comply with other regulatory bodies.”