DNFSB: WIPP OPERATIONS WERE NOT ‘PERFORMED WITH THE RIGOR NECESSARY’

In an initial assessment of the recent fire and radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said that operations at the facility were not up to standards. “Operations at the WIPP site were not performed with the rigor necessary for a hazard category 2 defense nuclear facility, especially for operations that were deemed to be nonnuclear in nature. Both the federal and contractor workforce proved unprepared for emergency response. No one was seriously hurt in either event, but these were both near misses,” states a March 21 letter from the DNFSB to New Mexico’s U.S. Senate Delegation. 

 

The DNFSB noted that the Feb. 5 salt truck fire in the WIPP underground was largely the result of inadequate maintenance, and that there were numerous issues with the immediate response to the fire. The Board also found issues with the response to the Feb. 14 radiation release. “The Board also assesses the initial response to the release event as unsatisfactory,” the letter states. “Shelter in place instructions were not given until ten hours after the first indication of a problem, and  over four hours after a release had been confirmed by local readings. As a result, the internal contamination level of workers, although minor, was nevertheless greater than necessary. The local WIPP Emergency Operations Center was ineffective, and the DOE emergency center at headquarters in Washington, DC, was never notified, as would have been appropriate.”