The Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory suspended transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico immediately after an April 11 incident in which at least one 55-gallon drum of radioactive waste overheated and ejected its lid.
The suspension was precautionary, and shipments resumed on Tuesday, Idaho Site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho said in a Wednesday press release.
The drum, believed to have come from the Rocky Flats weapons site in Colorado, had not finished the final characterization and certification process prior to shipment to WIPP.
In the five hours after the initial breached drum of repackaged sludge was discovered, two others were found with failed lids, according to an April 17 DOE occurrence report. The contractor said further investigation is being conducted on other drums. Containers at the site from Rocky Flats were inspected April 12 and showed no signs of abnormal conditions, the contractor said.
Fluor Idaho has said the incident caused no injuries or environmental contamination.
The DOE report said three firefighters who responded to the smoldering drum showed no evidence in a follow-up medical exam of detectable radiation in their lungs. At the site, the fire crew had recorded some low-level alpha radioactive contamination on their hands.
An analysis team was established to determine the root causes and contributing causes to the drum breach.
Idaho has been the leading waste shipper to WIPP since the facility resumed taking outside shipments in April 2017. About 54 of the 72 shipments received at WIPP during the first three months of 2018 have come from INL.
