The Department of Energy is again sending transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., from the Idaho National Laboratory after New Mexico regulators lifted a hold on the shipments.
Idaho resumed sending waste canisters to WIPP on Oct. 6, a New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) spokesperson said in a Thursday email to the Exchange Monitor.
The NMED ordered DOE to suspend receipt of waste from Idaho National Laboratory, the biggest shipper to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in a Sept. 14, 2022 letter, pending details on problem container shipments earlier this year.
The DOE responded to the state regulator on Oct. 5, nine days earlier than the state regulator requested, and NMED promptly approved resumption of Idaho’s transuranic waste shipments, the NMED spokesperson said.
The state agency said it sought additional information on safety protocols after reading a September Exchange Monitor article reporting that a trace amount of radioactive contamination was found on a WIPP container from Idaho National Laboratory.
At the time of NMED’s Sept. 14 order, WIPP had received no trucks carrying Idaho waste drums since Aug. 12, as the lab’s Jacobs-led cleanup contractor, Idaho Environmental Coalition, was working to identify and remedy concerns identified with earlier shipments.
Back in April, shipments from Idaho were briefly put on hold by DOE liquid after an April 9 incident where low levels of radioactive contamination in a liquid in the CH-Bay at WIPP.
In its Oct. 5 response to NMED, DOE said it suspended shipments from Idaho as a precautionary move and “there was never a threat to the public or the environment.”
The Idaho contractor has implemented stricter container integrity inspections and radiological surveys, DOE said in the letter to the New Mexico regulator. Idaho Environmental Coalition has also “enhanced the radiological survey requirements to utilize large area wipes to identify potential contamination,” DOE said.
Of the 210 shipments to WIPP during the 2021 calendar year, 120 or more than half, came from Idaho.
Idaho is not the only source of problem WIPP shipments this year. There was another episode in April when a container from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico was put in the WIPP underground without a required flammable gas analysis being done beforehand.