Fluor Idaho sent an improperly sealed container of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant last month, but inspectors at that New Mexico disposal facility caught the mistake, according to a public notice from the Energy Department.
The waste, shipped to WIPP May 10 in a TRUPACT-II container that can hold around 1.5 cubic meters of waste, “was loaded and shipped from the AMWTP [Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project in Idaho] to WIPP with an incorrect O-ring installed on the Inner Containment Vessel (ICV) vent port cover,” reads the official DOE account of the incident published online last week just before the U.S. Memorial Day holiday.
The waste arrived at WIPP May 11, but it was not until May 22 that WIPP workers discovered Idaho-site personnel had used the wrong o-ring. Idaho site management formally alerted DOE May 23, according to the official account of the incident.
The improperly sealed container of waste had not been placed underground at WIPP as of deadline Friday for Weapons Complex Monitor, according to DOE’s official WIPP-waste database. The database did not identify the contents of the improperly sealed container, or the origin of this waste.
Last week, Susan Cange, DOE’s acting assistant secretary for environmental management, said the agency is now sending three transuranic waste shipments a week to WIPP.
The official WIPP-waste database, which is only updated two weeks after a shipment is placed underground, showed Friday that the mine had received 12 shipments from across the DOE weapons complex in the five weeks from April 7 through May 12. That equates to a delivery rate of about 2.5 shipments a week since WIPP began accepting new waste.
The mine reopened in early December and started taking new shipments in April. It had been closed for about three years following an accidental underground radiation release and earlier, unrelated underground fire in 2014.
