Cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) last week began excavating corrugated metal pipes containing radioactive waste buried at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
Retrieval of the corrugated metal pipes began Sept. 8 as part of a project that could last into March 2024, the spokesperson said in response to an ExchangeMonitor inquiry.
On Aug. 21, N3B received DOE authorization to retrieve the pipes and temporarily store them according to DOE-approved plans, the spokesperson said. Ultimately, the pipes will undergo size reduction and packaging for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff said in a recent status report that DOE gave the pipe retrieval a green light. N3B’s vice president Joe Legare told a DOE citizens advisory board for Northern New Mexico in July the pipe project marks the biggest waste excavation project at Los Alamos in more than a decade. There is about 14,000 pounds of pipe and related material to be dug up, he said.
While the DOE’s Environmental Management field office at Los Alamos expects the size reduction and packaging finished by March 2024, the time frame does not account for characterization and certification of the relevant waste containers for shipment to WIPP, the spokesperson said.
The certification process, to ensure the waste meets WIPP’s acceptance criteria, should take an additional six-to-12 months, the DOE spokesperson said.
