Halfway through the fiscal year, the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site appears on pace to dispose of more radioactive and classified waste than during fiscal 2021, according to the latest quarterly report from the site.
During the second quarter of the fiscal year, which ended March 31, the site disposed of 154,000 cubic feet of waste, which amounts to nearly 330,000 cubic feet since the fiscal year started Oct. 1, 2021, according to the second quarter report.
No third quarter report has been posted yet. The site disposed of 539,000 cubic feet during fiscal 2021, according to DOE data.
Most, about 234,000 cubic feet of the fiscal 2022 waste is low-level radioactive. A small slice, about 7,000 cubic feet of waste arriving at Nevada this fiscal year for disposal, is classified non-radioactive or classified non-radioactive hazardous, according to the data.
Before the pandemic, the site would typically receive in the neighborhood of 1 million cubic feet per year, Nevada DOE officials have said.
Also DOE increased its scrutiny of waste headed to the Nevada National Security Site after the disclosure that mislabeled radioactive waste was sent there from the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn., over a course of several years.
Contractor Navarro Research and Engineering runs the Radioactive Waste Acceptance Program at the Nevada Site for the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
