Tritium venting is complete on two of four flanged waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Sunday Sept. 21.
After some glitches, work was paused Sunday prior to resuming depressurization of the third flanged tritium waste container (FTWC), NNSA said in an online update.
On NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory webpage, the work updates include figures on the amount of radiation involved in venting and capturing the tritium from the containers.
“Total tritium emissions from the operation so far are less than 35 curies,” NNSA said in its Saturday update. “The calculated off-site dose consequence is 0.005 millirem to a modeled/hypothetical maximally exposed member of the public.”
The four containers are located within Area G of Technical Area 54 at Los Alamos. The tritium venting operations has been criticized by some anti-nuclear organizations such as the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
Despite some concerns with how the waste has been handled at Los Alamos over time, the New Mexico Environment Department granted NNSA and contractor Triad National Security a 180-day temporary authorization that runs through March 2026. The state department concluded the risk of the venting was less than the risk of doing nothing. A past DOE audit found that before the containers could be moved from their current site, tritium venting would be needed.
A flanged tritium waste container (FTWC) is a stainless-steel vessel meant for long-term storage of tritium-contaminated waste, according to DOE.
The area where the containers are located are more than a mile from the nearest business or residence, DOE has said in its online material. DOE has said it expects no off-site impacts to result from the venting process at Los Alamos.