Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
09/11/2014
SUMMERLIN, Nev.—Though operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant remain shut down for the foreseeable future, recovery work by contactor Nuclear Waste Partnership has picked up significantly in recent weeks, NWP WIPP Recovery Manager Jim Blankenhorn said at the RadWaste Summit last week. WIPP has been closed since a February truck fire and radiological release, but NWP has developed a draft recovery plan that includes the restart of limited operations in early 2016. “We are going to implement a phased approach to recovery that we’ll expedite. We think we’ve got a very feasible, achievable and sustainable approach to recovery,” Blankenhorn said in remarks at the Summit. “We recognize the importance and the interdependency of the WIPP and everybody else.”
Recovery efforts underwent a “step change” in mid-August when daily entries into the mine began after months of occurring at a rate of around one per week, Blankenhorn said. While that was made possible in part by the successful changeout of the ventilation system’s HEPA filters contaminated by the incident, NWP was also able to update key procedures. “We made some changes to the safety basis documents that moved us away from some very specific activities so we have a broader safety basis,” Blankenhorn told WC Monitor. “Then we’ve been working in the work planning sections to develop more generic, broader work packages so they are not discrete activities. That’s allowed us to go to daily entries.”
WIPP Workforce Fully Engaged Despite Shutdown
Despite the suspension of operations, NWP has been able to maintain the entire WIPP workforce. In the initial months after the event nonessential workers were tasked with continuous training, but as the recovery progressed in the spring and summer more and more workers returned to the site. The latest ramp up in effort led to even greater engagement. “The busier the workforce is, the happier they are,” Blankenhorn said. “The more morale boost they get because they know they are now contributing to getting the facility recovered. We are seeing quite a bit of upswing in the morale in the last three weeks.” NWP’s plan would allow all workers to remain fully engaged and employed at WIPP throughout the recovery process, contingent on funding.
Contractor Addressing Issues Uncovered by Accident Investigation
The contractor is emphasizing training and management practices on emergency response, work control and safety culture. The Department of Energy’s Accident Investigation Board reports into both the fire and the initial response to the release found numerous issues in those areas that contributed to both events, including a failure to follow established procedures, reluctance by some workers to report concerns and a lack of proper maintenance. “There weren’t too many of the safety management programs at WIPP that weren’t indicted under these two reports, so we are going through a fairly comprehensive effort at this time through our corrective actions to rebuild most of the safety management programs,” Blankenhorn said in remarks at the Summit.
NWP Seeks to Strengthen Safety Culture in the Mine
A major shift has been establishing a nuclear safety culture at WIPP, which had instead been operating largely under mine safety standards. But now that the mine is contaminated, workers need to be trained to work in a radiological environment. “From a mine safety perspective our guys are excellent. We’ve got the best in the business. We need to overlay or revitalize the nuclear safety culture on top of that mine safety culture,” Blankenhorn told WC Monitor. That includes focus on procedure reliance, rigor, disciplined thinking, a questioning attitude, and performing to written documents versus skill to craft, he said.
NWP Undertakes Management Changes
Additionally, the contractor has made some major changes to its management structure in an effort to strengthen those areas. In addition to bringing in Blankenhorn and new President Bob McQuinn, it also has a new maintenance manager, emergency management manager, radiological manager, procedures and training manager, nuclear safety leader, among other changes. Additionally, the heads of emergency management and engineering are now direct reports to McQuinn.
Root Cause of the Release Still Unknown
Meanwhile, DOE’s Accident Investigation Board is continuing its investigation into the root cause of the release, which still has not been confirmed. The AIB has complete control of Panel 7 Room 7, where the release originated. NWP is doing its part to support the investigation. That includes constructing a 90-foot extendable camera boom that will allow for better photographs to be taken from more angles of the drums throughout Room 7. New Mexico has ordered WIPP to close open panels containing waste, including Panel 7. But NWP will not take any action in Room 7 without the approval of the AIB, and the state regulator has also demanded that the cause be identified before operations resume.
For NWP, discovering the root cause of the release is also crucial for resuming operations, officials say. The contractor’s recovery plan is a “living document,” and will likely undergo changes based on the findings of the AIB. While officials have said it may be impossible to 100 percent pinpoint the cause of the release, certainty will make the response smoother. “The more uncertainty that we have in the cause then the more controls and the more change we’ll have to make to the program to prevent reoccurrence. The less uncertainty that we have, then the simpler those changes become,” Blankenhorn told WC Monitor. “If we proceed with a ‘we don’t know,’ we’re going to have to do substantial things to the program. But if we can narrow it down to a family of events or specific chemical reactions then we can develop a response and corrective action plan that is much more targeted and the controls won’t have to be nearly so broad.”
Three Phases of Ventilation Upgrades Underway
Another component of work currently underway is the reestablishment and upgrade of the mine’s ventilation system. Currently there is only enough ventilation capacity to only run one or two pieces of equipment in the underground at a time, compared to the 10 to 20 that were operated earlier. Therefore increasing ventilation is crucial for speeding up recovery operations underway such as necessary roof stabilization and bolting.
The ventilation upgrades are split into three phases. In the first, the capacity of the existing filtration system will be doubled over the next few months. In the second, a new fan system in the underground will segregate the mine into contaminated and clean areas by early 2015. “Those two ventilation upgrades is what we’re looking for in ’15 to be able to pull together the programs, finish the recovery and allow us to go through readiness activity to start operations,” Blankenhorn said.
The third phase is longer term, as it involves installing a new permanent ventilation system and constructing a new exhaust shaft, which would allow full operations to resume. “That will follow the lifecycle of a line-item project, so those could very well take a couple of years to work through the CD-0 to CD-4, to get all the authorizations that we need to do that,” Blankenhorn said.
Mine Surfaces Will be Fixed and Sealed
Instead of extensive decontamination, which is difficult due to the attributes of salt, contaminated areas will be fixed with a mist of water and then covered with alternating layers of colored sealant so it will be apparent when a layer is breached. The sealant will be covered with new salt. “That will cover most of the floor areas that have contamination,” Blankenhorn said. “For the other areas of the wall that have contamination, we are simply going to spray it down with water and let it dry and fix and then we’ll just monitor to the extent possible.”
Blankenhorn also emphasized the “100 percent” commitment of the workforce. “They’ve put all the negative reports behind them. They accept them, they don’t argue with them, they don’t fight them,” he said. “That was what the report card said and we are going to fix it and get back into operations. So they’ve all embraced the change and the activities to get the facility restarted.”
