The newly reopened Radioactive Assay Nondestructive Testing (RANT) facility at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has made its first shipment of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in nearly five years.
Prior to last week, there had been no TRU waste loading at the facility since May 2014. The work was stopped after questions arose about the building’s ability to withstand a major earthquake, LANL said in a news release.
A 2014 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board analysis said an earthquake probably could not take down the building but could result in a crane failure and potential fire involving the TRU waste, and such a scenario needed more study from DOE.
On Thursday, 42 drums of transuranic waste left Los Alamos on the way to WIPP. The material encompassed contaminated gloves, booties, cleaning materials, and general waste products newly generated from operations at the lab. The TRU waste is from the Confinement Vessel Disposition project at LANL’s Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility, according to a DOE spokesperson.
The 10,000-square-foot facility has the capability to make more than five shipments per week, according to DOE material.
Prior to RANT reopening, transuranic waste shipments to WIPP were loaded outdoors at the lab’s Technical Area 55, which meant bad weather would severely limit operations, according to the news release.
The facility won startup authorization from the Energy Department on Feb. 28 after a new low material at risk (MAR) operational strategy was approved by DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration in December 2018. A reduction in the amount of material at risk in the building eliminate the need for infrastructure upgrades.
“The reopening of RANT and resumption of waste shipments to WIPP puts Los Alamos in a stronger position to fulfill its national security mission,” said Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Thom Mason in the release. “As the laboratory works to meet the nation’s future plutonium manufacturing and science goals a robust and continuous waste disposition program is more important than ever.”
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near the city of Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico, was offline for about three years following an underground radiation release in February 2014 that was linked to waste from Los Alamos. Prior to Thursday’s shipment, WIPP had received a half-dozen shipments of TRU waste from the lab since resumption of emplacement of waste from DOE sites in April 2017.
