The Department of Energy, national labs and Waste Control Specialists are all scrutinizing transuranic waste drums from Los Alamos National Laboratory that may have led to the Feb. 14 radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. While LANL has been the focus of a high-profile accelerated effort to remove aboveground transuranic waste, late last week DOE said that a chemical reaction in a WIPP drum may have caused the release. Waste Control Specialists is taking “extra precautions” with LANL drums that have been shipped there for temporary storage during the WIPP shutdown, spokesman Chuck McDonald said. “All the response mechanisms are in place. Obviously, we take the situation with the utmost seriousness, and so we are proceeding as you would expect. … It’s something we are aware of and taking every precaution possible,” he said. “Remember, everything that comes to WCS is over-packed. You have a container inside a container, so if there were a rupture, it would be contained in the secondary container.”
WCS has been in "constant communication" with DOE, LANL, WIPP and Texas regulators about the current theory and workers at the site are prepared to take any emergency response needed, McDonald said. “WCS has increased video monitoring and inspections of the TRU inventory in storage to identify anything that appears unusual. Any off-normal drum can be remediated onsite with our existing treatment facilities and licenses," he said. “All parties are acting as if the pressurization of drums is plausible, but no immediate concern has been specifically and unequivocally identified. WCS and Texas regulators are using an abundance of caution concerning this matter, as are the federal oversight agencies.”
The Department said that samples collected at WIPP will be analyzed at the WIPP Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Savannah River National Laboratory. “Re-entry teams collected swipe samples in Room 7 of Panel 7. Workers also collected a filter from a fixed air sampler at the entrance of Room 1 in Panel 7 and the filter cartridge from a continuous air monitor in the exhaust drift of Panel 7. The samples will undergo a thorough radiological and chemical analysis at the three laboratories,” DOE said in a release yesterday. “This week, DOE and NWP are making entries to update radiological controls in the WIPP underground facility, collect additional samples in Room 7, and take overhead photos of the suspected source of the event.”