The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for permanent disposition of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that has been stored for years at a privately held facility in Texas.
The Energy Department could either technically confirm the radioactive waste can be safely shipped straight to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, or send it back to Los Alamos for further treatment prior to eventual disposal. The decision will be based in part on a technical analysis that could be finished this month, DOE said.
In a Tuesday letter, the agency told the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality there is little chance of meeting the state directive to move the potentially combustible material out of the Waste Control Specialists disposal complex in Andrews County by the end of 2020.
The letter and supporting technical document, called a “disposition plan,” sent to TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker by DOE Senior Adviser for Environmental Management William (Ike) White indicate the waste might remain in Texas until April 2022. “I assure you DOE takes serious its commitments to safely remove the LANL waste,” White wrote. The process, however, is “challenging,” he added.
The waste was shipped to Waste Control Specialists starting in March 2014, following WIPP’s closure that February after a drum of TRU waste from Los Alamos overheated and caused a radiation leak underground. It was subsequently learned some of the drums taken to the Texas site might also be combustible.
The state agreed in March 2014 to hold the waste for DOE up to a year, and until lately has been willing to extend the agreement on an annual basis. In November, Baker informed then-Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette the state is no longer willing to store the TRU material beyond December 2020, when the latest extension expires. Brouillette became secretary of energy in December.
The federal agency has already removed the TRU deemed safe to ship directly to WIPP, which represents about 80% of the original total. Most of the remaining material, currently labeled “hazardous” by federal transport officials, are stored underground in 75 standard waste boxes at WCS, according to a TCEQ spokesman.
Shipping the waste on to WIPP would require a technical finding that the material need no longer be treated as “ignitable” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, according to the technical document attached to the letter, which adds the decision could be out this month. Ongoing research by both Los Alamos and the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina says the problem TRU has become less susceptible to ignition over time.
Should DOE elect to pursue this option, shipments to WIPP could begin this year and be completed in February 2021, according to the document accompanying White’s letter.
Returning the waste to Los Alamos for more treatment would take longer, according to the DOE document. It would also require an analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. Retrieval of the waste boxes would be carried out in a more “incremental” manner than the other option, according to the document.
The regulatory requirements, from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, TCEQ, and the New Mexico Environment Department, are more extensive with the second option than the first. Retrieval of the first waste for shipment back to Los Alamos could start in January 2021, after conclusion of the NEPA analysis.
The actual process of excavating and safely shipping the TRU, which would still be considered ignitable, would take more than a year. That’s in part because the material would only be shipped between December and March, when temperatures are cooler than the rest of the year, according to the DOE document.
A DOE spokesperson also noted the uncertainties surrounding the current COVID-19 pandemic could delay scheduling.
