Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to keep stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico for an additional two years.
The Dallas-based company asked the agency for an extension until Dec. 23, 2020, to allow the state of Texas, the Department of Energy, the NRC, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to come up with the safest option for disposing of the waste. The material has been kept at the WCS facility in Andrews County, Texas, since 2014.
The waste was to have been disposed of at DOE’s Waste isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, but was redirected to Texas after the facility closed following a February 2014 radiation release. After the shipments arrived at WCS during April and May, the Energy Department discovered some of it came from same the waste stream as the barrel that burst open at WIPP. The DOE waste disposal site didn’t resume waste emplacement operation for nearly three years after the incident.
Most of the Los Alamos waste that went to Waste Control Specialists has since been shipped out since WIPP reopened for business in early 2017. Of the 277 drums remaining at WCS, 113 consist of waste with indications of combustibility or corrosion akin to the problem drums from Los Alamos.
“The final disposition plan for this waste will not be completed before December of 2018,” Jay Cartwright, an environmental safety and health director at WCS, said in an Aug. 30 letter to Marc Dapas, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. The NRC staff will make the decision prior to expiration of the current authorization on Dec. 23, agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email Monday.
Provided NRC approves the extension, WCS expects to make a similar request to its state regulator, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, so both deadlines would be December 2020. The Texas authorization is also set to expire on Dec. 23 of this year.
Because the special nuclear material (SNM) order is authorized by the NRC, the federal regulator is the first stop for extending the possession time frame, said WCS President and Chief Operating Officer David Carlson.
In March 2017, DOE contracted Idaho-based SUNSI JV, to study disposal options for the stranded waste. The report was to analyze a number of options: stabilizing the material at WCS and shipping it to another DOE site for treatment before eventual shipment to WIPP; no treatment at WCS but shipping it back to Los Alamos for treatment; shipping it to another commercial facility for treatment and shipment to WIPP; or simply shipping it straight to WIPP for disposal.
The Energy Department is believed to be reviewing the SUNSI study. The DOE did not respond for a request for comment by press time.
During a Sept. 13 panel discussion at the National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va., Mark Senderling, deputy assistant energy secretary for waste and materials management at the Office of Environmental Management, said the material is currently held safely by Waste Control Specialists and DOE continues to work with Texas officials and others on a longer-term solution.
In November 2017, DOE announced a contractor had finished treating 60 potentially combustible containers that were left at LANL and preparing them for ultimate shipment to WIPP. The drums have not yet been sent to the disposal site.
The remaining LANL waste is being stored in a safe environment, although the exact location and configuration can’t be revealed for security purposes, Texas Commission of Environmental Quality spokesman Brian McGovern said last month.
