Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
6/27/2014
After nearly a month with no entries into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground, filter replacement activities at the facility were completed this week. No teams have entered WIPP since May 30, when contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership began efforts to change out filters that exchange air between the aboveground and the WIPP underground. The ventilation system upgrades were necessary following the underground salt truck fire and radiation release in February. High efficiency filters on the second filter unit were replaced June 20 and moderate filters were replaced June 23, DOE said this week. The new filters will allow for better ventilation in the underground and ultimately for more work to be conducted.
Notably, as the investigation continues into the actual cause of the radiation release, the suspension of WIPP entries meant that no additional information from the underground was collected this month from the site of the release. In the past several weeks, officials at the site have worked on developing systems to improve camera access to the release site, Room 7 of Panel 7, as previous entry teams could not reach many parts of the room with cameras meant to evaluate conditions.
However, the first few entries will focus on ground control activities and maintaining mine safety as teams “evaluate the condition of the underground facility and verify that conditions have not changed since the last entry on May 30,” DOE said in a release this week. It added, “Later entries will return focus to investigating the radiological event that occurred in the underground facility in February.”
Lab Tests Continue
Meanwhile, laboratories have continued tests and analysis of samples from the mine in an effort to determine the cause of the radiation release. Last month entries discovered a breached drum from Los Alamos National Laboratory that is thought to be the source of the release, and theories have focused on the high levels of nitrate salts and acidity of the drum as possible contributing factors to the event.
No Word Yet on Whether Drums Were Properly Packaged
In May LANL “conducted a fact finding to determine whether the nitrate salts were treated and shipped in accordance with the WIPP waste acceptance criteria,” according to a May 23 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board staff report, which noted the results are pending. More than a month later, LANL and DOE still have not been able to determine whether the drums were properly packaged. A DOE spokesman said this week: “The assessment is still being evaluated.”
