Report: WIPP contractor still has air issues to fix

By Lauren Villagran / Journal Staff Writer – Las Cruces Bureau
PUBLISHED: Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 12:02 am

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The contractor for the WIPP nuclear repository still must resolve issues with underground ventilation to protect workers from bad air, according to a U.S. Department of Energy review.

Nuclear Waste Partnership “does not have a sound engineering approach to determining the minimum ventilation rates that will ensure safe conditions for underground workers,” the DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a critical Dec. 29 report.

Air flow in the deep underground repository has been severely restricted since a Feb. 14 radiation leak contaminated WIPP with americium and plutonium, shutting down the facility.

The reduced air flow has limited the amount of work that can be done underground as WIPP tries to recover. Running the diesel equipment used to haul salt from the mine and accomplish other tasks is especially an issue.

“The identified deficiencies are significant and need to be addressed before WIPP begins to use diesel engines underground,” the DOE said in its report. “Although operation of diesel equipment at WIPP under the current conditions will be challenging, it can be accomplished safely underground if appropriate safety controls and restrictions are developed using a sound engineering approach,” DOE said.

Don Hancock, a WIPP watchdog with Albuquerque’s Southwest Research and Information Center, said, “You can’t have people breathing in diesel fumes because that is a health risk. The way you alleviate the risk is to have a higher air flow so it dilutes the fumes and they are not dangerous to the workers.”

At the time of the release, high-efficiency air filters kicked in to clean the underground air of radiological contaminants before expulsing the air into the environment. Those filters are still running.

The fans associated with those filters can move only about 60,000 cubic feet of air per minute – roughly one-seventh of the air flow underground before the radiation release, according to Hancock.

In a statement, the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office said resolution of the ventilation issues already was being addressed at the time of the assessment.

NWP is “revising ventilation plans” based on the current mine configuration and is also putting in place air monitors that would continuously sample air for diesel particulates, the statement said.

Report: WIPP contractor still has air issues to fix

Report: WIPP leak small at surface, more serious underground

By Lauren Villagran / Journal Staff Writer – Las Cruces Bureau
UPDATED: Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 2:37 pm

PUBLISHED: Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 11:19 am

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file photo

The airborne radiation leak that shut down a nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico earlier this year was ultimately small and localized, according to a report by independent researchers.

In its final report on air, soil and water samples taken from around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant over the course of several months, the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center said the concentrations of radiological contaminants in the air above ground were “very small, localized, and well below any level of public health or environmental concern.”

Soil, sediment and surface water monitoring also showed no detectable increases over radiation levels typically measured in the area.

The findings in the report are consistent with CEMERC researchers’ presentations to the public over the past nine months.

On Valentine’s Day this past February, a hot reaction inside at least one drum of nuclear waste stored at WIPP cracked open a container, releasing plutonium and americium into the underground space. Small amounts of the radiation escaped into the air above ground before WIPP’s high-powered air filters kicked in.

The report concluded that, inside the deep underground repository, “moderate levels of radioactivity” were released.

CEMERC has been monitoring concentrations of radiation in the air at WIPP since the facility opened in 1996. The above-normal readings at its air-monitoring stations in the wake of the Feb. 14 event were the first indication of an airborne radiation release during WIPP’s 15 years of operation.

“No negative radiation-related health effects among local workers or the public should be expected,” CEMERC concluded.

New Mexico State University runs CEMERC, which is funded by the Department of Energy through a grant process “that respects its independence in carrying out and reporting the results of environmental monitoring at and near the WIPP site,” the report said.

WIPP — the final resting place for certain types of defense nuclear waste, key to the nation’s cleanup of Cold War-era weapons production — is expected to remain shuttered for several years. WIPP managers have estimated the clean-up could cost half a billion dollars.

Report: WIPP leak small at surface, more serious underground