New Mexico Bars High-Level Waste From Carlsbad Salt Caverns

SANTA FE, New Mexico, November 4, 2004 (ENS) - The state of New Mexico is setting watchmen in place to ensure that no high-level radioactive waste enters the federal government's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) at Carlsbad. The facility accepts radioactive transuranic waste from across the United States for permanent storage in the Carlsbad salt caverns deep beneath the Earth's surface.

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) will formally reopen its Carlsbad operations office on Monday, stationing four employees there to conduct environmental monitoring of the Department of Energy's WIPP facility.

The Carlsbad office of NMED’s Department of Energy Oversight Bureau has been closed since 1996 due to federal funding cuts.

“These personnel could not have started at a better time,” said NMED Secretary Ron Curry. “The problems WIPP have been experiencing lately with the disposal of unapproved waste highlights the need for improved oversight of DOE’s operations in Carlsbad.”

Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department Ron Curry (Photo courtesy NMED)

The shipments to WIPP from the DOE's Hanford nuclear site violated an August 2003 EPA directive that said the waste should not be shipped because of questions about whether it had been properly tested. It is the second similar incident this year and the fourth since WIPP opened in 1999.

EPA and DOE officials declined to answer questions on the matter, but an internal EPA document obtained by the Journal shows that officials are considering a complete shutdown of all shipments from Hanford to WIPP.

On October 29, in a move designed to bar the disposal of high-level radioactive tank sludges at WIPP, which was permitted only for transuranic waste, Curry signed a WIPP permit modification. “This action gives New Mexico the clear authority to prevent any high-level sludge from coming to WIPP,” said Curry.

NMED’s actions on this issue began with an October 2003 directive from Governor Bill Richardson to address this issue. This action followed efforts by the Department of Energy to reclassify high-level wastes, possibly making them eligible for WIPP disposal.

In October, Congress approved a change to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, allowing the Department of Energy to reclassify high-level radioactive waste in South Carolina as "waste incidental to reprocessing." The change trumps a 2003 federal court ruling that prohibited DOE from reclassifying high-level radioactive waste.

Curry's modification to WIPP’s permit ensures that WIPP remains devoted to the disposal of transuranic waste and does not accept high-level waste.

By modifying the permit, any reclassified high-level waste, as well as tank sludge currently at DOE’s Hanford, Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory (INEEL) and Savannah River facilities, will remain prohibited from WIPP disposal unless the Energy Department proves that the waste is not now and never has been high-level waste. This showing would occur through a subsequent permit modification, Curry said.

High-level waste is highly radioactive waste material that results from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced in reprocessing and any solid waste derived from the liquid that contains a combination of transuranic waste and fission products in concentrations requiring permanent isolation.

Transuranic waste stored at WIPP for permanent disposal (Photo courtesy Radiochemistry Society)

This modification was submitted to NMED by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on July 2, 2004. It was also subject to a 60-day public comment period. The permit modification signed October 29 was modified from the original DOE proposal to include a public suggestion to more clearly delineate which waste streams are prohibited.

“This is a perfect example of how the permit modification process should work,” said Curry. “The public’s suggestion to include a concise list of the prohibited high-level waste tanks at DOE’s Hanford, INEEL and Savannah River facilities was a good one. Free and open public comment has made this a stronger permit.”

“Having these oversight personnel on the ground in Carlsbad is going to benefit both NMED and the citizens of New Mexico,” said Curry. “Local oversight will give New Mexicans better environmental protections. These new NMED employees will do vital work, looking over WIPP’s shoulder and making sure that this operation is run safely and properly.”