Defense board members check on LANL’s legacy waste cleanup progress
Members of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) viewed the efforts underway to address legacy transuranic waste during a recent visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico.
Acting DNFSB chair Thomas Summers, board member Patricia Lee, and other and board staff toured Area G at LANL’s Technical Area 54, where they saw waste storage facilities and processing operations to prepare TRU waste for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, about 340 miles south of LANL in New Mexico.
“The DNFSB plays an important role in helping to ensure safe operations at a variety of U.S. Department of Energy sites, including LANL,” said Jessica Kunkle, manager of the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA). “We appreciate the good working relationship we have with the board, and we were glad to be able to show them how we are safely carrying out this important mission.”
Shipping news: Safely shipping TRU and other radioactive waste off-site for disposal is an important component of the legacy cleanup mission at LANL, according to the DOE. Since 2018, EM-LA and its legacy cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT (N3B)-Los Alamos LLC, have shipped more than 615 cubic meters of TRU waste to WIPP and more than 14,000 cubic meters of low-level and mixed low-level radioactive waste to offsite disposal facilities.
“We’re proud of our progress in reducing legacy waste at LANL,” said Brad Smith, N3B Los Alamos president and general manager. “Safety is at the core of our performance for the legacy waste mission and all of our cleanup activities at LANL.”
The material: TRU waste is the byproduct of the nation’s nuclear defense program. It consists of tools, rags, protective clothing, sludges, soil, and other materials contaminated with radioactive elements, mostly plutonium.
WIPP was designed to dispose of two kinds of TRU waste. Contact-handled (CH) TRU waste has a radiation dose rate not greater than 200 millirem (mrem) per hour, as measured at the surface of the waste container. Remote-handled (RH) TRU waste can have a dose rate up to 1,000 rem per hour. About 96 percent of the waste to be disposed of at WIPP is CH TRU waste, according to the DOE. When transported, both RH and CH TRU waste have the same dose rate limit on the outside of the shipping casks due to lead shielding.
CH TRU waste barrels and boxes are stacked in rows on the floor of WIPP’s underground disposal rooms, while RH TRU waste canisters are placed in boreholes drilled into the walls of the same rooms.
The DNFSB: The board is an independent organization within the executive branch of the U.S. government, chartered with the responsibility of providing recommendations and advice to the president and the energy secretary regarding public health and safety issues at DOE defense nuclear facilities.
