Los Alamos ships volatile waste to WIPP

Sue Major Holmes | The Associated Press

11/26/2008 -

ALBUQUERQUE — Los Alamos National Laboratory has shipped the last of one group of high-activity radioactive waste drums to the federal government's waste dump near Carlsbad, saying it made good on a commitment to remove the material from lab property.

The nuclear weapons lab shipped 282 high-activity drums to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after repackaging much of the material identified as high activity — which means it's above a certain level of radioactivity. The last of the drums went to WIPP earlier this month.

The ultimate goal is to send to WIPP all of the high-activity waste at Area G, Los Alamos lab's radioactive waste storage and disposal area, lab spokesman Kevin Roark said Wednesday.

"The less waste on the hill, the better," he said.

The removal of the latest group of waste drums significantly lowers the risk from Area G, said Michael Graham, the lab's associate director for environmental programs.

Mark Shepard of the lab's waste disposition project said about 20 percent of the material that's at risk at Area G has now been removed.

"These drums, given their high-activity loadings and generally dispersible contents, are our highest concerns in credible accident scenarios at Area G," he said.

Shepard called the waste removal a significant achievement, and Los Alamos Site Office manager Don Winchell said it makes good on the lab's commitment to the state and its citizens.

Material considered high-activity contains greater than 56 plutonium-equivalent curies, a standard measure used in risk analysis for certain radioactive waste operations.

Los Alamos officials said last year many of the original high activity waste containers included material that cannot by law be buried at WIPP, such as aerosol cans or bottles of liquid. Workers at the lab's repackaging facility opened the containers, removed the prohibited items and repackaged the containers for shipment.

In September 2007, the National Nuclear Security Administration certified Los Alamos' repackaging facility to repackage containers of the higher-level waste. The Waste Characterization, Reduction and Repackaging facility received a Category 2 certification.

Roark said other high-activity waste remains at Area G.

"We've been putting waste in the ground and storing it above the ground at Area G for a very long time," he said.

Los Alamos began a "Quick to WIPP" program to expedite shipment of the most radioactive lower level waste after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast and the 2000 Cerro Grande wildfire that burned through parts of the town of Los Alamos.

Lab officials had hoped to finish sending such waste to WIPP by the end of 2006, but the program was delayed, prompting environmental groups to call for better lab storage facilities.

WIPP, which opened in March 1999, stores plutonium-contaminated waste from defense work 2,150 feet underground in ancient salt beds.