Documents and internal emails show that even after the radiation leak, lab officials downplayed the dangers of the waste.
A lab spokesman said officials “will incorporate recommendations into the Lab’s ongoing extensive corrective action program.”
The demand calls into question whether a threat of another event lurks in more drums packaged at the lab.
CARLSBAD AND WIPP, ONE YEAR AFTER
Repository’s future uncertain, but New Mexico town still believes
One year after a radiation leak at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant revealed a litany of safety problems in the nation’s nuclear waste program, residents in Carlsbad remain fiercely protective of the facility and are banking on its recovery.
Within hours, the nation’s only permanent repository for nuclear waste was shut down for what could be several years.
The state cited LANL with 24 violations and fined it $36.6 million. WIPP was hit with 13 violations and fined $17.7 million.
Within hours, the nation’s only permanent repository for nuclear waste was shut down for what could be several years.
The changes come after months of investigations and internal reviews into the leak of radioactive waste from a container shipped from the lab to WIPP.
Three New Mexico sites are examples of various gaps in emergency readiness endemic throughout the nation’s nuclear defense system.
U.S. Department of Energy officials say they have conducted numerous safety assessments of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant since a nuclear waste drum burst there Feb. 14.
As investigators keep trying to pinpoint what caused a drum of radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to pop open.
State regulators have denied several requests in recent weeks to delay hazardous waste cleanup deadlines.
There were ignored internal reports warning against mixing potentially volatile chemicals in handling and packaging of nuclear waste.
