Part Two of Two Parts (Please read Part One first)
In June of this year, LANL shipped unstable, radioactive plutonium to two other government owned laboratories. Instead of shipping the plutonium by truck as required by federal regulations, LANL shipped the plutonium via FedEx air freight. When first reporting on the incident, LANL staff told investigators that it had decided to ship the plutonium by air freight because the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California had an “urgent” need for the material. When questioned, the LLNL staff rejected the claim of the LANL and said that they had never claimed an urgent need in requesting the materials. This incident at the LANL was condemned by officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration in Washington, DC when it was discovered. The Department of Energy ordered that all shipments out of the LANL be halted for three weeks.
In the past three months, there have been three other shipping problems at nuclear contractors. Last May, the LANL sent highly acidic waste that was improperly labeled to a Colorado Disposal Site. This lapse was reported the New Mexico Department of the Environment. Also last May, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee did not label a shipment of dangerous radioactive materials. The destination of the shipment was not revealed in the report of the incident. In June, the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas shipped an “unsafe” quantity of a highly explosive compound to an unnamed location.
The recently released report details problems with twenty five shipments of hazardous materials within the network of nuclear weapons labs in the past five years. In thirteen cases, the contents of the shipments were plutonium, uranium or other radioactive isotopes. Out of the twenty five cases, eleven of them either originated at the LANL or passed through the LANL. In some cases, the packages were shipped to waste dumps for toxic waste and violated the regulations with respect to what types of waste could be disposed of in those dumps.
In case of accidents and emergencies, responders need to know the contents of these package, especially if they contain hazardous radioactive materials. The responders need to know what they are dealing with in order to protect the public and the environment. Improper labeling is an unacceptable threat to the responders and the public.
Documents obtained from the National Nuclear Security Administration show that with regard to the twenty five incidents in the report, fines were levied in only three cases. In the other twenty two cases, although there were “enforcement actions” following the shipping mistakes, no fines were levied.
Beyond the problems at the nuclear contractors lies the problem with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Too often, mistakes by the contractors are ignored or receive mild punishment. With all the billions of dollars that flow in into nuclear weapons research and development for the U.S. nuclear arsenal, it is criminal that failure to comply with regulations for the proper handling of very dangerous nuclear materials is not rigorously monitored and punished.
