Radioactive Waste 837 - New Mexican Officials Are Challenging U.S. Department Of Energy Cleanup And Waste Disposal In Their State - Part 1 of 2 Parts

Part 1 of 2 Parts
     According to an annual survey by United Van Lines, people from around the U.S. are moving to New Mexico. U-Haul is currently constructing a three-story ninety thousand square-foot facility in Los Lunas in anticipation of the movement of many more people into N.M. Amazon and Netflix have big plans for growth in the state. Colorado is an example of the effect that legalization of recreational and medicinal cannabis can have on migration, transplants from around the U.S. may be moving in large numbers to N.M. drawn by cannabis laws.
     Unfortunately, people and businesses are not the only things moving into N.M. in greater quantities. N.M. could be the destination for a lot of nuclear waste from out of state. N.M. officials are not pleased by this prospect.
     N.M. officials and members of Congress are seeking stronger oversight of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). They have called on federal officials to review alleged problems with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) environmental cleanup operations.
     James Kenney is New Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment. He sent a letter to the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) expressing his concerns about operations at the WIPP. He is calling for the federal office to increase its oversight of the nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad.
     The House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce (Committee) has requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine management challenges and other issues at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM). They have requested that the GAO review four areas specific to the EM mission. These include (1) DoE Program Management, (2) Minimum safety requirements, (3) Soil and groundwater contamination and (4) Coordination with stakeholders.
     Kenny wrote that “The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) strongly supports such a review (requested by the above Committee) and would like to directly share our experiences regarding DOE EM with GAO staff regarding delays in legacy waste clean-up at LANL and the lack of transparency related to the prioritization of shipments to WIPP.”
     Low-level transuranic (TRU) waste from around the U.S. is disposed of at the WIPP via burial in an abandoned salt mine about two thousand feed underground. The TRU elements are all unstable and they decay into other elements. The DoE and its EM owns and operates the WIPP but is permitted and regulated by NMED which is headed by Kenny.
     Kenney’s letter to the DoE asked them to review nuclear programs in New Mexico. This includes the prioritization of nuclear waste shipments to the WIPP from facilities outside of N.M. Kenny stated that the first priority should be given to waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in northern N.M. as the DoE has announced plans to increase the production of plutonium pits there.
    Kenney alleges that DoE EM has entered into legally binding settlement agreements with states to prioritize waste shipments to the WIPP at the expense of shipments from other states, including N.M. He said, “The practice of DOE EM solely managing waste shipments to WIPP from around the U.S. without first discussing with New Mexico stakeholders – including NMED as its regulator – now merits immediate congressional oversight.”
Please read Part 2 next