Part 1 of 2 Parts.
I have written about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant before. There was an incident involving the release of radioactive materials into the environment that shut the nuclear weapons disposal site near Carlsbad, New Mexico for years while it was dealt with. There were problems with air filters that failed to stop the release of the radioactive materials.
Now one hundred million dollars has been allocated by the Department of Energy (DoE) to build a new utility shaft in order to increase the airflow to the underground WIPP. This should allow the transuranic waste (TRU) to be emplaced and removed from different chambers simultaneously. The TRU consists of clothing and other materials including equipment contaminated by radiation during nuclear research and development activities.
The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) is a nuclear watchdog group based in Albuquerque. The SRIC filed a motion in the court last April to block the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) temporary approval (TA) of plans for the construction of the shaft because there had been no comment process or public hearings about the project. The SRIC filed two appeals in the New Mexico Supreme Court last week. The appeals involved blocking the construction of the utility shaft of WIPP. The SRIC is seeking to invalidate the TA for the project. It also petitioned the court for a review of the court’s dismissal of the April motion filed by SRIC.
Don Hancock is the Nuclear Waste Program Director at the SRIC. He said that he hoped that the new motions would force the court to reanalyze NMED’s approval process of the TAs and find that it was invalid. He also said that the court had dismissed the previous motion from the SRIC because the DoE had not yet come to a final decision about whether or not the utility shaft would actually be built. However, the TA granted the DoE a year to construct the shaft if it decided to proceed with the project.
Hancock said, “They (the court) need to not take a lawyer’s word for it. The TA gives them one year for construction. NMED ignored the comments and went ahead and approved it. Now, they’ve said they might change their mind. That’s not credible.”
Hancock argues that the utility shaft is not really needed for regular WIPP operations. He said that the utility shaft was really intended to support the expansion of the WIPP which would allow it to operate longer than originally intended and to hold more waste than planned. He also said that any expansion in WIPP’s lifetime and capacity should be submitted for public approval before any work on the shaft was allowed.
A draft permit for the utility shaft project was granted by NMED on the 12th of June. A public comment period was opened that will continue until the 11th of August. Anyone who is interested in commenting on the plans for the utility shaft should submit their comment in an email to ricardo.maestas@state.nm.us. or a written letter addressed to WIPP Project Manager Ricardo Maestas at NMED’s Hazardous Waste Bureau, 2905 Rodeo Park Drive East, Building 1, Santa Fe New Mexico.
Please read Part 2 next