Report faults management at Los Alamos and DOE for nuclear waste accident

More than a year ago, a container of radioactive waste exploded at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located near Carlsbad, New Mexico. Investigators looking into the explosion placed most of the blame for the mishap on Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the container originated. The accident investigation board appointed by the Department of Energy concluded that LANL personnel had erroneously combined an organic material with nitrate salts containing transuranic wastes, which created an ignitable mixture. The exothermic reaction breached the container and spewed radioactive material into the underground waste facility’s air exhaust system, contaminating 21 workers.

The board’s report said that a LANL manager misread directions to mix inorganic cat litter with the nitrate salts to absorb any moisture in the container. Instead, lab employees used an organic wheat-based absorbent. The volatile nitrate salts were a byproduct of plutonium scrap recovery operations at the lab.

The reaction resulted in the release of plutonium and americium, some of which escaped air filters before reaching the surface. Trace amounts of the isotopes also were found off-site.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced in March that WIPP will reopen in 2016, and that full-scale operations won’t occur until 2017.

The accident board also faulted Los Alamos’ DOE overseers at agency field offices and headquarters for not catching the problem. Both DOE and LANL officials failed to adequately respond to employee concerns about the waste processing at LANL. Had they addressed those concerns, they might have been able to identify the dangerous combination before the containers were shipped to WIPP.

“If LANL had adequately developed and implemented repackaging and treatment procedures that incorporated suitable hazard controls and included a rigorous review and approval process, the release would have been preventable,” the report said.

“According to today’s report, a series of critical failures of leadership at every level led to the very serious accident and release that put numerous New Mexicans at risk, shuttered WIPP for over a year, and have already cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” the state’s four-member congressional delegation said in a joint statement. “This report makes clear that the DOE and its contractors failed to keep faith with the people of New Mexico.”