New Mexico cancels permit on leaky nuke waste dump . . . .

[Oscar]

EDWARDS: BACKGROUND: New Mexico cancels permit to expand leaky nuclear waste site

----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon Edwards
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 2:18 AM

Background:

In North America, the only operating DGR (Deep Underground Repository) for the permanent storage of nuclear wastes is the WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Project) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. A fire on February 5, 2014, followed by a leak of highly toxic radioactive dust from the bowels of the repository nine days later, has brought the WIPP facility to a complete standstill.

Seventeen above-ground workers were internally contaminated by breathing the radioactive dust that came to the surface. Waste shipments delivered to the facility for burial have instead been left abandoned above-ground, contrary to regulations. Newer waste shipments have been diverted to other locations. Now the New Mexico authorities have withdrawn a recently-granted permit that would have allowed for an expansion of the WIPP facility.

With chambers excavated from an ancient salt formation deep underground, the repository is designed to store a very special kind of nuclear waste originating from the nuclear weapons program; this type of nuclear waste is not classified as Low Level Waste, nor Intermediate Level Waste, nor even High Level Waste -- but it bears the unique designation "TRU" waste. That term stands for Transuranic Wastes. Transuranic means "Beyond Uranium".

TRU waste consists of materials contaminated with radionuclides that are heavier than uranium, have very long half-lives (mostly measured in centuries or millennia), emit an exceptionally dangerous form of atomic radiation called "alpha radiation", and demonstrate a degree of radioactivity in excess of 3.7 million becquerels per kilogram.

The transuranic elements include many different varieties of neptunium, plutonium, americium, curium, einsteinium, and several other super-heavy elements that are created inside all nuclear reactors fuelled with uranium. Such elements did not exist on earth in measurable quantities prior to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938.

A becquerel is the standard unit of measurement for radioactivity. One becquerel indicates that there is one atomic disintegration occurring every second. Anything measuring in the millions of becquerels is of course highly radioactive.

When radioactive atoms disintegrate they give off a kind of subatomic shrapnel that is called "atomic radiation". Indeed, most radioactive disintegrations emit an electrically charged particle, travelling with great speed, that can randomly break molecular bonds. In particular these subatomic projectiles can disrupt the DNA molecules that govern how our living cells function and reproduce. Many years later, cells crippled by atomic radiation can develop into colonies of unhealthy cells -- cancerous growths or other diseased tissues.

There are two types of electrically charged projectiles given off by radioactive atoms, called "beta particles" and "alpha particles". Each alpha particle is about 7000 times more massive than a beta particle. So if a beta particle is thought of as a kind of subatomic bullet, an alpha particle is more like a subatomic cannonball.

Only very heavy atoms -- many of the transuranic elements, for example -- are able to give off alpha particles; these are called "alpha emitters". They are among the most radiotoxic elements known to science. Radon gas, radium, plutonium and polonium are all alpha-emitters, and they are among the deadliest radioactive materials in the world.

The industry is fond of pointing out that alpha particles can be stopped by a sheet of paper. That is true, and for that reason, alpha radiation is generally harmless outside the body. But once an alpha-emitter enters the body through eating, drinking or breathing -- or absorption directly through damaged skin or through wide-open pores -- each alpha particle does at least 100 times more biological damage than an average beta particle. That's why radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer. That's why polonium in tobacco smoke is responsible for 90 percent of the deaths attributed to smoking cigarettes. That's why plutonium is considered to be exceptionally radiotoxic when inhaled as a dust.

That's the kind of material that was released as a fine dust into the atmosphere from the WIPP repository.

Nasty stuff.

Gordon Edwards, President
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
www.ccnr.org

- - - - -

New Mexico cancels permit to expand leaky nuclear waste site

[ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... 2320140322 ]

By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters, Fri Mar 21, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/kcshy3b

(Reuters) - New Mexico on Friday withdrew a temporary permit allowing two new disposal vaults at a U.S. government nuclear waste dump grappling with a release of radiation in February, state regulators said.

Seventeen workers at the Carlsbad-area "Waste Isolation Pilot Project" (WIPP) were exposed to radiation after an accidental leak last month from the site which stores waste from U.S. nuclear labs and weapons production facilities.

State regulators were withdrawing the draft expansion permit, to identify safety issues that may need to be addressed in the aftermath of that accident, New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn told a news conference on Friday afternoon.

"We need to proceed with caution [and] assess any additional risks posed to either workers or the public," Flynn said.

The draft permit would have allowed disposal of machinery, clothing and other items, tainted with radioisotopes like plutonium, in two additional storage vaults -- and it granted changes to the way chambers filled to capacity are sealed.

No workers were underground at the U.S. Energy Department's site when air sensors half a mile below the surface triggered an alarm, indicating unsafe levels of radioactive particles.

The 17 above-ground workers who later tested positive for contamination were not expected to experience any health effects.

But the accident triggered the WIPP's closure and [its] continuous air testing mechanism which showed elevated levels of radiation -- although not enough to be harmful to human health or the environment, Energy Department officials said.

MORE:

[ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/ ... 2320140322 ]