Los Alamos decontaminating nuclear waste. Could it save space at repository near Carlsbad?

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are hoping to decontaminate some of the nuclear waste from the lab that would otherwise be disposed of at a repository near Carlsbad, as the lab was planning to ramp its production of plutonium pits used to trigger warheads.

Transuranic (TRU) waste from the lab and other Department of Energy facilities is disposed of via burial at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in a 2,000-foot-deep salt deposit about 30 miles east of Carlsbad. TRU waste is made up of clothing, equipment and debris irradiated during nuclear research and other activities.

The project to decontaminate the waste instead of shipping it to WIPP began at Los Alamos in 2022, read a report from the lab, intending to divert waste streams away from the repository. Equipment known as the Modular Electrochemical Nuclear Decontamination System (MENDS) was developed that year to decontaminate waste destined for WIPP.

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MENDS produces a solution that is used to dissolve TRU waste at Los Alamos. The chemical can be recycled and used repeatedly on multiple shipments, read the report. The radioactivity is reduced to low-level waste limits and can be disposed of at offsite facilities other than WIPP, the report read.

Radioactive materials are captured by the solution, and it is shipped to WIPP as TRU waste in a much smaller volume as small as a pint.

Rami Batrice, a scientist with Los Alamos’ biochemistry and biotechnology group said the process would increase worker safety as the lab increases its weapons development programs.

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“Our work is modernizing plutonium processing at Los Alamos, increasing the efficiency and achievable throughout,” Batrice said. “But most importantly — and at the heart of our research — is improving worker safety. Our MENDS system reduces or eliminates the need for direct handling of radioactive material, drastically reducing the radioactive exposure experienced by the workforce.”

Is there enough space at WIPP for nuclear weapons waste?

TRU nuclear waste in need of disposal could increase at Los Alamos as it was planned to generate 30 pits a year, combined with 50 a year by 2030 at the DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The pit ramp up was intended to modernize the U.S.’ stockpile of nuclear weapons, but it was also expected to produce more TRU waste that government watchdog groups worried could threaten to exceed WIPP’s disposal capacity.

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Under the Land Withdrawal Act, WIPP is allowed to dispose of up to about 176,000 cubic meters of TRU waste. A DOE presentation from 2020 showed the agency expected to produce about 2,000 containers of waste per year at Los Alamos during pit production by 2026, and that between the lab and Savannah River would produce 734 cubic meters of waste per year starting in 2030 if the 80-pit goal is achieved.

A report from Nuclear Watch New Mexico posited pit production would generate 57,550 cubic meters of the waste over 50 years, more than half of WIPP’s projected future capacity. This assertion was backed up by a 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences finding WIPP could lack sufficient space for disposal of surplus plutonium and other DOE planned waste streams in the coming decades.

The DOE in another presentation at the 2020 RadWaste Summit posited the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) leading the plutonium pit project would become the biggest shipper of waste to WIPP by 2038, surpassing the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) which currently leads to the project in cleaning up “legacy waste” leftover from the Cold War at DOE sites around the country.

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“Expanded plutonium pit production at LANL will double the amount of plutonium-contaminated transuranic wastes the site would send to WIPP and for decades longer than allowed by the current permit,” wrote Jay Coghlan at Nuclear Watch Coghlan in a memo.

WIPP critics lobbied during a recent negotiation with the State of New Mexico and DOE on WIPP’s 10-year permit renewal for language to prioritize legacy waste for disposal, especially from Los Alamos, as opposed to waste from out of state or newly generated potentially from building new nuclear weapons.

A clause was also added to require the DOE provide annual updates to the New Mexico Environment Department on the federal agency’s progress to site a new repository to replace WIPP outside of New Mexico.

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“Given all of the above it is not clear where those wastes will go, unless there is an additional repository or the WIPP legal capacity limit is changed by Congress,” Coghlan wrote.

As of April 6, DOE records showed WIPP received 7,222 shipments of TRU waste from Idaho National Laboratory, about half of the 13,881 total shipments sent to the site during its lifetime.

Los Alamos was the third-highest active shipper with 1,640 shipments, following 1,742 sent by Savannah River.

In March, Manager of the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office Mark Bollinger said WIPP could continue taking in waste for disposal until about 2083, based on the shipping rates and the availability of waste. That year was also formalized in a planned change request (PCR) document submitted by the DOE to Environmental Protection Agency for use of two additional waste disposal panels.

Bollinger during a March public meeting said he was confident WIPP would be available for waste disposal for the next 60 years.

“Our current capacity shows we will be able to handle waste for several decades to come,” Bollinger said during the meeting. “We want to make the most of the investment.”

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Los Alamos decontaminating nuclear waste. Could it save space at WIPP?