New Mexico proposes new rules for hazardous waste disposal at WIPP

Dec. 9—The state is seeking rule changes that would allow it stricter oversight of the underground disposal site near Carlsbad that takes radioactive and hazardous waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory and other facilities around the country.

The state Environment Department on Thursday released a list of new conditions the agency wants included in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's operating permit when it's renewed.

Among them are giving the waste generated in New Mexico top priority, revoking the state's operating permit if Congress changes WIPP's federal disposal laws and tying WIPP's closure to the end of the 10-year permit unless managers show a detailed inventory of waste yet to be cleaned up.

The proposed changes also call for the U.S. Energy Department to step up its search for an additional disposal site in another state to address a common complaint about New Mexico being the only place to discard lower-intensity nuclear waste.

And the state wants to more clearly define its authority to suspend waste shipments to WIPP if it finds threats to the environment or public health or any permit violations.

State Environment Secretary James Kenney said permit requirements tend to be an effective way to compel federal agencies to take desired actions.

"Putting something in a permit condition will motivate them to seek money from Congress, from [the Department of Energy] for this reason," Kenney said. "If we don't leverage the outcome we want in New Mexico, it will never happen."

WIPP's last 10-year operating permit, which was set to end in 2020, was given an administrative extension until a new permit could be issued.

Since WIPP opened in 1999, transuranic waste — made up mostly of irradiated gloves, clothing, equipment, soil and other items — has been transported from the lab and out-of-state sources, such as the decommissioned Hanford Site in Washington state, and embedded in salt caverns some 2,150 feet underground.

The state regulates hazardous waste and federal agencies oversee radioactive materials. Because transuranic is considered a mixture of hazardous and lower-intensity radioactive waste, the state regulates it, Kenney said.

The 1992 Land Withdrawal Act limits WIPP to 6.2 million cubic feet of waste, or about 175,000 cubic meters. It also restricts the storage to military-related waste, as opposed to commercial waste from nuclear power plants.

Watchdog groups complain WIPP was only supposed to take legacy waste from the Cold War and Manhattan Project and operate for 25 years, essentially closing by 2024.

But federal waste managers say WIPP must be used for both old and new nuclear waste, especially with the plans to have the lab produce 30 plutonium pits for warheads and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to make 50 pits.

Manufacturing 80 of these bomb cores per year to modernize the nuclear stockpile will create substantially more waste — requiring WIPP to operate into the 2080s, federal officials say.

Kenney is among the state leaders who have criticized the U.S. Energy Department for disposing of more out-of-state waste at WiPP than what was generated in New Mexico.

This longtime sore spot is why the state seeks to add language calling for New Mexico to be at the front of the line.

The proposed permit conditions are a step in the right direction and a sign state officials listened to concerns expressed by citizens groups, said Don Hancock, director of nuclear waste safety for the nonprofit Southwest Research and Information Center.

Hancock said it was good to see the Environment Department prodding federal agencies to create another waste disposal site in another state and to make these agencies justify keeping WIPP going well beyond its original 2024 closure date.

The state is also requiring federal managers to restore public meetings, including quarterly forums, so people have a chance to regularly weigh in on WIPP, Hancock said, adding the meetings were eliminated a couple of years ago.

"Those are all things that are movements in the right direction," Hancock said.

He said he was disappointed the state isn't using the opportunity to push for reverting to the prior method of gauging WIPP's capacity.

Under previous guidelines, the outer containers were used to gauge the volume of waste stored, putting the site at 60 percent full.

But federal officials persuaded the state Environment Department in 2018 to alter the calculation so the empty headspace in the containers wasn't counted, changing the estimate to 40 percent full.

Hancock's group was one of three that sued to challenge the revised guideline. But last year, the state appeals court ruled in favor of the lower estimate.

Hancock said he hopes state officials will be open to returning to the old method, which in his view is the correct one.

The new provisions also would require federal managers to analyze any problems with waste or the containers, write a yearly progress report on efforts to find another waste disposal site and conduct a monthly surveillance of oil and gas wells within a mile of WIPP's boundaries.

Kenney said the proposed rules are more stringent but reasonable.

"We need greater accountability from the regulated community," Kenney said.