Important WIPP stay closed until good plan made

The New Mexico Environment Department got tough with the feds to the tune of $54 million in civil penalties.

And for good reason: a leaky drum of nuclear waste packed for shipment at Los Alamos National Laboratory that contaminated nearly two dozen workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad and resulted in closure of WIPP, built at a cost of more than $2 billion in salt beds near Carlsbad in southeast New Mexico.

The state informed the Department of Energy it is assessing fines of $17.7 million for problems at WIPP and $36.6 million for problems at the lab.

A hot reaction in the drum is believed to have caused the leak. However, the state is calling for an independent review of the DOE’s findings about what went wrong.

The leak and an unrelated fire involving a salt hauling truck in the underground warehouse, both in February, have closed the WIPP site indefinitely.

The fines are the largest civil penalties the state has levied against the federal government. The agreement that allowed WIPP to open 15 years ago allows the state to fine the U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees the sites.

NMED identified 24 violations, including mishandling of nuclear waste at LANL. More fines could be coming the DOE’s way if other violations are discovered. But they could be negotiated down.

WIPP is the nation’s only underground permanent repository for some types of Cold War-era defense nuclear waste. New Mexico has willingly hosted it, and the state Environment Department did exactly what it was supposed to do by putting the DOE on notice that slipshod efforts in either management or handling of toxic waste at WIPP or the lab will not be tolerated.

And while it is important to the nation to continue the permanent disposal of nuclear waste at WIPP, it’s also important that it remain closed until the reasons for the current problems are known and an acceptable plan is created to prevent further such occurrences.

— Albuquerque Journal