EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO NUCLEAR WASTE CONTAINERS AT NEW MEXICO'S WIPP IS EXTENSIVE

JUST ONE OF MANY DAMAGED CONTAINERS, AND STILL NO ANSWERS AS TO HOW MANY THERE ARE, WHERE THEY ARE, OR HOW LONG, IF EVER, THEY WILL REMAIN UNMOVED.

The May 15 entry into Panel 7, Room 7 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., produced this photo of a waste container with its lid unsealed and apparent heat discoloration. Investigators are still considering a number of theories for the Valentine’s Day incident. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy) - See more at: http://alpinedailyplanet.typepad.com/alpine-daily-planet/2014/05/new-mexico-agency-demands-wipp-seal-some-rooms-at-carlsbad-nuclear-waste-plant-photo-shows-leaked-ma.html#sthash.aS846zWo.c4mljXtN.dpuf

The May 15 entry into Panel 7, Room 7 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. - See more at: http://alpinedailyplanet.typepad.com/alpine-daily-planet/2014/05/new-mexico-agency-demands-wipp-seal-some-rooms-at-carlsbad-nuclear-waste-plant-photo-shows-leaked-ma.html#sthash.aS846zWo.c4mljXtN.dpuf

The May 15 entry into Panel 7, Room 7 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., , produced this photo of a waste container with its lid unsealed and apparent heat discoloration. Investigators are still considering a number of theories for the Valentine’s Day incident. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

The New Mexico Environment Department demanded Tuesday that the federal government seal off two underground storage rooms in a nuclear waste repository to prevent the possibility of another radiation leak.
In its second administrative order to the U.S. Department of Energy this week, the state Environment Department is asking for detailed proposals for the “expedited closure” of Panel 6 and part of Panel 7 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant located 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad.
Those panels — large rooms excavated from a deep salt mine to hold nuclear waste — contain drums that are believed to have caused a hot reaction that led to a radiation release on Valentine’s Day. Waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been fingered as the possible culprit, although additional barrels of waste originated from Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina.
The Environment Department is giving DOE 10 days to submit its proposal.
Calls to the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership were not immediately returned Tuesday.
The state agency emphasized that the order does not mean a permanent shutdown of the whole WIPP facility.
- See more at: http://alpinedailyplanet.typepad.com/alpine-daily-planet/2014/05/new-mexico-agency-demands-wipp-seal-some-rooms-at-carlsbad-nuclear-waste-plant-photo-shows-leaked-ma.html#sthash.1B8Y1gr6.dpuf

The transuranic nuclear waste is packaged in “streams,” or sets of containers holding similar radioactive and other materials. There are more than 500 drums in the stream of waste potentially containing the dangerous mix of nitrate salts and cat litter.

<<In its second administrative order to the U.S. Department of Energy this week, the state Environment Department is asking for detailed proposals for the “expedited closure” of Panel 6 and part of Panel 7 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant located 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad.

Those panels — large rooms excavated from a deep salt mine to hold nuclear waste — contain drums that are believed to have caused a hot reaction that led to a radiation release on Valentine’s Day. Waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been fingered as the possible culprit, although additional barrels of waste originated from Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina.

The Environment Department is giving DOE 10 days to submit its proposal.

Calls to the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership were not immediately returned Tuesday.

The state agency emphasized that the order does not mean a permanent shutdown of the whole WIPP facility.

The state Environment Department said the waste in question “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.” - See more at: http://alpinedailyplanet.typepad.com/alpine-daily-planet/2014/05/new-mexico-agency-demands-wipp-seal-some-rooms-at-carlsbad-nuclear-waste-plant-photo-shows-leaked-ma.html#sthash.1B8Y1gr6.dpuf

The state Environment Department said the waste in question “may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.”

MAY???
IT ALREADY HAS...SINCE FEBRUARY!!!

How and when WIPP closes the underground panels has been a long-running issue that predates the facility’s current woes, said Don Hancock, a nuclear waste expert at Albuquerque’s Southwest Research and Information Center.
Panels 1, 2 and 5 are each sealed with a 12-foot concrete explosion isolation wall, while Panels 3 and 4 are closed with a steel bulkhead and lack the explosion isolation wall.
“DOE has been saying the more robust requirements were unnecessary,” Hancock said. “A bulkhead keeps people from going in and out, and it doesn’t totally cut off but restricts the air flow supply. That’s not going to be sufficient.”
State Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn echoed demands made by the public at a recent meeting in Carlsbad for the open panels to be sealed, saying, “I agree those panels need be closed immediately.”
- See more at: http://alpinedailyplanet.typepad.com/alpine-daily-planet/2014/05/new-mexico-agency-demands-wipp-seal-some-rooms-at-carlsbad-nuclear-waste-plant-photo-shows-leaked-ma.html#sthash.1B8Y1gr6.dpuf

JUST ONE SMALL SECTION

                                                            MASSIVE LEAKS!

How and when WIPP closes the underground panels has been a long-running issue that predates the facility’s current woes, said Don Hancock, a nuclear waste expert at Albuquerque’s Southwest Research and Information Center.

Panels 1, 2 and 5 are each sealed with a 12-foot concrete explosion isolation wall, while Panels 3 and 4 are closed with a steel bulkhead and lack the explosion isolation wall.

“DOE has been saying the more robust requirements were unnecessary,” Hancock said. “A bulkhead keeps people from going in and out, and it doesn’t totally cut off but restricts the air flow supply. That’s not going to be sufficient.”

Republican Congressman Steve Pearce of Hobbs said he believes the state is acting beyond its authority.
[NOTE: REPUBLICAN? THEN HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN AN "ENVIRONMENT" OR TOXIC WASTE, RIGHT?]
“I don’t think we’re at the point to say we should shut it down,” he said. “I don’t think the state has the expertise (to be making the decision), so I don’t think there could be a good outcome.”

According to the state order, the waste is subject to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency HAS granted the state authority to enforce the law at federal sites within the state’s borders.>>

[NOTE: REPUBLICANS DON'T READ? WHO KNEW? NEITHER PARTY READS THE BILLS THEY PASS BLINDLY UP ON CAPITOL HILL! ]

During an April 17 town hall meeting, Tammy
Reynolds, the DOE’s deputy recovery manager, said that
workers found surface contamination in the area of Panel
7 during a fourth trip into the mine the previous day.
“The more they got into Panel 7 it became more widespread,”
she said. On April 18 the DOE confirmed that
based on the location of a continuous air monitor alarm
and the information gathered during the previous entry,
the event likely occurred in Panel 7.

WILL WIPP CLOSE?
NOT IF THE NRC HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT!

SHOULD IT CLOSE?
IT SHOULD HAVE EVER BEEN OPENED!