Radiation risksWIPP radiation leak investigation focuses on Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) accident investigation team reviewing the leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico has turned its focus to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

New Mexico Environment Department General Counsel Jeff Kendall reports that the investigation team has been at LANL for about three weeks. A canister shipped from LANL exploded in the underground repository at WIPP on 14 February, contaminating twenty-two workers and forcing authorities to close the plant. Officials are now monitoring more than 500 barrels of transuranic waste, including 350 already stored at WIPP, 100 in temporary storage at a West Texas site, and fifty-seven at LANL.

ABC News reports that the investigation at LANL is just one of nine underway. Initial probes by federal regulators show that the leak and an underground truck fire six days before the chemical explosion at WIPP may be part of a series of management and safety shortcomings at the plant. Communications between LANL and EnergySolutions, the contractor which packaged LANL’s waste for shipment to WIPP, have revealed that EnergySolutions switched from using an inorganic clay-based absorbent in the storage drums to an organic wheat-based mixture. Scientists are now trying to determine whether the switch to the organic substance is to blame for the chemical reaction that led to the explosion. The Homeland Security News Wire reported last month that experts believe the organic chemicals used are widely known to cause heat reaction when mixed with the drum’s other contents.

Kendall said he expects DOE to release to the state details of the investigation, including “how the recovery plan is working,” along with “deadlines, dates and timelines” for cleaning up the contaminated section of WIPP. Eileen McDonough, a Justice Department attorney representing DOE, has said it could be at least 2016 before WIPP could reopen.