“Given the current high incidence rate at the WIPP facility, including a reported death of an employee, the circumstances of which are currently unknown, it is clear that the Permittees are unable to successfully mitigate COVID-19 risk to protect human health while conducting the activities under the scope of this Request,” the letter said.
BY: Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current-Argus, N.M.| currentargus.com
Construction of a $100 million utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be halted after the New Mexico Environment Department denied a request to extend state authorization to build the shaft, citing missed deadlines in the planning of the project and the continued spread in COVID-19 cases at the facility.
The shaft, part of an almost $300 million rebuild of WIPP’s ventilation system, along with a series of fans and filter buildings known as the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS), was intended to improve airflow in the WIPP underground and allow for waste emplacement and mining to occur simultaneously along with future expansions of the nuclear waste repository.
NMED first approved a temporary authorization (TA) for the project in April as requested by the U.S. Department of Energy and WIPP primary operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership to build ahead of final approval of a permit modification request (PMR) that would allow for the operation of the shaft.
The DOE and its contractor filed for an extension of the TA in September for 180 more days, ahead of its Oct. 24 expiration date.
On Sept. 29, NMED held an in-person inspection of activities associated with the TA, the letter said, and verbally requested a schedule and plans for safely ceasing operations when the TA expired, receiving a short-term schedule that “failed” to include the TA’s term as a key date and also described multiple scenarios for the project.
But the lack of submitted plans led to “significant concerns” at the NMED for if the DOE and Nuclear Waste Partnership were “appropriately” planning the project.
WIPP spokesman Bobby St. John said the utility shaft and SSCVS were important projects at WIPP, and the DOE was continuing to evaluate what the denial of the TA could mean for the project.
“The Utility Shaft, along with the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System will significantly increase airflow in the underground,” he said. “We are continuing to evaluate what impacts this will have on the project.”
Spike in COVID-19 at WIPP could put workers in danger
NMED also cited a recent rise in COVID-19 cases at WIPP, as the pandemic continued to spread in record-breaking numbers across New Mexico, and the agency’s responsibility to ensure human health is not put at risk by activities under the TA, requesting a plan for COVID-19 mitigation at the facility.
A Nov. 18 news release from the DOE reported 20 additional cases among workers at the facility, bringing its total caseload to 124 infected employees. The release did not state whether the workers were infected at the WIPP site or elsewhere.
“Given the current high incidence rate at the WIPP facility, including a reported death of an employee, the circumstances of which are currently unknown, it is clear that the Permittees are unable to successfully mitigate COVID-19 risk to protect human health while conducting the activities under the scope of this Request,” the letter said.
The permitting process was still undergoing, with public hearings, comment periods and negotiations expected to conclude next year with a final decision from the NMED.
If the PMR is denied, the DOE would have to reverse all construction on the shaft completed previously.
WIPP spokesman Bobby St. John said WIPP followed all sanitation and contact tracing requirements from the State and was certain the virus had not spread at the WIPP site itself.
“Based upon WIPP’s extensive contact tracing, we have found no evidence of onsite transmission at WIPP,” St. John said. “(The DOE Office of Environmental Management) is confident in the safety protocols put in place at WIPP and will continue keeping the health and safety of our workers as our top priority.”
MORE: ‘Forever WIPP?’ New Mexico lawmakers hear dissent to expanding nuke waste site’s lifespan
Watchdogs call for better project planning at WIPP
A recent report from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) argued better planning was needed at WIPP to avoid delays on key capital projects.
The GAO report noted the DOE did not have adequate staffing at its Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and oversight, and cautioned that while the DOE had recently developed a new approved method of counting that increased its capacity for waste, it may lack the capacity to construct new areas for disposal before the current capacity is full.
The problem could mean disposal of the nation’s transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste could be disrupted as it continues to build up at generator sites, the report said.
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“DOE does not have assurance that WIPP’s planned additional physical space will be constructed before existing space is full, which would result in a potential interruption to disposal operations,” the report said.
“By improving the schedule, DOE will have greater assurance in the reliability of its estimate for completing additional physical space before existing space is full, thereby avoiding interruptions to disposal operations.”
Don Hancok, nuclear waste program director at government watchdog Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque said he disagreed with the utility shaft and the TA from the beginning and hoped the permit modification request would be ultimately denied.
MORE: Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could restart fan that may have been contaminated by radiation
Hancock said expanding WIPP had not been properly vetted or approved through a public process and thus approval of the utility shaft he said was intended to do so was premature.
He also said an extension of the TA was “illegal” because the requirements for such an authorization require a project be completed within 180 days while the shaft was expected to be finished in up to three years.
“It’s overdue,” Hancock said of the denial. “We disagreed with the initial temporary approval that was issued. We filed very strong objections. I’m glad it wasn’t approved. It’s a good thing that construction was stopped for many months, but it’s not forever.
“There was never any basis to issue the TA. It was patently illegal in our view.”
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Hancock said it the entire utility shaft project should to wait until WIPP gained approval to expand the facility by building new panels to dispose of nuclear waste.
“The issue of WIPP being expanded and being able to operate forever has not been approved by the state or public,” he said. “The reason for the shaft has not been properly stated. They say it’s for ventilation. That’s not true. It’s for construction of more panels.”
Hancock pointed to the recent firing by Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) of Carlsbad-based subcontractor Critical Applications Alliance which was hired to construct the new ventilation system known as the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS).
MORE: WIPP utility shaft faces delay while legal challenge seeks to halt construction
The subcontractor alleged in a $32 million lawsuit seeking damages from its contract termination that NWP was incompetent in completing large construction projects such as the SSCVS.
“When you have the combination that NWP can’t handle big construction projects and the DOE can’t handle big construction projects, you shouldn’t be doing them,” he said. “This was a wrong thing to happen in the first place.”
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, [email protected] or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP: New Mexico regulators halt utility shaft project, cite COVID-19, planning problems