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Friday, March 19, 2010
Plutonium Lab Could Leak in Quake
By John Fleck
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
The federal government's approval of continued work at a Los Alamos plutonium lab despite the risk of dangerous radiation releases in a major earthquake "undermines the principles of providing adequate protection of the public, workers and the environment," federal nuclear safety auditors complained in a letter this week.
The letter, from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to Los Alamos National Laboratory's federal managers, complains that the National Nuclear Security Administration and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, are throwing out 15 years of safety practices designed to guard against dangerous radiation leaks at U.S. nuclear facilities.
Federal officials issued a statement saying they recognize that protecting public health and safety is important and promising to evaluate concerns raised in the safety board's letter.
The questions surround operations at the lab's Technical Area 55 plutonium complex, where nuclear weapons research and manufacturing is done. Inside the building, dangerously radioactive plutonium is handled in sealed "glove boxes," which allow workers to handle the material remotely, without being exposed directly.
The Safety Board, a group of federally funded independent auditors, revealed last fall that a major earthquake could lead to leaks that could spew a fatal radiation dose into nearby communities.
A lab study published in 2007 documented two or three earthquakes greater than magnitude 6.5 in the last 10,000 years on fault lines beneath the complex. The last large quake was at least 1,400 years ago, according to the study, and scientists say there is no way to predict when the next one will happen. Since 1991, there have been five earthquakes strong enough for residents to feel, according to the study.
The danger is that shaking in a major quake could lead to fires and plutonium-contaminated smoke inside the building as glove boxes break open, and that safety systems designed to contain the smoke could also fail, allowing the dangerously radioactive material to escape.
In a Feb. 2 letter, Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged the problem and said the lab and its federal managers were taking steps to reduce the risk. But the letter noted that, even with the steps now being taken, the possible risk in a worst case accident still exceeds federal guidelines for protecting the public.
The National Nuclear Security Administration has agreed to spend $6.7 million this year to start on the upgrades to reduce the risk, including strengthening glove boxes to withstand shaking and repackaging plutonium to reduce the danger that containers could be breached in a quake.
In the NNSA's Fiscal Year 2011 budget request, the cost of further upgrades, including improvements to fire safety and air filtration systems, was put at $75 million to $100 million, but the document acknowledges the cost could go higher.
Safety Board Vice Chairman John Mansfield, in this week's letter, complained that the handling of the Los Alamos situation appears to make compliance with the department's radiation safety guidelines optional.
In the letter, Mansfield asked whether the decision made regarding safety at Los Alamos could also be applied to facilities in the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex elsewhere in the country.
The letter asks for federal officials to respond within 60 days to the concerns.
In a statement, NNSA spokesman Damien LaVera said the agency is reviewing Mansfield's letter. "The Department has received the Board's letter and is evaluating the concerns is raised," the statement said. "We recognize that the safety of the public, our workers and the environment is critical to the accomplishment of our national security mission, and that appropriate use of our safety guidelines is key to our safety strategy. After our review is complete, we will provide the answers that the Board has requested."
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