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Saturday, January 15, 2005

LANL Having Waste Problem; Flows Restricted Through Liquid Treatment Area

By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
    Los Alamos National Laboratory is having a waste-storage problem at a few of its top nuclear facilities.
    Last summer's operations shutdown and delayed restart at LANL due to safety and security concerns has caused a waste backup at its plutonium processing plant, Technical Area-55.
    At the same time, the lengthy and ongoing process of safety review helped managers there discover problems with its radioactive liquid waste treatment facility.
    Because of those concerns, managers have restricted waste flows through the facility, known as TA-50.
    "It is an old facility; it came on line in 1963," said LANL spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas about the lab's Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility in TA-50. "(Managers) decided to restrict flows in some lines, so it is not handling as much waste as it used to," and is only being used on a restricted basis, she said.
    One issue the facility faces, aside from aging lines, is a leak in one of its storage tanks, discovered over the last year.
    A federal safety board noted in mid-December that LANL plans to keep waste levels in the tank below the leak to reduce the risk of radioactive liquid leaks.
    "It is a concern, and we are paying attention to it at the highest levels," DeLucas said.
    Managers took a hard look at the facility as part of the work suspension and restart process, evaluating the facility's safety. As a result, DeLucas said managers developed concerns over the age of the waste lines running into the facility. She said LANL has instituted compensatory measures and is developing plans to replace the entire facility. She estimated the cost to replace it at about $60 million to $85 million.
    An independent federal nuclear safety board first noted its concern over the status of the TA-50 waste treatment facility and the buildup of wastes at the key nuclear processing facility, TA-55, around mid-December.
    DeLucas said the waste treatment facility has not been affected by the shutdown, but waste processing at TA-55 has been slowed as a result.
    TA-55, LANL's plutonium research facility and the nation's only production source for nuclear triggers, or pits, is approaching control limits for waste storage, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
    The board noted in a Dec. 10 memo that "caustic waste tanks are full, and the TA-55 PF-4 basement waste inventory is approaching control limits (e.g. in some areas, drums are double stacked)."
    It notes that, without action, TA-55 could become "waste-logged," which has both "safety and national security mission implications."
    DeLucas said the shutdown has meant technicians there have not been able to process nuclear waste as quickly as normal, though officials expect the facility to be back up to full speed sometime this week.
    "They expect that to help relieve some of the waste pressure," she said.