Los Alamos National Laboratory finishes venting containers of radioactive waste

Four radioactive waste containers stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been successfully vented so they can be moved.

The containers hold tritium waste, materials contaminated by a radioactive form of hydrogen. Tritium is a byproduct of nuclear weapon production.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the federal agency that oversees Los Alamos, was concerned that pressure had built up in the top of the containers, which were packaged in 2007, and wanted to vent them to release some of that pressure before moving them for permanent disposal.

No measurable pressure was actually found when venting the containers, according to NNSA. NNSA and LANL were required to dispose of the containers off-site because they contain lead.

The plan to vent the four containers received years of pushback from local advocacy groups worried about tritium gas or water vapor being released into New Mexico’s air, including a protest in Los Alamos a few days before venting began.

NNSA, the Department of Energy and Triad National Security LLC, which manages LANL, got the final approval they needed from the New Mexico Environment Department to vent the containers earlier this month.

A millirem is a measure of radiation dose. During a cross-country flight, a person would typically be exposed to 3.7 millirem. NNSA was allowed to release a maximum of 6 millirem when venting the containers, and ultimately released 0.005 millirem, according to NNSA monitoring.

The New Mexico Environment Department, or NMED, also performed on-site air monitoring and will release its own data after verification, which will take around a month.

The containers were vented one at a time on Sept. 16, 20, 21 and 23.

NNSA and LANL are placing the containers in a safe and secure configuration, in preparation for moving them to LANL’s Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility next week and shipping them offsite for permanent disposal a month later, according to NNSA Los Alamos Field Office spokeswoman Toni Chiri.

“This has been an intense operation requiring focus, effective communication, patience and teamwork,” Chiri said in a statement.

NNSA and LANL have to issue a public report about the treatment operation within 30 days and host a public meeting.

The state Environment Department received more than 50 inquiries during the treatment process, “many of which criticized LANL and NNSA for a lack of transparency and real-time information,” an NMED news release said.

“NNSA and LANL committed to the New Mexico Environment Department, to the public and to our tribal neighbors that we be transparent and communicative regarding depressurization of these containers,” Chiri said. “We have done that. We communicated when we would start operations and have provided daily updates, several updates in a day when necessary.”

Those updates are available online at www.lanl.gov/engage/environment/ftwc.