nuclear-news

Opened in 1999 after years of protests and litigation by environmentalists, WIPP is carved out of underground salt beds where low-level, or transuranic waste, from Cold War nuclear weapons programs is shipped for permanent burial. Transported from different sites across the United States, the disposed items contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements include clothing, tools, rags, soil and other materials, according to the DOE.

By 2011, WIPP had handled 10,000 shipments of transuranic waste. A private contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, operates the underground repository for the federal government…….

public doubts about the gravity of the February 14 incident persist due to incomplete contaminant data reporting, the slowness in getting all the potentially exposed workers tested and informed, spotty or contradictory statements by regulatory officials, and uncertainties over the origin of the radiation leak and how far an area it has impacted……

In mid-March, Farok Sharif was sacked as head of Nuclear Waste Partnership and Bob McQuinn named the new company president and WIPP project manager.

Mexican whistle-blower Bernardo Salas Mar, a former employee of the Laguna Verde nuclear power plant in Veracruz, said important bits of information need to be confirmed about theWIPP radiation release like the wind patterns at the time of the incident and the possible geographic scope of the spread of contaminants.

“The answer to these questions will lend knowledge to the damage that could have been caused,” Salas said. “After (radiation) ingestion or incorporation into the human organism, 10 or 15 years or more pass before the appearance of some kind of cancer.”

If plutonium and americium were indeed released into the larger environment, “the surrounding population should take precautions in order to avoid exposure to these contaminants,” he added…..

Back in the 1990s, Ciudad Juarez and U.S. environmentalists from the Rio Bravo Ecological Alliance took a stand against WIPPbased partly on concerns that the underground storage facility would eventually contaminate the Pecos River Basin and the Rio Grande.

February’s events have refocused public attention on not only the safety of current operations at WIPP, but plans to expand and streamline the depository’s storage capacity and even accept high-level waste from commercial operations …….

On February 28, representatives of 30 New Mexico citizen groups wrote to Flynn requesting that the Martinez administration cabinet official take precisely the action he did three weeks later.

“Once the radiation leak investigation and recovery occur, we would urge NMED to re-evaluate the draft permit in light of what is learned and make needed changes to protect public health and the environment before issuing a new draft permit for public review and comment,” the groups urged.

Signing on to the letter, among others, were representatives of Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, Laguna and Acoma Coalition for Safe Environment, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Southwest Research and Information Center, Post-1971 Uranium Workers Committee, Albuquerque Mennonite Church, Concerned Citizens of Wagon Mound and Mora County, and Alliance for Environmental Strategies.

Dr. Mariana Chew, environmental engineer and longtime environmental activist in the Paso del Norte region, contended that a cross-border, information-credibility gap existed with regards to WIPP……Albuquerque and Santa Fe community meetings are sponsored by the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Southwest Research and Information Center, Citizens for Alternatives to Radio Dumping and Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

“The same thing always happens. It happened with Asarco (ex-El Paso smelter) and other environmental disasters that weren’t made known to the public,” Chew was quoted in the daily Norte. “Given the history, this radiation shouldn’t be taken lightly. Whenever something happens, that’s when you hear about it.”

Additional Sources:…….http://newspapertree.com/articles/2014/03/25/us-radiation-leak-concerns-mexicans