Feds Leave Radioactive Waste Stranded In Wildfire Danger Zone

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/05/31-0



A shipment of nuclear waste destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant located near Carlsbad, New Mexico pictured January 2004. The only underground nuclear waste repository in the United States, WIPP holds military waste from across the country

Feds Leave Radioactive Waste Stranded In Wildfire Danger Zone
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
Published on Saturday, May 31, 2014 by Common Dreams

The Department of Energy admitted Friday it will not meet a deadline to remove dangerous radioactive waste, currently stranded above-ground in unsafe conditions at a New Mexico nuclear weapons laboratory, before wildfire season hits.

At least 3,706 cubic meters of radioactive waste are being stored at the Los Alamos National Laboratory complex after the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, an underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, was shut down indefinitely in February due to an airborne radiation leak.

Officials in New Mexico have warned that the waste at Los Alamos could be within the reach of wildfires and must be transferred elsewhere by the end of June. According to the Associated Press, "The agreement for removal of the waste by June 30 was reached after a massive wildfire lapped at the edge of lab property three years ago, raising concerns about the thousands of barrels of waste that were being stored outside."

"The waste at Los Alamos is trapped with no place to go," Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer and nuclear safety advocate at Fairewinds Associates, told Common Dreams.