Current Congress
Nearly a year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
certified the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico,
the first shipment of transuranic radioactive waste from the nation's nuclear
weapons complex arrived at the site in March 1999. Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson announced: "This is a truly historic moment for the Department
of Energy and the nation. This shipment to WIPP represents the beginning
of fulfilling the long-overdue promise to all Americans to safely clean
up the nation's Cold War legacy of nuclear waste and protect the generations
to come."
The Environmental Protection Agency gave WIPP the green light to start receiving waste on May 13, 1998 -- more than two decades after it was initially proposed and a decade after it was originally scheduled to begin receiving waste -- when it issued certification that WIPP meets standards to protect public health and the environment from the effects of radiation exposure and contamination. The 10-month delay following the EPA action was due to concerns raised by New Mexico that the waste was not yet ready to ship because it may contain non-radioactive contaminants that required separate certifications.
The underground facility will contain long-lived nuclear waste produced by the nation's nuclear weapons production complex. The waste consists predominantly of clothing and equipment that has been contaminated by plutonium and similar radioactive elements known as transuranics (TRU). Housed in thick salt beds 2,150 feet below the surface, the waste will eventually be trapped as the salt walls will collapse and encapsulate it.
A history of WIPP legislation and background information is available below. Addition information is available from the Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Environmental Evaluation Group websites. EEG is jointly funded by DOE and the State of New Mexico to conduct an independent technical evaluation of WIPP. A 1996 report by the National Research Council titled The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: A Potential Solution for the Disposal of Transuranic Waste is available on the web through the National Academies of Science.
Background: Update on WIPP Land Withdrawal Act Amendments
Legislation on the low-level nuclear waste repository known as the
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) passed both houses of Congress and was
signed by President Clinton in late September 1996. The legislation was
intended to expedite the opening of the facility. Originally introduced
by Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) as a stand-alone bill (S. 1402), the legislation
passed as an amendment, introduced by Idaho Republican Senators Craig and
Dirk Kempthorne, tacked on to the much larger defense authorization bill
(S.1745). As passed, the new language revises the 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal
Act to exempt transuranic wastes from some land disposal regulations promulgated
under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, removes outdated retrievability requirements,
and provides a firm target date in 1997 for opening the facility. Before
passage, the language in S. 1402 underwent two changes. First, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) may request information from the Energy Department
(DOE) at any time during the licensing process, effectively subjecting
WIPP to EPA safety requirements, and 30-day period for public and congressional
review of the facility after EPA's opening authorization is required. Second,
wastes deposited at the facility are restricted to defense nuclear wastes.
The latter provision removed language in the Craig bill that would have
expanded the types of wastes that could be stored at WIPP. The changes
were supported by the Administration and received the backing of New Mexico
Senators Pete Domenici (R) and Jeff Bingaman(D).
A very similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Joe Skeen (R-NM) and debate centered on a controversial provision that would transfer certification responsibility from EPA to DOE. The provision was aimed at reducing the amount of time and paper work required to expedite the opening of WIPP, but the Administration strongly opposed the provision, pointing out that DOE self regulation over the past several decades was responsible, in great part, for the many current contamination and waste problems . The Administration argued that the public's trust was at risk if an outside regulating agency does not monitor activities at WIPP. In March, the House Commerce Committee removed the provision when it marked up the bill.
History
Before 1970, transuranic waste was handled the same way as other low-level
radioactive waste and was buried in shallow trenches. Because the radioactive
decay of plutonium in TRU waste takes thousands of years, however, DOE
concluded that a special deep repository was necessary. Since 1970, more
than 60,000 cubic meters of TRU waste have been packed in metal drums or
corrugated metal boxes and covered with a removable layer of soil, to allow
retrieval upon completion of a permanent repository. Currently, waste is
stored at 10 DOE laboratory facilities around the country, with the largest
amount stored at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
The WIPP project was authorized by Congress in 1980 (P.L. 96-164) to address the problem of long-term disposal of defense-related TRU waste. The New Mexico site was chosen after earlier efforts to site a repository in an abandoned salt mine near Lyons, Kansas failed. The law excluded the WIPP repository from licensing by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and required DOE to reach a "consultation and cooperation" agreement with the state of New Mexico in developing the facility. Excavation of the WIPP tunnels and chambers began in 1981, and DOE declared the facility ready for the start of underground waste tests in 1991. However, shipments were halted by legal challenges and DOE's lack of jurisdiction over the site, which was controlled by the Department of the Interior. The 1992 WIPP Land Withdrawal Act largely settled those issues and established procedures for opening the repository, including the establishment of EPA as the agency with regulatory authority over site suitability.
Please send any comments or requests for information to the AGI Government Affairs Program.
Contributed by David Applegate, AGI/AIPG Geoscience Policy Interns Audrey Slesinger and Rene Cortez, and Kasey Shewey White.
Last updated January 3, 2001.
| Information Services | | Geoscience Education | | Public Policy | | Environmental Geoscience | | Publications | | Workforce | | AGI Events | ||
|
© 2013. All rights reserved. | ||||||||
