Jun 9, 2008

WIPP to return another errant drum

By Kyle Marksteiner, Current-Argus Staff Writer

CARLSBAD — Another drum of transuranic nuclear waste will be removed from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and returned to sender.

The drum, which contained a prohibited amount of liquid, will be removed from its underground location at WIPP and sent back to Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"The administrative record is not clean on this drum," said Dave Moody, the Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office Manager. "There is more liquid than is allowed by the permit for that container."

The drum was identified to have an excess amount of liquid during the characterization process in Los Alamos.

"When we find conditions that are in excess of permit conditions, we issue a non-conformance report on that container," Moody said.

The drum was tagged, both physically and electronically, as not conforming to the standards required for shipment to WIPP. But it was mistakenly placed in a standard waste box with three other drums for shipment to Carlsbad. Waste drums are sometimes placed together in "overpack" containers to prepare for shipment. An investigation into how the error occurred is ongoing.

The overpack container was shipped from Los Alamos and arrived in Carlsbad on May 21. The waste was disposed underground on May 28.

Moody said the issue was discovered by WIPP employees in Carlsbad Thursday afternoon.

"As employees normally go through and try to resolve these nonconformance reports on drums, this drum still had an open NCR (non-compliance report) and was disposed in the repository," he said.

Moody said the percentage of liquid in the entire overpack container met all permit requirements.

"We don't believe we have a permit violation issue, because of the fact that the liquid in the overall waste container does not exceed permit requirements," Moody said. "But rather than splitting hairs, we decided to remove it."

Shipments to WIPP have come to a halt. The container in question is nine rows back.

"We had some shipments en route and we allowed those to proceed to WIPP," said Casey Gadbury, National TRU Program director. "But we've suspended shipments to the site."

Shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP had resumed on May 7 after a two-week hiatus caused by a water line leak outside the waste handling building.

Moody noted that the incident was different from an incident last year, in which the wrong drum was sent from Idaho Falls to WIPP. New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry ultimately ordered the drum's removal and return to Idaho.

"This drum had undergone characterization, but it had not passed all the requirements," Moody said of the present circumstance. "This was the right drum, but unfortunately all the characterization activities were not closed out on this."

The drum will be returned to Los Alamos, Moody said, where liquid will be absorbed before the contents are returned to WIPP.

Last year's errant drum resulted in a $110,700 settlement with the NMED. The Department of Energy also had to remove the drum from 36 rows back, resulting in expenses of more than a million dollars, officials said.
The good news is that DOE now has experience removing contents from WIPP.

"All the mockups and training, as well as the decisions on where to position the waste as you move it out of the way, that will all be considered as we put together a retrieval plan," Moody said.

Moody said the DOE will conduct an extensive root cause analysis to make sure the recent issue isn't repeated in the future.

"We're committed to complying to all aspects of the permit," he said.
Environmentalist Don Hancock chastised Los Alamos for attempting to work too quickly to bring waste to WIPP.

"The source of the problem, in my view, is Los Alamos' incompetence on one hand and their hurry on the other," he said. "It sounds like there is no way this should have ever come to WIPP."

Hancock, with Albuquerque's Southwest Research and Information Center, also said he didn't understand why the error was not caught during a conformation process at Los Alamos.

"After the mistake in Idaho, things were done to make sure it didn't happen again," he said, noting that changes made in Idaho should have been made at other sites such as doing more to physically separate complaint and non-complaint drums.

"The good news is that (the DOE) is going in to get the waste out this time instead of waiting for an order to remove it," he said. "At least they've learned that lesson."

Hancock said he didn't feel the DOE's arguments that the percentage of liquid in the overpack container met all permit requirements would have been valid. For one thing, he noted, the permit requires removing as much liquid as possible from any container.

Curry said he found the report of improper handling at LANL and disposal at WIPP to be "very troubling."

"WIPP's state-issued permit includes strong disposal prohibitions on liquids to ensure that the repository will continue to operate properly and protect the health of New Mexicans long into the future," he said in a prepared statement. "I am pleased that WIPP plans to remove this drum voluntarily. NMED will conduct a full and thorough investigation of this incident including the potential of future enforcement actions."

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here we go again. Who is the AD in charge of this? That person needs to go!

Anonymous said...

"The Gang who can't Shoot Straight" strikes again, A simple procedure become a headline in the press. Only LANS could produce this type of incompetence.

Anonymous said...

This place has gotten to be a large joke. Soory but this is sheer stupidity.

Anonymous said...

Another complete non-issue. The true issue is the apparent ambiguity in the rules on liquid content. Fix that and move on. The sky is not falling.

Frank Young said...

"Shipments to WIPP have come to a halt. The container in question is nine rows back."

"Last year's errant drum resulted in a $110,700 settlement with the NMED. The Department of Energy also had to remove the drum from 36 rows back, resulting in expenses of more than a million dollars, officials said."


Non-issue?

"The drum was tagged, both physically and electronically, as not conforming to the standards required for shipment to WIPP."

Where is the "apparent ambiguity"? Is there some mistake in the article?

And who said the sky was falling?

Anonymous said...

Actually, the buck stops with the Director - fire the bastard. Maybe if he spent more time at LANL and less time at LLNL, then perhaps he could be better connected. This is not a non-issue.

Anonymous said...

The apparent ambiguity resides in the fact that the drum itself had too much liquid (hence NCR) but when packed with the other drums in the "over pack," the entire bundle did meet permit requirements for liquid content. Hence, what Moody was referring to as "not wanting to split hairs"--- remove the drum and send it back.

Frank Young said...

So you are saying that LANL intentionally shipped this drum knowing it contained a prohibited amount of liquid because they interpreted permit requirements differently than Moody? Couldn't they have called him to ask first?

Anonymous said...

No Frank, that's not what I'm saying. I have no idea why LANL shipped the drum other than a mistake but once it got there, Moody was trying to say that the overpack met the *intent* of the permits. Rather than nitpick everything to death, it was probably easier to ship it back.

Anonymous said...

Jeez, Frank, get over it. NMED will incrase it's contribution to NM state coffers, but other than that, there is no issue. Is a possibly mistaken "interpretation" of the rules enough to fire someone? I hope your next boss doesn't think so. Your agenda is showing.

Frank Young said...

You must be new around here. My agenda is spills of effluent at PF-4. Whatever else you think you know about me appears to be incorrect.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't anyone understand "compliance?" Isn't that what we continue to get into trouble about? When do the rules really matter? When do we quit making excuses and get out of the media? Can the rest of the world be wrong all of the time? Not LOL.

Anonymous said...

I had been told by folks (hic's) from SR, when they came, we do work better than you.
Keep driving that BMW.

Anonymous said...

Mistakes happen in an organization as large and complex as LANL. Just as mistakes happen at INEL or anywhere else. The difference is that LANL's mistakes make the news.
So DOE/NNSA got the impression that LANL was being run by a bunch of screw-ups from UC. LANL needed to be fixed. So they brought in LANS to fix the place.

It's good to read that the newsworthy mistakes being made when LANL was run by UC are no longer happening under LANS.

Anonymous said...

"The Department of Energy also had to remove the drum from 36 rows back, resulting in expenses of more than a million dollars, officials said."

So someone at WIPP accepted an improperly packaged barrel then put 36 rows more in front of it and THEN noticed the problem? Truly a DOE run operation.

Anonymous said...

"Keep driving that BMW." - 10:47 PM

Those new boys coming to work for LANS do love their fancy cars, don't they? It's like a badge of honor for them.

But the real question is, what happened to "zero tolerance" and "six sigma" when it came to this safety incident? How come Mikey's new friends always seem to get a pass when it comes to screw-ups like this one? It appears that "zero tolerance" is reserved for those outside of LANS' little circle of Bechtel Best Buddies.

Anonymous said...

We never make mistakes. We're simply misunderstood and envied. So what if we ship a drum or two that isn't permitted under some dumb policy or reg? Those rules are for the appeasement of the masses and nothing more. The best and brightest have always known better, and so we do as we please; simple as that. You may not want to hear this, but it's the truth.

Anonymous said...

I agree, who is the AD in charge of this? This person needs to go.

Anonymous said...

6:23 pm: "I agree, who is the AD in charge of this? This person needs to go."

Yeah, right. Kill an AD because some schmuck on the line made a simple mistake based on ambiguous rules. Yeah, that will fix it. What we need is a fear-based culture, not a knowledge-based one. Don't retrain the errant employee, just fire the AD. Yep, that's the ticket. Asshole.

Anonymous said...

8:21, don't you remember the phrase "shared fate" which all the newly minted AD's were touting with dewey eyes when LANS was hatched? Shouldn't it mean something more than "you do the work and we get the bonuses"?

Anonymous said...

"What we need is a fear-based culture, not a knowledge-based one." (8:21 PM)

We already have a fear-based culture at LANL. Is that not yet clear to everyone at LANL? Does LANS need to come up with more policies to further demonstrate this point?

And what is so wrong about having ADs and PADs take responsibility for things that occur in their Directorates? Shouldn't some risk go along with that nice, big salary they receive when they accept those positions?

Anonymous said...

10:58 am: "And what is so wrong about having ADs and PADs take responsibility for things that occur in their Directorates? Shouldn't some risk go along with that nice, big salary they receive when they accept those positions?"

I agree in principle. However, an ADs job should not be at risk over a trivial non-issue such as this. A simple error, compounded and enabled by ambiguous rules. Get over it and move on.

Anonymous said...

"I agree in principle. However, an ADs job should not be at risk over a trivial non-issue such as this. A simple error, compounded and enabled by ambiguous rules. Get over it and move on."

Shipping a drum of radioactive waste - "tagged, both physically and electronically, as not conforming to the standards required for shipment" - 175 miles and burying it 2000 feet underground is more than just a simple error. It is a management failure. Why not address the failure before getting over it and moving on?

Anonymous said...

11:54 AM asked, "It is a management failure. Why not address the failure before getting over it and moving on?"

Because the ADs, PADs, and Mikey aren't accountable for anything except for counting their bonuses. They blame everything on the low-life workers below them. They call LANL corporate but only when it suits their needs, otherwise there would be accountability.

Anonymous said...

11:54 am: "Shipping a drum of radioactive waste - "tagged, both physically and electronically, as not conforming to the standards required for shipment" - 175 miles and burying it 2000 feet underground is more than just a simple error. It is a management failure"

First, shipping it 175 miles is no bigger a "failure" than shipping it 2 feet. Second, LANL doesn't bury waste at WIPP. I'll just bet you are unable to think of any kind of human "failure" that ISN'T a "management failure." Do you let your kids blame everything they do wrong on you?

Anonymous said...

"Do you let your kids blame everything they do wrong on you?"
(2:44 PM)

It's so invigorating to watch LANS upper management step up to the task and take some responsibility for problems at LANL. I'm sure they are worth ever penny of their highly inflated salaries and big bonuses.

Every day my mind turns to the same thought... if only we can find some way to bring in more of that swell Bechtel management, things at LANL will just keep getting better and better.

Anonymous said...

11:00 am: "Every day my mind turns to the same thought..."

Yeah, that's called Alzheimers. So sorry for you.

Anonymous said...

"Do you let your kids blame everything they do wrong on you?"

You think of LANL employees as kids, eh?

Anonymous said...

6/12 9:48 pm: "You think of LANL employees as kids, eh?"

Of course. Spoiled, immature, insulated from the real world, self-absorbed, finger-pointing, feeling entitled, and shirking responsibility.

Anonymous said...

Please stop insulting kids by comparing them to LANL employees.