DOE stops nuke shipments to Nevada Test Site

Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997 | 11:23 a.m.

The U.S. Department of Energy stopped all nuclear waste shipments containing liquid to the Nevada Test Site Wednesday after five metal boxes containing low-level radioactive materials leaked.

The DOE reacted to a storm of criticism from Nevada's two senators, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both Democrats, and Gov. Bob Miller, who called for an immediate halt to burial operations at the Test Site and a thorough investigation of the DOE's practices.

State officials want a full investigation of shipping methods and practices that send containers filled with radioactive wastes from federal sites across the nation to the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Reid said he spoke with L.G. Holstein, Energy Secretary Federico Pena's chief of staff, about the liquid leaks in Nevada and Arizona.

"There's going to be no more white boxes (referring to the leaky containers) and no more liquid or anything that will create a vapor in the air sent to the Test Site's unlined ditches," Reid said.

Pena said he will create an independent committee to investigate what went wrong with the shipments of depleted, enriched uranium sent to the Test Site. The Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office under Director Robert Loux will be included in the panel, he said. State and federal inspectors will conduct joint examinations of the site.

"This isn't the first incident, it's just the first made public," Reid said. "The DOE doesn't know what it's shipping or how it's shipping it."

Low-level waste shipments are not as strictly regulated as irradiated nuclear fuel rods. The rods would be destined for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, if the DOE decides it is a safe place to dump 77,000 tons there after 2010.

"If appropriate procedures cannot be assured with low-level waste, there is no reason to believe the situation will be any better with high-level waste," Reid said.

Bryan asked Pena to examine the existing pits where low-level radioactive waste has been buried at the Test Site for decades in case other liquids have concentrated in the waste containers. The DOE said it monitors the pits.

Reps. Jim Gibbons and John Ensign, Nevada Republicans, also objected to continued radioactive shipments to the Test Site.

Federal and state radiation monitors descended on the Test Site Wednesday to examine four of the five containers, one which arrived Monday and the others Tuesday.

"We are out there to independently verify that public health has been protected and radiation controls are in place," said Stan Marshall, chief of the state's Radiological Health Division.

The containers had been delivered to a burial pit when workers discovered liquid seeping from broken seals in the boxes shipped from the Fernald Environmental Management Project in Ohio.

Those containers came across Hoover Dam, through the Las Vegas Valley on U.S. 95 and the congested Spaghetti Bowl enroute to the Test Site. Inspectors said no liquids escaped from the trucks while hauling the containers.

A fifth leak of up to 2 gallons of non-radioactive clear liquid was discovered dripping from the tractor trailer carrying another set of containers when the driver stopped to refuel about 20 miles east of Kingman, Ariz., while on the way to the Test Site late Monday.

The truck driver notified federal and state authorities of the leak. A team of monitors from Albuquerque, N.M., equipped to detect any level of radiation, roped the truck off and examined it Monday. The truck is now on its way back to Fernald after its metal boxes were sealed because the Test Site has stopped accepting all wastes from the Ohio site.

Investigators focused on the shipping containers -- metal boxes which are 7 feet long and 4 feet wide. Each of the four trucks with radioactive leaks carried seven of these metal containers.

While the containers shed very low levels of radiation, the DOE wants to know where the liquid came from in shipments that are supposed to be dry. The DOE needs to know why liquid appeared in containers that were supposed to contain soils, radioactive waste filters, wastewater treatment filters and construction rubble, DOE spokeswoman Nancy Harkess said.

Reid noted that low-level waste containers are not subjected to full-scale testing and there is no testing for acceptance by shippers of the metal boxes.

It's not the first time radioactive leaks have occurred in shipments to the Test Site.

The DOE has documented eight other leaks since 1984 in the 23,249 containers shipped to the Test Site from Fernald, said Fernald spokesman Gary Stegner.

On May 22 a container destined for the Test Site burst while still at Fernald.

Stegner said a total of 125 million pounds of low-level nuclear waste from Fernald, a uranium processing plant operating from 1951 until July 1989, has been buried at the Test Site.

The reason the containers leaked this week is a major question for investigators, said Stegner, adding every avenue will be reviewed.

There may be a clue at another DOE facility -- the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. After more than 200 leaks were discovered in piping there, scientists found metal-eating bacteria that chomped through the stainless steel piping at seams between sections where water stood inside the lines, much like it would in a waste container. Moving water, on the other hand, apparently carries the bacteria away and prevents its growth.

A DOE report said that a total of 754 shipments of low-level waste, or a total of 848,403 cubic feet, has been disposed of at the Test Site from September 1996 to October 1997.

Most of the total, roughly 690,614 cubic feet, or 81.4 percent, came from off-site sources.

From September 1997 to October 1998, the DOE projects the Test Site will receive around 630,000 cubic feet of low-level radioactive waste.

While the term "low-level waste" brings to mind clothing brushed by a radioactive source, or empty containers once filled with radioactive liquid, this waste can actually contain every level of radioactivity.

The radiation leaking from the four containers this week contained small amounts of each of the following types of radiation:

* ALPHA: Radiation consisting of a helium ion which is discharged when certain heavy radioactive elements, such as uranium-238 and radium-226, disintegrate. Alpha particles can be stopped by a single sheet of paper and are dangerous when inhaled or ingested.

* BETA: Radiation from high-speed electrons or positrons. The term usually refers to electrons, the most common form of beta radiation. This type can cause skin burns.

* GAMMA: Radiation identical to X-rays of high energy. This is the most penetrating form of radiation.