Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 25 March 2019
First-of-its-kind U.S. nuclear waste dump marks 20 years

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRY- a new ventilation system,
AN sink more shafts and make
Associated Press other upgrades aimed at
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) returning to “normal busi-
— In a remote stretch of ness.”
New Mexico desert, the Hancock and some former
U.S. government put in mo- elected leaders involved in
tion an experiment aimed early discussions about the
at proving to the world that facility worry about the sub-
radioactive waste could terranean landfill becom-
be safely disposed of deep ing a dumping ground for
underground, rendering it high-level waste or com-
less of a threat to the envi- mercial nuclear waste.
ronment. But it would take an act of
Twenty years and more Congress to expand the
than 12,380 shipments lat- repository’s mission, and
er, tons of Cold War-era getting consent from New
waste from decades of Mexico’s delegates would
bomb-making and nuclear be a tall order since the
research across the U.S. federal government still
have been stashed in the has no long-term plan for
salt caverns that make up dealing with such waste.
the underground facility . Nevada’s proposed Yucca
Each week, several ship- Mountain project is moth-
ments of special boxes and In this April 8, 1998, file photo, a worker drives a cart through a tunnel inside the Waste Isolation balled, and no other per-
barrels packed with lab Pilot Plant No. 2, 150 feet below the surface near Carlsbad, N.M. manent disposal proposals
coats, rubber gloves, tools Associated Press are on the table.
and debris contaminated and locations as far east as having somewhere to put later. Toney Anaya, who served
with plutonium and other South Carolina. the waste — including The scientists had to con- as New Mexico governor
radioactive elements are If it weren’t for the Waste Rocky Flats, a former nucle- vince themselves and then in the 1980s, remembers
trucked to the site. Isolation Pilot Plant, many ar weapons plant outside federal regulators that it the heated debates about
But the Waste Isolation Pilot containers of plutonium- Denver that had a history was safe. One of their tasks bringing more radioactive
Plant has not been without contaminated waste of leaks, spills and other vio- was determining that the waste to the state. He said
issues. would be outside, exposed lations. ancient seawater trapped there were concerns about
A 2014 radiation leak to the weather and sus- For critics, that success is between the salt crys- safety, but the promise of
forced an expensive, ceptible to natural disas- checkered at best since tals and bound up in thin jobs was attractive. Some
nearly three-year closure, ters, said J.R. Stroble, head the repository is far from ful- bands of clay within the also argued New Mexico
delayed the federal gov- of business operations at filling its mission. salt deposit would pose had a moral obligation
ernment’s cleanup pro- the Department of Ener- “It’s 80 percent through no problems thousands of given its legacy of uranium
gram and prompted policy gy’s Carlsbad Field Office, its lifetime, and it has dis- years later. mining and its role in the
changes at national labo- which oversees the con- posed of less than 40 per- “It was exciting to be work- development of the atom-
ratories and defense-re- tractor that operates the cent of the waste and has ing on what was then go- ic bomb.
lated sites across the U.S. repository. cost more than twice as ing to be the world’s first Another former governor,
More recently, the U.S. De- “The whole purpose of much as it was supposed deep-geologic repository Bill Richardson, was on
partment of Energy said it WIPP is to isolate this long- to,” said Don Hancock for that class of waste,” both sides of the tug of war
would investigate reports lived radioactive, hazard- with the watchdog group said Peter Swift, a senior — first as a young Demo-
that workers may have ous waste from the acces- Southwest Research and scientist at Sandia National cratic congressman who
been exposed last year to sible environment, from Information Center. “How Laboratories. “Nothing that wanted to impose envi-
hazardous chemicals. people and the things peo- great of a success is that?” radioactive had been put ronmental standards and
Still, supporters consider ple need in order to live life Officials initially thought that deep underground keep 18-wheelers loaded
the repository a success, on Earth,” he told The Asso- the facility would operate before. And that’s still true with waste from passing
saying it provides a viable ciated Press. for about 25 years. Rather 20 years later.” through the heart of Santa
option for dealing with Stroble and others in the than wrapping up in the While the real test will be Fe. Then, he became U.S.
a multibillion-dollar mess communities surrounding next few years, managers what happens generations energy secretary during
that stretches from a de- the repository are steadfast have bumped the timeline from now, Swift is confident the Clinton administration
commissioned nuclear in their conviction that the to 2050. in the science behind the and pressured the state to
weapons production site facility is a success. They The repository was carved project. clear the way for the repos-
in Washington state to one point to 22 sites around out of an ancient salt for- But the wild card in whether itory to open.
of the nation’s top nuclear the nation that have been mation about a half-mile the repository is ultimately “For New Mexico, we’ve
research labs, in Idaho, cleaned up as a result of (0.8 kilometer) below the deemed a success will be done our share of storing
surface, with the idea that the human factor. After all, waste, and we’ve done
the shifting salt would even- missteps by management it safely and effectively,”
tually entomb the radioac- were blamed for the 2014 Richardson said. “It’s pro-
tive waste. radiation release. vided jobs, but I just think
It was the National Acade- With some areas perma- the future of the state is not
my of Sciences in the 1950s nently sealed off due to nuclear.”
that first recommended dis- contamination, more min- Southeastern New Mex-
posing of atomic waste in ing will have to be done ico’s ties to nuclear run
deep geologic formations. to expand capacity. The deep and will continue for
Scientists began taking a federal government also at least the next 30 years
hard look at the New Mexi- is spending more than a under the plans being
co site about two decades half-billion dollars to install charted now.q