Likely Radiation Leak at NM Military Nuclear Waste Dump

High levels of radioactivity detected at New Mexico military nuclear waste dump

Abnormally high levels of radioactivity were detected at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), an underground military nuclear waste dump in New Mexico on Saturday, said to be the first real alarm since the plant began operating 15 years ago, said a report.

“At 11:30 PM Friday, a continuous air monitor detected airborne radiation in the underground,” said WIPP.

“They (air monitors) have alarmed in the past as a false positive because of malfunctions, or because of fluctuations in levels of radon (a naturally occurring radioactive gas),” said a Department of Energy spokesman.

“But I believe it’s safe to say we’ve never seen a level like we are seeing. We just don’t know if it’s a real event, but it looks like one,” he said.

“We’re in shutdown mode,” said DOE.

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is one of DOE’s nuclear waste dumps where the U.S. Gov buries transuranic (man-made radioactive elements that are heavier than Uranium) radioactive waste such as plutonium used in making nuclear weapons.

A shipment of contact-handled transuranic waste arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

Located about 26 miles east of Carlsbad in SE New Mexico, WIPP has “disposal rooms” excavated in an ancient salt formation, about 700m (2,150 feet) underground. WIPP employs more than 800 workers. Waste disposal began at WIPP in 1999.

The Horizontal Emplacement and Retreival Equipment (HERE) is used to push remote-handled transuranic waste into horizontal boreholes in the disposal room walls. Source: WIPP, US Department of Energy

The 250-million-year-old salt formation below the Chihuahuan Desert is used to dump about 6,000 cubic meters of TRU radioactive waste each year. About 4% of the TRU waste received at WIPP is far too toxic and the containers must be remote-handled by robots and automated  machinery.

If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate… It Will!

On January 12, 2014 FIRE-EARTH forecast:

Estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites across the U.S. can potentially explode, leak, contaminate the environment

United States is dotted with an estimated 100,000 HAZMAT storage sites containing one or more of deadly substances including radioactive, biohazardous, toxic, explosive, flammable, asphyxiating, corrosive, oxidizing, pathogenic, or allergenic materials, as well as herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers that don’t fall into those categories.

Some of the substances (hazchems), which include more than 200 types of dioxins, are so lethal that even a small leak into the water supply could kill or permanently harm millions of people, before they are detected.

Related Links

• If Anything Can Explode, Leak, Contaminate…  January 12, 2014