SHIP TRANSURANIC WASTE TO WIPP OR WHAT IT TOOK TO SMOOTH THE FINAL SPEED BUMPS ON THE ROAD TO WIPP

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) sent the historic first load of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) on March 25, 1999. The cheers of supporters and the groans of protesters that night marked the end of the last two years in the effort to open the world’s first permitted TRU waste disposal site. Some of the most significant events in the final two years were: 1. LANL became the first site authorized to certify and ship waste to WIPP; 2. the Department of Energy (DOE) decided to legally ship non-mixed TRU waste to WIPP prior to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) issuing the mixed waste permit for the facility; 3. LANL and DOE identified a non-mixed waste stream at LANL for shipment to WIPP; 4. LANL characterized and repackaged the waste to meet WIPP requirements; 5. NMED requested a Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) that would validate the Acceptable Knowledge (AK) process for the identified waste stream; 6. LANL provided the DOE legal team technical arguments that radiolytic degradation of waste materials did not render the waste hazardous; 7. LANL performed the requested waste sampling and analysis; 8. NMED approved the results of the SAP; 9. the DOE legal team presented the data and defended LANL’s certification activities in court; 10. the New Mexico Attorney General (AG) filed a lawsuit attempting to prevent the shipments; 11. Federal Judge Penn’s ruling cited NMED’s approving the non-mixed waste status of this waste as supporting his lifting of an eight-year injunction agains