The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, is planned as the first permanent repository for low-level, transuranic radioactive wastes in the United States. As a geologist, chemist, educator, and concerned environmentalist, WIPP makes a great deal of sense to me. Yet, public acceptance of anything dealing with nuclear issues is extremely difficult to obtain, especially since the media usually focus on the assumed negative aspects of such in issue--whether or not there are factual data to back up a negative stand.
Transuranic waste (TRU) is garbage; it consists of gloves, laboratory coats, booties, old tools, metal clippings, glass and plastic ware, some sludge, and other materials one would recognize on a visit to any landfill in the country. The one thing that makes TRU different is that this garbage has been contaminated with small amounts of neptunium, americium, curium, and plutonium--the largest contaminant of these transuranic elements. Plutonium is an essential component of nuclear weapons manufacturing, and the other elements yielded are by-products of plutonium production and processing.
Plutonium is a very toxic material; nevertheless, it is not, as described by many, the "most toxic substance known to man." On a milligram-per-milligram basis, anthrax spores and botulism are thousands of times more toxic, and lead arsenate and potassium cyanide are 10 times more poisonous than reactor plutonium. The poison from many snakes is more toxic that an equal weight of plutonium, and the large diamond-back rattlesnake is just about as toxic as reactor plutonium. The point is not to dispute plutonium's toxicity, but rather to point out that there are many other equally or more poisonous substances that we take normal precautions against all the time.
The radioactive component of TRU is so slight that 97 percent of this waste can be handled by direct contact, with only a modest amount of shielding. This is referred to as contact-handled transuranic waste or CH TRU. The remaining 3 percent has a measured radioactivity of 200 mrem per hour due to the presence of small amounts of radioactive fission products, and this must be handled by remote means. This waste is called remote-handled transuranic waste or RH TRU. An advantage of radioactive materials is that their radiation levels can be determined by simple monitoring techniques; therefore, if TRU waste were to leak from any source, it would be readily identified.
As the CH TRU arrive at the WIPP site, the containers would be opened, inspected, and monitored for radioactivity. The RH TRU would be opened by remote means in a WIPP facility hot cell, where evaluation and monitoring would be carried out.
Initially, TRU will be received at the WIPP site for five years, during which time its behavior in the WIPP rocks will be assessed. Assuming approval for disposal of all TRU currently in temporary storage, as well as that which will accumulate, the facility will receive TRU for an additional 20 years. Eventually about 15,000 shipments of TRU will be made to the site.
Where does TRU originate?
Transuranic waste in the United States is generated or stored in conjunction with weapons production and related activities at the following sites:
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