Eliminating a redundant procedure at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could save nearly $5 million each year. But it's all contingent on a permit modification request that has been submitted to the New Mexico Environment Department.

WIPP, located about 27 miles east of Carlsbad, is where the nation's transuranic waste used in the production of nuclear weapons is stored 2,150 feet below ground. Bob Kehrman, senior technical advisor for the Nuclear Waste Partnership, says the Department of Energy has redundant processes that WIPP officials would like to streamline.

"In our permit, we have to have the generator site provide information about the waste," Kehrman said. The sites around the country that transport 55 gallon drums of nuclear waste to WIPP are required to take chemical samples of the waste before it ships.

John Heaton, chairman of the Carlsbad Mayor's Nuclear Task Force, said the process, called head space gas sampling, involves a probe that goes into the top of the drum and analyzes the gases in it. A filter is then put in after the probe to identify any radioactive particles.

But Kehrman, Heaton and others think the process is unnecessary in light of the previous testing the drums undergo when they arrive at WIPP. "The information that these samples give us, we already find in the records that we review when we characterize the waste," Kehrman said.


"The processes that generated these wastes were basically aimed at developing nuclear weapons - a highly controlled and documented process. We go through that before the containers even come to WIPP."

And by doing so, Kehrman said WIPP learns all it needs to know about how to safely handle the containers once they reach the disposal site. "Chemical sampling doesn't tell us anything new," he said.

"What is a better technique is to do the sampling actually in the mine," Heaton said. "When we sample in the mine, then we know exactly what the level of those compounds are and whether the level is approaching any harmful level. It makes more sense to sample in the mine where the workers are, and then we know exactly what is and what isn't there, rather than trying to figure out from some distant number."

By eliminating the need for the head space gas sampling at generator sites, Kehrman said the DOE would save close to $5 million a year. It is his recommendation, and Heaton's as well, that the DOE could make better use of that money by applying it to WIPP's infrastructure.

But that wouldn't be the only benefit. NWP Communications Manager Donavan Mager said the change would also provide DOE workers at generator sites with a safer work environment.

"There would be less exposure (to radiation) for our workers," Mager said. "We're always looking to make a safer work environment for our workforce." Kehrman said he is expecting to hear from the NMED by mid-March or April regarding its decision to allow the permit modification.

Any comments from the public regarding the issue must be submitted to the NMED by Feb. 18.