This week's news:

DOE Plans to Expand WIPP with More "Hot" Waste

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to bring more "hot" Remote-Handled (RH) plutonium-contaminated transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) without providing adequate justification and without an opportunity for a public hearing.

DOE has submitted a hazardous waste permit modification request to the New Mexico Environment Department so that it can transport and dispose of RH waste in lead shielded containers. RH waste would continue to be shipped and disposed in large canisters placed in the walls of the underground rooms, as has been done since January 2007. If the Environment Department approves the request, RH waste in the shielded containers could be trucked to WIPP and emplaced on the floor in the underground rooms along with the contact-handled transuranic waste. Each shielded container would hold one 30-gallon container of RH waste.

The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to bring more plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under a proposal to deal with 13 metric tons of what has been declared "surplus plutonium." Three public hearings in New Mexico on the draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement are scheduled for Los Alamos on Tuesday, August 21st; for Santa Fe on Thursday, August 23rd; and for Carlsbad on Tuesday, August 28th. The hearings will be held from 5:30 pm to 8 pm, with public comments beginning at 6:30.

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