WIPP Press Release

[Dave Speed <dspeed@tis.eh.doe.gov>]

The following press release was issued by DOE, but it has not made it to
their web page yet...

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For Immediate Release
Energy Secretary Notifies Congress
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Ready to Open
Action Follows EPA Certification of Facility

WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 1998 -- Secretary of Energy Federico Peqa today
notified Congress that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near
Carlsbad, N.M. is ready to begin disposal operations.  Secretary Peqa's
action follows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) issuance of
a certification of compliance for the WIPP earlier today.  Publication of
the EPA certification in the Federal Register, expected by May 20, will
initiate a 30-day waiting period before WIPP shipments and disposal
operations can begin.  The opening date is set tentatively for June 19.

"Officially notifying Congress that the WIPP is ready for operation and has
met all prerequisites has been a priority of this administration," said
Secretary Peqa. "Our action today culminates a 24-year process and marks a
historic milestone in our nation's efforts to clean up the environmental
legacy of the Cold War.  I am proud of this achievement.

"The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency both
agree:  the WIPP meets all federal disposal standards for transuranic
radioactive waste and is ready to accept this defense-generated waste.  The
WIPP will be the first geological repository for defense-generated
radioactive waste," Peqa added. "With the opening of the WIPP, we will be
taking a substantial step forward in the environmentally safe cleanup of
the nation's former nuclear weapons production sites."

In 1997, the department submitted its application for certification to the
Environmental Protection Agency.  The Energy Department's application for
EPA certification of the WIPP included substantial scientific analyses and
documentation.  The certification process included extensive public
comment.  The Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, the state of New Mexico, other states, Tribal
Nations, communities at the department's waste-generating sites, scientific
experts and the department's stakeholders have participated in this
nationally important effort to open a safe and secure permanent repository
for defense-generated transuranic waste.  

The EPA certification process also requires the EPA to certify that each
waste stream or group of waste streams at each site meet the WIPP waste
acceptance criteria prior to shipment to the disposal facility.  The
Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has already received
EPA certification to ship transuranic waste and will send the first
shipment to the WIPP for disposal.  Eventually, transuranic waste from 23
locations in 16 states will be shipped to the WIPP.

Initial shipments which will come from Los Alamos to the WIPP will consist
of non-mixed transuranic waste that contains no hazardous constituents.
Mixed waste, which contains both hazardous and radioactive components, is
regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).  The
Energy Department first applied for a RCRA permit in May 1995.  The New
Mexico Environment Department will release its draft RCRA permit for public
comment this Friday, May 15.  The majority of the waste destined for the
WIPP is mixed transuranic waste, which will require a final RCRA permit to
begin shipment and disposal.

Transuranic waste to be disposed of at the WIPP comes from the department's
nuclear weapons production, dismantlement and research and development
activities.  This waste consists primarily of clothing, tools, rags,
debris, residues and other non-liquid disposable items contaminated with
trace amounts of radioactive isotopes, mostly plutonium.

The WIPP is a deep geologic repository, designed and constructed to provide
underground disposal for the department's defense-generated transuranic
waste.  Located 2,150 feet below the earth's surface in an ancient bedded
salt formation, the WIPP site occupies 16 square miles in southeastern New
Mexico, 26 miles east of the city of Carlsbad.

As early as the 1950s, the National Academy of Sciences recommended
disposal of radioactive waste in stable geologic formations, such as deep
salt beds.  Government scientists searched for an appropriate site during
the 1960s, testing the area of southeastern New Mexico in the 1970s.  In
1979, Congress authorized the WIPP, and the department constructed the
facility during the 1980s.  

A 1992 act of Congress transferred ownership of the land surrounding the
WIPP to the Department of Energy.  The 1992 act also established the
Environmental Protection Agency as the regulatory authority that would
certify whether the WIPP meets the applicable environmental regulations and
standards.  

-30-




Dave

Speaking for myself, and not CBS.