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Sandia and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 1974-1999

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Sandia and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 1974-1999 This study was performed at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. This study was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors, or their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government, any agency thereof, or any of their contractors or subcontractors. The views and opinion expressed herein do not necessarily state of reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof or any of their contractors or subcontractors. SAND99-1482 Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 Livermore, California 94551 © 1999 by Sandia National Laboratories Al rights reserved. Published in 1999. FG2929.CA324.jg/8/99 Sandia and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 1974 - 1999 Being an Accurate and Truthful Historical Account of Sandia National Laboratories’ Contribution in Resolving the Technical Issues in a Dynamic Political and Societal Framework Carl J. Mora @ISandia National laboratories Albuquerque, New Mexico TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface . .3 Foreword by Wendell D. Weart . .5 Introduction A Brief Historical Prelude to WIPP . .9 Chapter 1 WIPP’s Early Years (1975–1979) . .23 Chapter 2 Developing the WIPP Site (1980–1988) . .67 Chapter 3 Waiting for WIPP (1989–1999) . .115 Appendix A Historical Timeline of the WIPP Project . .181 Appendix B Funding History of the WIPP Project . .195 Index . .197 1 2 PREFACE In 1975, the newly organized Energy Research and Development Agency asked Sandia National Laboratories (at the time, just Sandia Laboratories) to be the principal scientific investigator for a proposed repository in southeastern New Mexico for the disposal of radioactive transuranic defense waste generated by nuclear weapons production. This repository would shortly be designated the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), Sandia’s longest-lasting, most visible, and one of its most controversial projects. The Sandians who were originally assigned to the project anticipated that their involvement would last no longer than six years. But politics, bureaucratic procedures, and challenges in the courts protracted the life of the project to twenty-five years. Originally slated for completion in 1983, WIPP was finally completed in 1990. New and more complex regulatory requirements, politics, and legal proceedings kept delaying the shipment of radioactive waste to WIPP. On October 22, 1997, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a decision declaring that the world’s first permanent nuclear waste repository was safe to open. But it was not until March 22, 1999, that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. cleared the way for transuranic waste to be shipped to WIPP. On March 26, the first truckload of waste containers was transported from Los Alamos National Laboratory and delivered to WIPP. The purpose of this historical narrative is to relate the story of Sandia’s twenty- five-year-long participation in the WIPP project, especially through the memories and words of some of the Sandians who participated in the early days of the project. It was they who carried out the first detailed geological studies in the Los Medanos area, an arid plateau near the Pecos River about twenty-five miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. And it was they who, through innovative scientific investigations, found that the original site was geologically unsuitable and chose the present location. These accomplishments required many long hours of travel, work in the field—an arid and desolate field at that—and long absences from home and family. The extensive scientific investigations carried out by Sandians have resulted in a mountain of published reports and studies, all available to the public and academic researchers. This narrative does not attempt to review the purely technical aspects of WIPP but instead focuses on the people involved and how they responded to the challenges—technical, political, and personal—of this complex enterprise. The writing of this history would have been impossible without the generous cooperation of many people and their willingness to take time from their busy schedules to talk with me and respond to questions. First of course is Wendell 3 Preface Weart, “The Sultan of Salt,” Sandia’s technical director and inspiration throughout the often stressful twenty-five years duration of the WIPP project. Wendell was unstinting with his time, making himself available for many interviews, recommending other people for me to talk with, providing documents, and reviewing and offering comments on various drafts. Others who provided valuable information in a series of videotaped panel discussions and audiotaped interviews were Felton Bingham, Pat Brannen, Lokesh Chaturvedi, Chris Christensen, Peter Davies, George Griswold, Les Hill, Tom Hunter, Steve Lambert, Al Lappin, Joseph Magruder, Jim McIlmoyle, Jerry Mercer, Mel Merritt, John Milloy, Martin Molecke, Bob Neill, Sieglinde Neuhauser, James Nowak, Susan Pickering, Dennis Powers, Rob Rechard, Thomas Schultheis, Leo Scully, Pete Seward, Bill Snyder, Bob Statler, Bob Stinebaugh, Joe Tillerson, Lynn Tyler, and Richard Yoshimura. I am grateful to the following persons for reading various drafts of the manuscript and offering information and comments: George Barr, Jim Bickel, Dan Garber, Critz George, Robert Guzowski, Richard Lincoln, Myra O’Canna, Andrew Peterson, Kate Trauth, Rebecca Ullrich, and Don Vieth. Special thanks to Ferne Allan and Sandy Halliday of Sandia’s Nuclear Waste Management Program Library for providing reports, references, and articles on short notice. Anna Nusbaum, my manager, not only read the draft but has constantly provided enthusiastic support for this WIPP history and other projects in the Sandia Corporate History Program. And special kudos to Jan Gaunce for beautifully designing this book. John Trever kindly gave permission to use three of his editorial cartoons originally published in the Albuquerque Journal. Although all of the above Sandians and non-Sandians, active and retired, offered invaluable insights and information, any errors in this publication are entirely my responsibility. Carl J. Mora Corporate Historian Sandia National Laboratories 4 FOREWORD I could never have surmised in 1974, when I first became associated with the WIPP, that it would occupy 25 years of my professional career. From 1975, when Sandia was assigned responsibility for direction of the WIPP scientific studies, until 1995, I managed Sandia’s WIPP project activities. Since then I have been closely involved with WIPP as scientific advisor in my capacity as Senior Scientist and Sandia Fellow. These 25 years have been enormously rewarding, not only for the opportunity to address challenging scientific issues but also because the WIPP project addressed a problem of great national significance and offered an opportunity to guide a major program from its inception to its completion. WIPP has developed to be the project of longest duration ever undertaken at Sandia. The continuity and historic knowledge that Sandia provides to the WIPP have proven to be a valuable asset to the project. This report, in fact, provides a valuable historic context within which to examine and guide the project. Sandia was fortunate, in those early years, to be trusted by the DOE to develop the scientific program with a minimum of oversight and interference. We had a team of key technical players, such as the United States Geological Survey (USGS), INTERA (a firm specializing in hydrologic services—both field work and modeling), Fenix and Scisson, Bechtel, and others too numerous to mention. We were able to make enormous progress in short periods of time because we operated as a team with a common goal and without interagency competition. While there were often heated technical discussions among participants, it was understood and agreed by all that when all the factors had been considered, the final technical decision was Sandia’s call. The activities in the first 10 to 15 years were intense, but we all enjoyed the work and camaraderie. In later years this team spirit did not come as naturally, and we consciously had to work at maintaining it. DOE’s attitude toward Sandia began to shift to consideration of the lab as “just another contractor” rather than as an equal and trusted team member. And other WIPP participants, who were added as the project grew, began to question Sandia motives and decisions and agitate for a share of our responsibility. Despite these policy concerns, because the scientific problems were interesting and challenging, outstanding Sandians were attracted to work toward their resolution. We were, in retrospect, a small, somewhat naïve group of Sandians that first began work on the WIPP Project in 1975. We believed that our role might be over in a half dozen years. What we
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