A second rock fall has been discovered at a nuclear waste facility in New Mexico, the Department of Energy announced today. The salt rock debris was found Monday during routine inspections of the underground cavern at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) near Carlsbad. Officials say neither this incident, nor another rock fall discovered Sept. 27, pose a threat. “The rock fall does not cause any threat to the workforce or the public,” a DOE spokesperson told AMI Newswire. Both incidents occurred in areas of the facility that have not been used since 2010. These incidents mark the first reported rock falls at WIPP since December 2015. The site – which occupies approximately 16 square miles and includes disposal rooms 2,150 feet underground carved out of a 2,000 square foot thick salt formation – has suffered from more severe problems in the past. On February 14, 2014, an explosion there resulted in one of the costliest nuclear accidents in American history. The explosion caused an estimated $2 billion in damage and exposed 21 workers to radiation. The facility has remained closed since then. Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center, a nonprofit group focused on the environment and social justice, said he worries about transparency regarding incidents at WIPP: “When information becomes available is an ongoing issue with the WIPP facility,” he said. “When the February 2014 accident occurred, initial statements suggested there had been no radiation release, and it wasn’t five days later until that information was made available to the public.”
Newswire 5th Oct 2016 read more »