Unsafe Radwaste Disposal at WIPP

摘要

At WIPP, radioactive waste is being disposed of permanently in drums and boxes placed in roomsrnexcavated in the Salado salt beds. Like all other excavations below the water table, the repository willrnsaturate, and dissolved radioactivity can ultimately escape via boreholes, shafts or fractures to thernoverlying Rustler evaporites. The most evident aquifer in the Rustler, the Culebra dolomite, is claimed byrnDOE to provide such slow transport that the Rustler can be considered an adequate barrier to wasternmigration. But performance assessment modeling, based on insufficient exploration data, unsupportablerndeductions and faulty assumptions led to that claim. This paper asserts that the Rustler formation overlyingrnand down-gradient of the WIPP repository will not provide the claimed geologic containment because karstrnconduits are present that will facilitate rapid, ephemeral flow, especially during wetter climatic conditions.rnIf disposal is not halted and timely rectified, escaping radioactivity may reach Nash Draw within arnthousand years, contaminating the Pecos River and Rio Grande. Until a suitable disposal site or method isrnengineered, a monitored retrievable storage facility may offer the only alternative.