Bulging hazardous waste drum sparks LANL evacuation; situation cleared

By Sarah Halasz Graham | The New Mexican Apr 17, 2018 Updated Apr 17, 2018

LOS ALAMOS — Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory on Monday afternoon ordered a partial evacuation of a nuclear research building after a report of a bulging hazardous waste drum.

Laboratory personnel and the Los Alamos Fire Department responded to the Sigma Facility on the lab’s main campus, about two miles from the city center.

No one was injured in the incident. By 5 p.m., the evacuation had ended and the drum, which did not contain radiological waste, had been rendered safe, according to lab spokesman Peter Hyde.

“There was no threat to workers or the public,” Hyde said.

Bulging can occur when hazardous chemicals react inside a sealed waste drum — or when a starchy lining on the inside of the container ferments — causing a buildup of pressure.

If not remediated, bulging drums can explode.

In 2014, a drum buried at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad exploded and leaked radiation through a vent to the air above. The incident, caused by improper disposal of nuclear waste at the lab, exposed 21 WIPP employees to low levels of radiation and was one of the costliest nuclear accidents in history.

Bulging drums have become an issue at LANL and other facilities, nuclear watchdogs say.

Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, a frequent lab critic, said bulging drums have become a “perennial problem” at LANL and other nuclear facilities. He and his colleagues have logged “a lot of bulging drums” at the lab in recent years.

Monday’s incident follows a series of safety missteps at LANL. In June, lab officials unintentionally shipped plutonium out of state in an aircraft instead of a cargo truck, a violation of regulations that a federal nuclear administrator called “absolutely unacceptable.”

Three months later, on Sept. 13, a worker entered a lab room that had insufficient oxygen, inciting a federal investigation.

In December, the lab paused for three months the shipping of all hazardous and mixed, low-level radioactive waste after mislabeling dangerous material in three shipments to a waste facility near Denver.

“It remains to be seen whether this bulging drum resulted from an egregious mistake, but even more important is what happens now, especially from the regulatory perspective,” Mello said.

State officials were made aware of the incident Tuesday morning.

Contact Sarah Halasz Graham at 505-995-3862 or sgraham@sfnewmexican.com.