There were no signs of air pollution and tests on the workers’ hands and feet did not reveal any contamination after being discovered late Saturday in a bay where the containers are processed before being transported to the ground for disposal, officials said in a statement late Saturday. “The event at the venue has been secured. “There is no danger of radiological release and there is no danger to the public or the environment,” the factory officials said in a statement. Officials confirmed Monday that the shipment was packaged and shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory, but investigators were trying to determine the source of the liquid inside the container, said Bobby St. John, a spokesman for the contractor who manages the store. government. The rubbish bins were safely placed back in the special shipping container, St. John said. “We have written procedures and protocols for such situations and all protocols have been followed,” he told the Associated Press in an email. “In addition, the bay (with contact waste handling) is designed to contain radiological contaminants in order to protect the workforce, the surrounding ecology and the local community.” The repository is the backbone of a multibillion-dollar clean-up program that includes tons of Cold War-era waste from federal laboratories and defense-related sites across the country. The waste – remnants of decades of nuclear research and bomb construction – usually consists of lab coats, gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements. Independent federal investigators last month voiced concerns about whether cost overruns and missed construction deadlines will continue at the Pilot Waste Isolation Plant. A multi-million dollar project is underway in the basement to install a new ventilation system so that full operations can resume, following a 2014 radioactive leak that forced the warehouse to close for almost three years and led to major policy revisions. . The container that caused this release was improperly packaged at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico. Operations had to be reduced after the waste plant reopened in 2017 because the plant areas were contaminated and the airflow required for the extraction and disposal operations was limited. It was not clear on Monday whether operations had resumed in the area where the shipments are being processed. St. John said only that the shipping container with the radioactive liquid had been placed in a “safe configuration, pending the results of the investigation and the subsequent mitigation measures”. The depot was dug by an ancient salt formation about half a mile (0.8 km) below the ground, because officials say the displaced salt will eventually bury the radioactive waste. Its current footprint includes eight sections, which the US Department of Energy estimates will be completed in 2025. State regulators are weighing in on a license change that some critics have said could lead to extensive repository operations. The decision is expected within the year.
