Post by Ex_Nuke_Troop on Mar 18, 2014 2:21:50 GMT
Albuquerque Journal : Carlsbad residents stand strong for WIPP
By Lauren Villagran / Journal Staff Writer - Las Cruces Bureau
PUBLISHED: Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 12:05 am
Copyright © 2014 Albuquerque Journal
CARLSBAD – As a radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant made national headlines and fueled criticism of the nuclear waste repository, support in the town that could have been most affected appears to have barely wavered.
Carlsbad has good reason for its loyalty: On top of its strong safety record over 15 years, WIPP contributes some 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, and nearly $400 million annually to the regional economy, according to figures provided by the Department of Energy Carlsbad Field Office.
“I think most of the businesses here in Carlsbad are very supportive and very confident in WIPP’s ability in dealing with their job,” said Robert Defer, chief executive of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. “Some of that comes with us dealing with WIPP over the past years. We know their safety record; we know them as individuals.”
The city of 26,000 residents hosts a booming oil and gas industry, potash mining, agriculture and tourism, but WIPP remains a cornerstone. WIPP is “one of the top employers” in Carlsbad, Defer said.
That fact plays into how Carlsbad has reacted to news of two incidents that shuttered the facility in February, a radiation leak and truck fire that officials say are unrelated. While locals turned out to recent public meetings to ask about safety measures, most expressed support for a facility that serves a unique purpose as the country’s only underground repository for disposing of the low-level leftovers of the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
WIPP had been open nearly 15 years without a radiation leak when, on Feb. 14, an alert prompted its high-tech filtration system to kick in automatically. A small amount of americium and plutonium is believed to have escaped the mine at levels well below what the Environmental Protection Agency deems actionable. An investigation into the cause of the leak and the extent of the contamination underground is ongoing.
The leak followed a separate incident in February in which a truck used to haul salt out of the mine area caught fire. A report released Friday found that the truck, which was 29 years old, had been poorly maintained and was operating without an automatic fire suppression system.
WIPP has remained closed to waste shipments since the fire.
A boon for the town
Despite the shutdown, all 1,070 WIPP employees have continued receiving paychecks, officials say. The DOE confirmed this week that WIPP will employ all workers in the recovery effort, even if it means re-training them to confront new conditions in the underground or in any new procedures that may be established as a result of the radiation breach.
That continuity may be why local business owners say they have not seen a dip in business as a result of WIPP’s closure more than a month ago.
For 15 years – as long as WIPP has been operating – Carol Reneé Modrall has run a popular diner called Happy’s on Carlsbad’s main drag, next door to the DOE’s field office. Her son works as a hoistman at WIPP and she says, “If there was a problem, I’d know about it.”
“They have done everything they could possibly do to make sure there is safety,” she said, periodically interrupting herself to greet customers. “It’s been a boon for our town.”
Of the $158 million budget for WIPP management and operations, more than $45 million pays salaries in Carlsbad alone, according to a spokesman for WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership.
“People are paying personal income tax, gross receipts – it tends to circulate through the community several times,” said State Rep. Cathrynn Brown, a Republican. “So the economic impact is really quite considerable. They are good jobs, too. These are scientist, technician jobs, administrative jobs.”
Fears, anxiety allayed
At recent public meetings, concerns about safety were often outweighed by worries about getting workers back on the job, and WIPP up and running again.
The widespread support WIPP has long enjoyed in the community has historically made it difficult for concerned residents to speak up, said Don Hancock, director of the nonprofit Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.
One mother who raised concerns about future incidents and her children’s health – echoing the worries voiced by another mother at the same meeting – said the facility’s importance to the region made her skeptical of the information provided.
“I feel that WIPP is just such an enormous part of this community and it’s obviously an enormous part of their life” – referring to the DOE and WIPP management staffing the panel – “that they don’t want anything to go wrong. They don’t want the people to perhaps know the extent of what went wrong,” Karen Armendariz said after the meeting.
Hancock said, “The fact that a few people were willing to stand up and ask less-than-friendly questions is pretty unprecedented in the last 15 years.”
How DOE and WIPP handle the investigation and recovery going forward will likely have bearing on community support, Hancock said.
As chairman of Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway’s Nuclear Task Force, John Heaton has been a top cheerleader for WIPP. Yet having heard workers’ worries about losing their jobs and residents’ concerns about exposure, he stepped up to the microphone following Armendariz, and criticized the DOE and WIPP for not providing more detailed information to the public.
As a result of his and others’ requests, the DOE has made changes to how it plans to communicate with residents and workers, including hosting weekly public meetings in Carlsbad, which will be webcast, and posting daily recovery updates online.
“I think there has been a significant change and the community appreciates it,” Heaton said later in a phone interview. “We cut through the red tape, I think. The fear and the anxiety about the release is for the most part gone in the community.”
Cleanup costs unclear
WIPP’s management and operating budget has risen 14 percent over five years, from $138.5 million in fiscal 2010 to $158 million in fiscal 2014. With the investigation into the source and extent of the leak ongoing, it is not yet clear how much the cleanup will cost.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to open up WIPP,” Terry MacDonald, a technologist with Sandia National Laboratory, told U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce during a recent town hall meeting. “We need you to do what you can to get the funding for our WIPP family so that we can get WIPP open again.”
www.abqjournal.com/369412/news/carlsbad-residents-stand-strong-for-wipp.html
By Lauren Villagran / Journal Staff Writer - Las Cruces Bureau
PUBLISHED: Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 12:05 am
Copyright © 2014 Albuquerque Journal
CARLSBAD – As a radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant made national headlines and fueled criticism of the nuclear waste repository, support in the town that could have been most affected appears to have barely wavered.
Carlsbad has good reason for its loyalty: On top of its strong safety record over 15 years, WIPP contributes some 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, and nearly $400 million annually to the regional economy, according to figures provided by the Department of Energy Carlsbad Field Office.
“I think most of the businesses here in Carlsbad are very supportive and very confident in WIPP’s ability in dealing with their job,” said Robert Defer, chief executive of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. “Some of that comes with us dealing with WIPP over the past years. We know their safety record; we know them as individuals.”
The city of 26,000 residents hosts a booming oil and gas industry, potash mining, agriculture and tourism, but WIPP remains a cornerstone. WIPP is “one of the top employers” in Carlsbad, Defer said.
That fact plays into how Carlsbad has reacted to news of two incidents that shuttered the facility in February, a radiation leak and truck fire that officials say are unrelated. While locals turned out to recent public meetings to ask about safety measures, most expressed support for a facility that serves a unique purpose as the country’s only underground repository for disposing of the low-level leftovers of the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
WIPP had been open nearly 15 years without a radiation leak when, on Feb. 14, an alert prompted its high-tech filtration system to kick in automatically. A small amount of americium and plutonium is believed to have escaped the mine at levels well below what the Environmental Protection Agency deems actionable. An investigation into the cause of the leak and the extent of the contamination underground is ongoing.
The leak followed a separate incident in February in which a truck used to haul salt out of the mine area caught fire. A report released Friday found that the truck, which was 29 years old, had been poorly maintained and was operating without an automatic fire suppression system.
WIPP has remained closed to waste shipments since the fire.
A boon for the town
Despite the shutdown, all 1,070 WIPP employees have continued receiving paychecks, officials say. The DOE confirmed this week that WIPP will employ all workers in the recovery effort, even if it means re-training them to confront new conditions in the underground or in any new procedures that may be established as a result of the radiation breach.
That continuity may be why local business owners say they have not seen a dip in business as a result of WIPP’s closure more than a month ago.
For 15 years – as long as WIPP has been operating – Carol Reneé Modrall has run a popular diner called Happy’s on Carlsbad’s main drag, next door to the DOE’s field office. Her son works as a hoistman at WIPP and she says, “If there was a problem, I’d know about it.”
“They have done everything they could possibly do to make sure there is safety,” she said, periodically interrupting herself to greet customers. “It’s been a boon for our town.”
Of the $158 million budget for WIPP management and operations, more than $45 million pays salaries in Carlsbad alone, according to a spokesman for WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership.
“People are paying personal income tax, gross receipts – it tends to circulate through the community several times,” said State Rep. Cathrynn Brown, a Republican. “So the economic impact is really quite considerable. They are good jobs, too. These are scientist, technician jobs, administrative jobs.”
Fears, anxiety allayed
At recent public meetings, concerns about safety were often outweighed by worries about getting workers back on the job, and WIPP up and running again.
The widespread support WIPP has long enjoyed in the community has historically made it difficult for concerned residents to speak up, said Don Hancock, director of the nonprofit Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque.
One mother who raised concerns about future incidents and her children’s health – echoing the worries voiced by another mother at the same meeting – said the facility’s importance to the region made her skeptical of the information provided.
“I feel that WIPP is just such an enormous part of this community and it’s obviously an enormous part of their life” – referring to the DOE and WIPP management staffing the panel – “that they don’t want anything to go wrong. They don’t want the people to perhaps know the extent of what went wrong,” Karen Armendariz said after the meeting.
Hancock said, “The fact that a few people were willing to stand up and ask less-than-friendly questions is pretty unprecedented in the last 15 years.”
How DOE and WIPP handle the investigation and recovery going forward will likely have bearing on community support, Hancock said.
As chairman of Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway’s Nuclear Task Force, John Heaton has been a top cheerleader for WIPP. Yet having heard workers’ worries about losing their jobs and residents’ concerns about exposure, he stepped up to the microphone following Armendariz, and criticized the DOE and WIPP for not providing more detailed information to the public.
As a result of his and others’ requests, the DOE has made changes to how it plans to communicate with residents and workers, including hosting weekly public meetings in Carlsbad, which will be webcast, and posting daily recovery updates online.
“I think there has been a significant change and the community appreciates it,” Heaton said later in a phone interview. “We cut through the red tape, I think. The fear and the anxiety about the release is for the most part gone in the community.”
Cleanup costs unclear
WIPP’s management and operating budget has risen 14 percent over five years, from $138.5 million in fiscal 2010 to $158 million in fiscal 2014. With the investigation into the source and extent of the leak ongoing, it is not yet clear how much the cleanup will cost.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to open up WIPP,” Terry MacDonald, a technologist with Sandia National Laboratory, told U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce during a recent town hall meeting. “We need you to do what you can to get the funding for our WIPP family so that we can get WIPP open again.”
www.abqjournal.com/369412/news/carlsbad-residents-stand-strong-for-wipp.html