A Flanged Tritium Waste Container (FTWC) is a stainless-steel certified pressure vessel designed for long-term storage of tritium-contaminated waste items. The Laboratory is planning to vent headspace gases from four of these containers in June. Courtesy/LANL
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Four flanged tritium waste containers (FTWCs) in TA-54’s Area G will undergo a venting process in June before eventually being transported off the Hill to an out-of-state facility.
NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Public Affairs Specialist Toni Chiri said venting all four containers will take 10 days. Afterwards, they will be transported to the Laboratory’s Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility to be treated and packaged for permanent disposal at an appropriate out-of-state facility, she said.
According to a LANL fact sheet on this project, the venting process is necessary for these FTWCs because the containers were packaged for disposal at TA-54 in 2007. As part of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s efforts to reduce waste stored on site, it was decided to ship the containers offsite but to meet the regulatory requirements of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the pressurized gasses must be vented.
A NNSA Los Alamos Field Office presentation describes how the venting process works: the four FTWCs will be prepared to be unvented, a controlled venting fixture will be installed on the FTWCs, the controlled venting fixture will be connected to a capture system and to vent the FTWCs and finally a pressure monitoring manifold will be installed on the FTWCs. Chiri said the venting process will occur where the FTWCs are located.
Only the headspace gas will be vented; the stored radioactive material will remain, according to the presentation.
It was reported in the presentation that due to the COVID-19 effects, the venting process was delayed until the necessary staff were on hand to complete the work safely and compliantly. During this waiting period, the FTWCs are being safely stored and do not represent a risk to the public.
“There is currently a window of time in which safe, compliant controlled venting can be performed,” Chiri said. “Once that time passes – likely in less than two years – any effort to move or mitigate the containers becomes much more difficult and introduces new risks, including possible curtailment of Area G cleanup efforts.”
To ensure everyone’s safety, the venting process will undergo real-time monitoring to ensure that public health and safety is protected and that no regulatory limits are exceeded in accordance with Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements.
The venting process will be carefully controlled and monitored and the results will be made available to the public in the Laboratory’s Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) and the Laboratory’s Electronic Public Reading Room, according to the LANL fact sheet.
It is also noted in the fact sheet that tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Naturally occurring tritium is very rare in the atmosphere.
It is not chemically toxic and the amount planned to be released poses no risk to public health and safety or the environment.
“All decisions about the FTWCs are made by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and informed by the Lab’s scientific and technical experts and must follow the NEPA process and all other state and national environmental laws,” Chiri said. “In this case, NNSA must comply with the Clean Air Act, among other regulations. The Clean Air Act limits are set at levels that are protective of even the most vulnerable members of the population, including pregnant women, children, and the elderly. By following the Clean Air Act, the venting of the FTWCs will be safe for all residents of the nearby communities.”
“NNSA and the Lab have a method that is proven to be safe and effective to vent the FTWCs under carefully controlled conditions,” she added. “The method maximizes the protection of workers, our neighbors, and the environment.”