The WIPP Situation
    Its danger to our world started as waste from the Secret Manhattan Project in 1942.  That first waste producing nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago was just a starting point for an industry that has produced more than 12 million cubic feet of high-level nuclear wastes,  30 million cubic feet of transuranic waste ,  and 11.3 billion cubic feet of uranium mining talings-all in the United States,  all from nuclear weapon production, and all with half life’s of up to 120,000 years.(Shapiro) This paper will illustrate the facts about nuclear waste from the United States production of nuclear weapons.  The immense problem of finding a place to store the waste, specifically the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), near Carlsbad, New Mexico will be examined.  The problems faced in using WIPP will become evident.  The controversy of environmental racism in regards to the Mescalero Tribe, and the unavailability of any other solution will be addressed as well. 
    Why am I interested in WIPP?  I grew up in Santa Fe when the issue of the shipment of radioactive waste to New Mexico was just heating up.  My mother, an anti-nuclear activist, was involved in the grassroots fight against WIPP.  from an early age I was educated about the effects of both nuclear waste, and the weapons that the deadly waste came from.  I still remember the nightmares I would have  about nuclear war and the subsequent nuclear winter.  I am deeply against the use of nuclear weapons, the production of them, and the attempt of the United States Department of Energy (DOE)  to dump the nuclear waste on a state with a history of being a garbage dump for other’s deadly wastes and experiments.  To this day, as nuclear weapons continue to be produced, I must ask; “If we can, should we, and if we did should we continue?”  This paper will most importantly show why the use of WIPP must be ended, and with it the production of nuclear weapons.
    The Department of Energy (DOE) has been the single greatest producer of radioactive waste in the United States.(www.emnrd.state.nm.us)  With nuclear weapons production and experimentation centers across the U.S., a huge amount of deadly, nuclear material has been produced as a waste.  Radioactive, or nuclear waste is classified as anything that “during the fissioning or splitting of uranium or plutonium atoms, absorbs energy and changes structure to become radioactive, that is, they emit radiation in the form of alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays.”(Shrader-Frechette)  Lab gloves, plastic bags, tools, spent fuel rods, metal, etc. can all be radioactive waste.  Radioactive waste is incredibly dangerous because of its ionizing qualities.  Ionizing radiation can change the structure of atoms and molecules, thus giving it the ability to cause cancer, genetic effects, and birth defects.(Shrader-Frechette)  Transuranic nuclear wastes are the focus of the paper, and at the center of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant controversy.
    Transuranic (TRU) wastes are materials contaminated by radionuclides with atomic numbers greater than uranium, such as plutonium, americium, and curium.  Transuranic wastes are mainly a byproduct of the fabrication of plutonium from nuclear weapons production.  The DOE’s major producers of transuranic waste are the Rocky Flats Arsenal (Colorado), the Savannah River Plant (South Carolina), Hanford Reservation (Washington), and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (New Mexico) along with five smaller producers. (Gershey, Klein, Party, Wilkerson)  With so many producers of transuranic waste across the country more than 30,000,000 cubic feet of TRU wastes are either in 55 gallon drums or buried in shallow holding trenches.(Shapiro)  As these wastes continue to pile up the DOE has been forced to try to find a permanent resting place for the TRU waste. 
    The DOE has decided that a solid salt bed half a mile below the earth’s surface in southeastern New Mexico is the only proper place to store the transuranic waste.(DOE)  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is the culmination of the DOE’s 1955 decision to find a permanent storage site for the countries radioactive waste.   After several studies, the National Academy of Sciences recommended salt formations as a suitable medium to permanently dispose of radioactive wastes.  the DOE concluded that multiple large chambers and a series of storage rooms excavated in a solid salt bed would house the nuclear waste safely for thousands of years. The salt formation was selected because of its "plastic" nature -- it creeps under pressure. The idea behind disposal in a salt mine relies on the underground pressures to cause the salt to close in on the waste and seal it in the underground rooms, rendering the waste immobile. (www.emnrd.state.nm.us)  
    Further independent scientific research has concluded that the waste could begin escaping the 55 gallon barrels it is stored in and seep into the Rustler Aquifer within 100-14,000 years from now.  Further, research into the nature of decomposition points to possible gas buildup that could keep the salt from enclosing the waste. (CCNS)  However, in 1973, after sites in Oklahoma were found to be unsafe, the site 30 miles from Carlesbad, New Mexico was picked as a possible site for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.  After several sites in that area where found to contain pockets of pressurized brine, a final site was decided upon.  The DOE applied to the Bureau of Land Management  for a turn over of 10,000 acres on the Carlsbad sight, and in 1983 the land application was granted and construction began, all without the public’s support. (www.emnrd.state.nm.us)
    From 1979, when the Carlsbad sight began to be strongly considered as a national dumping center for radioactive wastes, the citizens of New Mexico and many in the rest of the country were vehemently against WIPP’s existence.     With propagandist techniques the Department of Energy tried to encourage New Mexicans to accept WIPP.  With all that they knew about the uncontrollable dangers of nuclear waste, the accidents, and the clear mishandling of nuclear waste in the past, it was impossible to trust the DOE’s judgment when it came to WIPP.  (Shapiro)   
    Of course any anti-nuclear activist like myself would be very excited to see a solution to our nuclear waste problem.  WIPP, however is not a solution to the problem.   The reasons for opposing WIPP are many, and far reaching, and the problems far outweigh the benefits.  In fact, WIPP is more of a problem than a solution when it comes to reducing the use of nuclear materials and weapons. 
    In 1979 when preparations for WIPP began, the solid salt beds that would make up WIPP were thought to be impenetrable.  If they were dry one didn’t have to worry about the highly corrosive mixture of water and salt that could quite quickly corrode the 55 gallon drums and mix with the waste.  However, just two years after excavation began, water movement was found through the storage rooms.(Kuletz)  Within a century the barrels that are installed could be corroded enough to allow the Nuclear waste to mix with the salt water creating a radioactive slurry.  This would lead to water contamination on a grand scale.(CCNS)  The Rustler aquifer, which lies between the site and the surface feeds water to neighboring communities, crop irrigation, and into the Pecos river.  The Pecos river flows into Texas before flowing into Mexico.  Radioactive contamination would create both widespread sickness and death, but also an international incident. (Shrader-Frechette)  The gas created by the mix of salt, water, plutonium, hazardous chemicals, and other unknown materials inside the barrels could breach the surface and unknown chemical reactions could cause unknown, yet devastating effects. 
     Many have asked how the waste could get to the surface, but with the flow of water through the salt, the oil and gas reserves within two miles of the site, the geological activity in the area, and the previously drilled testing holes make it clear that the site is fundamentally flawed.(Shrader-Frechete) With more and more excavation throughout the WIPP site, the affect of human activity may have very well destabilized the salt bed, making fissures and furthering the possibility of radioactive waste contamination.
    With the very apparent possibility of waste contamination on a wide scale the WIPP project must have some plan of recourse.  WIPP plans on extracting any problematic waste should any problems arise. (DOE) However, the salt is supposed to slowly expand into the storage rooms encasing the TRU waste.  This encasing of the waste would make extraction of the waste almost impossible.  The extraction efforts could further destabilize the site bringing more irreversible damage to the fragile desert ecosystem and all surrounding areas.   When the barrels are below ground we cannot observe them and treat them should a problem arise.(CCNS)   This leads to the conclusion of leaving the waste on the sights in which it was created.  This will be outlined further in the concluding statement.
    The DOE’s nuclear weapons production facilities have not been responsible in taking care  of their wastes.(all sources except the DOE)  The 55 gallon drums that contain the waste are not labeled.  No one has the knowledge of what has been put into the barrels.  Hazardous toxic waste has been mixed with transuranic waste in many barrels.  Chemical reactions within the barrels during decomposition could bring dangerous effects.(CCNS)  In addition WIPP was designed to hold only TRU waste, not hazardous toxic waste, or high level waste that could very possibly have been placed into the barrels.(Shapiro)  With little knowledge of what WIPP would actually be storing, the DOE has had a hard time convincing the citizens of New Mexico to accept the waste.
    The transportation of 38,000 shipments of transuranic and hazardous waste across 22 states without an escort brings too many factors into play. (CCNS) 175 Million gallons of radioactive waste traveling across our not-so-great roadways will result in accidents.   The drivers of the 18 wheelers that will transport the waste will not always be fully alert, fully safe, or fully qualified.  Even the waste transportation containers that will house the barrels have failed tests in the past.  The TRUPAC II container is the only container to be certified for use by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  However the regulations that the TRUPAC has been based on have been carried over from a 1960 study that required containers to stand 1460˚ F.  Today over 21 chemicals on our roadways burn at higher temperatures than that.  In fact propane burns at over 4000˚ F. (CCNS)  Should a spill happen, the emergency and health facilities in the over 3000 communities and 22 states in which the transports would travel  are not prepared.  Even in New Mexico it would take the DOE between 1 and 6 hours to reach a spill. (Kuletz)  With the likely- hood of a wreck and the possibility of a spill creating irreversible radioactive damage, transportation of the waste is a risk that cannot be taken.
    Most would agree that codes of conduct in a work environment make everything much safer, especially when the work that is being done is the storage and maintenance of 35 years worth of waste shipments.  WIPP has yet to meet the federal and state safety standards that WIPP has been asked to conform to.  These codes are based on 50 years worth of hands-on research on the proper management of a radioactive waste storage site.(CCNS)  WIPP construction and first shipments have come through, even without the standards being met. Faith in the effective management of the site is not strong and won’t improve until the codes of conduct are met openly.   
    With WIPP’s apparent refusal to agree to safety codes, New Mexicans have expressed a attitude of being exploited.  This exploitation leads one to the conclusion that environmental racism is at the heart of the placement of this facility.  Not only has the culturally and minority rich New Mexico been the production and testing ground for nuclear weapons in the past, but these experiments continue, and the waste they produce saturates the state.  Almost every Native American tribe in New Mexico has been approached with the offer of receiving large amounts of money for the storage of radioactive and hazardous waste.(Shrader-Frechette) It is not a coincidence that the southeastern location of WIPP is in the heart of the most economically depressed regions of
New Mexico.  Many have stated that additionally it is not a coincidence that this region is primarily Hispanic and Native American.  New Mexico has one of the highest percentages of people to radioactive and hazardous waste storage sites in this country.  This fact is driven home by the position of the Mescalero Apache Tribe.  Their reservation lies between the WIPP site and the White Sands Missile Range and is neighbored by the Fort Bliss Military Installation. (Kuletz)  The Mescalero Apache have been approached  to hold radioactive waste, though there has been much opposition, the Tribal Council has agreed to store the waste.  Their justification is that they are already in danger from the WIPP site, so it is logical to get some money out of the deal. (Shapiro)  Because the placement of WIPP can be seen as environmental racism, we must reexamine WIPP’s value and place in our country.
    24,000 years is a long long time.   The plutonium in the TRU waste has a half life of 24,000 years, this means that in that time half of the plutonium would have degraded and changed to harmless elements. (Murray) Hypothetically, had a nuclear waste site been installed 24,000 years ago, we would have no idea where it was.  Had it been labeled using the language of the time, we would not understand the labeling.  Had there meant to be full monitoring of the facility until the waste was safely degraded, we would not know of the dangers of the facility and the waste it contained.  These are things we must consider when a permanent waste storage facility is proposed.  It is not an extreme assumption to expect major social upheaval, large scale political change, war, incredible environmental degradation, and loss of management of WIPP, and the possibility that the site could be forgotten in 24,000 years.  How do we label the site in order to warn future generations.  It is likely that evolution of our species could take place and before that change in social structure, language, and political arrangement on our world.   How can we put a facility half a mile under the earth to permanently store deadly materials if the possibility of wide scale death could be the consequence?  I don’t think we can.
    “The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's first underground repository licensed to safely and permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons.” (www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/wipp.htm)  This quote from the opening info page on the Department of Energy WIPP site is somewhat misguiding.  When I first read the quote I assumed it meant that WIPP was needed to safely store this immense amount of waste that has been left over from our production of nuclear weapons.  I assumed that, however misguided this storage site was, it was  meant to help us solve our problem of radioactive waste.  This is absolutely untrue.  WIPP is being built primarily as a repository for the nuclear weapons production of the 21st century.  98% of WIPP’s storage space is reserved for waste that will be produced! 
    In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Politicians announced that the Cold War was over, we were led to expect a “peace dividend.” But between 1989 and 1998 the DOE continued to increase nuclear weapons spending significantly. DOE's new “Stockpile Stewardship Program,” ostensibly to maintain our aging arsenal, will in fact focus on new design and production weapons technologies - at a cost greater than the original Manhattan Project. (CCNS) At this point the DOE and the US government has had so much opposition to its nuclear weapons program that it has drastically cut back production and research.  One of the primary reasons for this cut on weapons production is that the sites in which these weapons are produced are filled to capacity from their waste.(Shrader-Frechette)  Without room in which to place waste material, DOE production factories have had to cut back on production.  If WIPP is brought into full operation, these sites will be able to begin production and experimentation on nuclear weapons once again. (Kuletz) The Stockpile Stewardship Program will begin production of a new sinister arsenal under the guise of a waste solution.  Even though it has been created under the auspices that it would be a solution to our national nuclear waste problem, the WIPP site would contribute to our nuclear waste problem and the global nuclear weapons problem. (CCNS)
    Although research should continue into practical yet idealistic ways of solving our nuclear waste problem, WIPP is a not a solution to our problem.  Indeed, transporting waste away from where it is produced is a flawed solution.  Communities and the DOE need to take responsibility for the problem they have created.  By keeping the waste at its production center, the waste serves as a block to more nuclear weapon production.  After all, the main reason WIPP was built was to allow the DOE to continue its research and production of nuclear weapons.  As a society we need to move away from nuclear power and the production and armament of nuclear weapons.  Taking responsibility for our waste is the first step toward a nuclear-free country. (Shrader-Frechette, Kuletz, Shapiro, CCNS)
    The fight against WIPP still raged in New Mexico as the first shipment of TRU was received in March, 26, 1999.(www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/wipp.htm)  The danger of transport, the threat to water supplies, the mislabeling of the barrels, the problems with extraction, the threat to future generations, the unmet safety standards, the environmental racism, and the continued production of nuclear weapons all far outweigh the benefits of jobs and storage for existing waste.  Indeed, the the 645 jobs that the WIPP site provide do not outweigh the $29 billion cost to taxpayers or the unimaginable cost should there be an accident.(CCNS)
    I was fundamentally against WIPP from my childhood. Having  growing up with  eco-feminist, anti-nuke activists as parents I was conditioned to hate the deadly nuclear material.  After doing my own research i have found that I to agree, not simply because I was conditioned to, but because the facts overwhelmingly say; “leave the waste at production centers, stop using nuclear materials, stop making bombs, and keep that shit out of New Mexico!”(Rufina Laws, Mescalero Apache anti-WIPP activist)  WIPP is fundamentally flawed.

Stop WIPP!
(common NM lawn sign)


Bibliography
Gerber, Michelle Stenehjem. 1992. On the Home Front. The University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Gershey, Klein, Party, Wilkerson. 1990. Low Level Radioactive Waste: From Cradle to Grave.  Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.

Kuletz, Valerie L. 1998. The Tainted Desert. Routledge, New York.

Murray, Raymond L. 1989. Understanding Radioactive Waste. Battele Press, Columbus, Ohio.

Shapiro, Fred C. 1981. Radwaste, a Reporter’s Investigation of a Growing Nuclear Menace. Random House, New York.

Shrader-Frechette, K.S. 1993. Burying Uncertainty. University of California Press, Los Angeles.

Author Compilation. 1983. Too Hot to Handle?. Yale University Press. New  Haven.

United States Department of Energy. 1988. Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.  Produced by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Anti-Nuke Activist page (www.davepace.com)
NM Energy Minerals and Natural Resources site (www.emnrd.state.nm.us/wipp.htm)
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (www.nuclearactive.org)
Southwest Research and Information site (www.sric.org)
DOE WIPP site (www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/wipp.htm)