BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CROSBY TOWNSHIP -- Inspectors from the Nevada Test Site, dumping ground for the nation's nuclear refuse, reported Wednesday that Fernald is not quite ready to resume cross-country shipments of low-level radioactive waste. But it's getting closer.
Cleanup of the former uranium processing plant ran into trouble in December, when a truck driver hauling low-level radioactive waste from Fernald to Nevada found contaminated liquid leaking from a container near Kingman, Ariz.
Department of Energy (DOE) officials say the spill posed no threat to public health or the environment. Nevertheless, the incident -- coming on the heels of an unsatisfactory October review of the Fernald shipping process -- prompted the Nevada Test Site to refuse further shipments. The multimillion-dollar cleanup program ground to a halt.
Since then, the DOE and site manager Fluor Daniel Fernald have been working to correct a checklist of 10 problems. A team of inspectors from the Nevada Test Site checked out the results in late August. In a report released Wednesday, the team said Fernald still has one area that needs work: It must keep better tabs on the condition of its scales, torque wrenches and other equipment.
The wrenches are used to seal containers of low-level radioactive muck prior to shipping, while the scales ensure that they are packed to the correct weight.
Conducting a random inspection of some of that equipment, Nevada Test Site personnel found that Fluor Daniel Fernald and DOE officials were not always able to verify when some equipment had been calibrated, or when the next calibration check was due.
"Some of the records were loosely kept," said inspection team leader Mike Noland. Some types of calibrated equipment are used to verify the radioactive level of waste prior to shipping -- to make sure that potentially dangerous material is not mixed in with the relatively harmless variety and mishandled.
Department of Energy officials at Fernald said none of those mechanisms was found to be out of sync.
To correct the problem, Fluor Daniel employees in waste management and other departments will be made personally responsible for verifying that their equipment is calibrated, said Don Paine, vice president for the silos project and waste management. In the past, that has been left to maintenance crews.
John Sattler, DOE waste management team leader, said that if everything goes smoothly, small waste shipments are likely to resume after the first of the year and gradually increase in size and frequency. Fernald officials had hoped to begin in October.
"I would say that it's made a small additional delay," Mr. Sattler said. "We're planning to take a very cautious approach to resuming shipping, to make sure that everything's A-OK."
Record-keeping at Fernald has been updated and refined to keep better tabs on the amounts and levels of radioactive material being trucked to Nevada. Containers are now more clearly marked.
Suspect "white boxes" that leaked on the road have been abandoned, and scientists have outlined manufacturing specifications for a new, more sturdy type of container. Fluor Daniel will soon seek bids from companies that would like to manufacture them.
And the waste being shipped will be treated and dried more thoroughly, to prevent liquid from leaching out and leaking while in transit.
