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Thursday, May 29, 2014

cleanup cost

Let's start a pool on how much it will cost to get the "bad kitty litter" barrels into compliance with the WIPP waste acceptance criteria.

My guess is $2M per barrel.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

With an estimated 3 year shutdown of WIPP, sealing off of the caverns and the issue of around 500 barrels of these "kitty little" pop-rock bombs sitting around at other locations in the Southwest, I put the total cost at around $2 billion at a minimum.

" WINNING ! " -- Charlie

Anonymous said...

Dollars per barrel is such a dull measure. Come on folks, you can be more creative than that. How about CACs per barrel? At prevailing rates, that would work out to about 1 CAC per barrel.

What, you ask, is this CAC unit? According to the local table, it is "Charlie's Annual Compensation".

Anonymous said...

WIPP is now saying it will be closed for normal business for 2 years at a minimum with a closure for 4 years being possible.

Given what we know about DOE estimates, I would put the actual time period at around a decade. That figure may even be wildly optimistic given the incredibly long times needed to finish NIF, DARHT, etc.

The cost? Billions at least. Perhaps even tens of billions if it is allowed to drag out year after year for a decade or longer.

Without a safe repository for low to mid level waste products, count on most of the nuclear weapons and other DoD & NASA reactor work at LANL being put out of commission for a very long time. Charlie's one year shut-down of the work out at TA-55 may just be the beginning of a long hiatus. The Greg Mello's of the world should be delirious right now. It's amazing that McMillan still has his job (for now) after this fiasco.


Anonymous said...

McMillan's Dep. Director did "the right thing" and resigned from her position after the damage to her integrity became to hot to handle. Perhaps McMillan should man-up and do likewise? He has managed his lab very poorly. Of course, he could also dump the blame on his low level workers and claim he had no idea how sloppy things had become with the WIPP waste packaging. My guess is the latter. He likes fine clothes, expensive cars and the money that buys them.

Anonymous said...

May 30, 2014 at 9:55 PM

Do your own research, if you know how.

Anonymous said...

It's not my job to research your unsupported claims. Try publishing a scientific article without a reference list. It will be rejected, as I have done with your dreck.

Anonymous said...

I worked in the Transuranic Program in the Environmental Waste and Management Organization (EWMO). Managers outside the program would inform me to "just get the waste on the front or back door, just get it out of here". This attitude finally caught up with McMillan; basically, they were not paying attention. There were lots of warnings like an abysmal performance on the Facility Centered Assessment (FCA) at EWMO a couple of years ago. McMillan was to busy "following the money" and this ended up "biting him on the ass". Fitting.....

Anonymous said...

Yahoo news

http://news.yahoo.com/feds-could-2-years-seal-nuke-dump-222636282.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQpBolTKwoAEu3QtDMD



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It could take two years or more for the federal government to seal off hundreds of potentially dangerous containers at its troubled underground nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a filing Friday.

Responding to an order from the New Mexico Environment Department to detail its plans, the department gave broad ranges that indicate it could take a minimum of about 100 work weeks — and possibly twice that long — to secure the rooms at the now-shuttered plant where more than 350 containers of toxic waste from decades of building nuclear bombs at Los Alamos
National Laboratory is stored.

Also on Friday, the Department of Energy said Los Alamos National Laboratory won't be able to meet a deadline for getting the last of thousands of barrels of the waste containing things like contaminated gloves and tools off its northern New Mexico campus before wildfire season peaks because of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's closure.

Anonymous said...

Also on Friday, the Department of Energy said Los Alamos National Laboratory won't be able to meet a deadline for getting the last of thousands of barrels of the waste containing things like contaminated gloves and tools off its northern New Mexico campus before wildfire season peaks because of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's closure.

June 1, 2014 at 8:15 AM

As usual LANL doesn't have the courage or fortitude to admit they won't the deadline of the 3706 (cubic-meters) Program. This bad boy (LANL) has to have it's mommy (DOE/NNSA) tell everyone that their son (LANL) pottied their diaper. What a disgrace!

Anonymous said...

The LANL Subcontract Specialist (Andy Ezell) who approved the use of "kitty litter" mysteriously no longer works at LANL. He's been "Xed", no where to be found. All the LANL transuranic managers who were informed on the e-mail of it's (kitty litter) approval mysteriously are still employed at LANL.

Anonymous said...

Mind you this was just from a social conversation. There is speculation that over the next 5 years that the WIPP clean up will cost one billion or more, which will have to come from LANS, so a RIFF/incentive will be on the way with need to get rid of up to 1/6 of the workforce. No idea if this is how it will play out, of course some more clean up money may appear to offset the costs, or it could take many more years, or it will be much cheaper or more expensive, etc, but the point is that this could be a big deal with real consequences and not just for LANL but the whole NNSA complex.

Anonymous said...

There is speculation...No idea if this is how it will play out...more clean up money may appear to offset the costs...it could take many more years...or it will be much cheaper or more expensive...this could be a big deal...

June 1, 2014 at 6:34 PM

Well, that was certainly a definitive, well-reasoned, authoritative prediction. Any more pearls of wisdom, Mr. Crystal Ball?

Anonymous said...

"Well, that was certainly a definitive, well-reasoned, authoritative prediction. Any more pearls of wisdom, Mr. Crystal Ball?

June 1, 2014 at 7:19 PM"

The guy did say it was all just speculation. In any case the math is rather sound if you buy two points. (1) it will cost one billion.(2) LANL pays for it. That is rather straight forward and fairly well reasoned.

Would you like to offer pearl of wisdom yourself?

Anonymous said...

I don't speculate in the absence of data or other information. What would be the point? Hint: Your speculation that LANL will pay for it is lacking any evidence.

Anonymous said...

Get a life and post about something important for a change.

Anonymous said...

" Hint: Your speculation that LANL will pay for it is lacking any evidence.

June 1, 2014 at 10:01 PM"

Who will pay for it?

Anonymous said...

Since WIPP is shut down, the WIPP employees are free to fix the problem while continuing to draw their current salary. Or did you think DOE would devastate the Carlsbad area economy by laying off everyone at WIPP?

Anonymous said...

No need to lay off anyone at WIPP. They will simply go through a 4 year training program on "safety issues" and continue to draw good paychecks.

It's another Work Free Safety Zone in action.

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think Syed Kazim Ali may be on to something more effective than NIF for achieving ignition.

Anonymous said...

I guess Blogger doesn't provide a method for stopping this kind of spam. Or Scooby just doesn't know how to use it...

Anonymous said...

Why are you profiling the well-respected Dr. Ali? Just because he has one of "those" names? He probably knows just as much about LLNL as other posters on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Maybe even more!

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