The Santa Fe New Mexican, June 8, 2014

Page 1

Live without Navajo tacos — and Belmont Stakes: No Triple Crown frybread — and live longer Opinions, B-1 for California Chrome Sports, D-1

Locally owned and independent

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Mine closure hits Questa hard

www.santafenewmexican.com $1.25

Hail, rain batters Santa Fe

Experts urge tax overhaul

Shutdown of molybdenum deposit leaves future uncertain for 300 workers and Taos County. LOCAL NEWS, C-1

rs a t S h Nort

Consultants call for state Legislature to study replacing gross receipts tax. LOCAL NEWS, C-1

’S EXICO NEWM 2 013-2014 S HERN NORT PA THLE TE RE TOPP

1. Venting

The drums in each payload are loaded into TRUPACT containers at the TRU loading facility. The load is inspected, the TRUPACT is sealed and the shipment is transported to WIPP. LANS, CAST

If a drum is not already vented, a small HEPA filter is inserted into each drum to ensure it does not have any buildup of flammable or explosive gas. LANS

6. Staging Because there are strict requirements for transporting drums to WIPP, drums are staged in preparation for shipment. LANS, ES

B

ecause much of the transuranic waste stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory was generated long ago, each drum of waste undergoes an extensive process to ensure it meets the stringent acceptance requirements at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Contractors involved in each step are listed at the end:

SOURCES: LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY, THE NEW MEXICAN

By Staci Matlock The New Mexican

O

n the night of Feb. 14, a mix of chemicals inside a container of radioactive waste in an underground salt cavern in Southern New Mexico created so much heat the drum’s lid cracked. Radiation leaked out. Heavy bags of magnesium oxide stacked on top of the containers to prevent leaks shifted and disintegrated from the force of the reaction. A small amount of radiation made its way through filters and an air vent to the ground above the excavated salt bed. An alarm sounded at 11:14 p.m. that night, and the handful of employees at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad were quickly evacuated and tested for radiation exposure. Officials said 21 tested positive, but none at dangerous levels. Within hours, the nation’s only permanent repository for nuclear waste — the one officials said would never have a radiation leak when the site opened 15 years ago — was shut down for what could be several years. The container in question, a 55-gallon drum

Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com

El Rancho de las Golondrinas: Spring Festival and Children’s Fair Demonstrations by weavers and blacksmiths, children’s activities, music, and dancing, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., 334 Los Pinos Road, $8 at the entrance, discounts available, 471-2261.

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds E-10

COUR TESY

How Bill Gates pulled off the Common Core revolution By Lyndsey Layton The Washington Post

Nancy Calhoun Cain, 73, May 29 Sonia Seabrook Gans, June 4 Francisco Medina, 49, June 3 Laura Elizabeth Emanuel, May 26 Janet E. Morgan, June 5 Nancy Carna Stuart, 51, Santa Fe, May 21 Jerry F. Urban, 68, June 3 PAGE C-2

Comics Inside

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035

Real Estate E-1

LANS: Los Alamos National Security is a group of companies contracted by the Department of Energy to manage and operate Los Alamos National Laboratory. LANS consists of Bechtel National, Babcock & Wilcox, the University of California, and URS Energy and Construction Corporation. ES: EnergySolutions is on contract with DOE and LANS to manage the preparation of waste at the lab for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. NWP-CCP: Nuclear Waste Partnership-Central Characterization Project is contracted by DOE to ensure LANL waste meets the requirements to be stored at WIPP. Nuclear Waste Partnership also is contracted to manage WIPP. CAST is one of two companies contracted to load transuranic mixed radioactive waste from the lab and take it to WIPP.

Stabbing has links to Web myth Today Partly sunny, evening storm possible. High 81, low 51. PAGE D-6

Lotteries A-2

Opinions B-1

Wisconsin attack that left 12-year-old with 19 stab wounds called a “wake-up call to parents” on influence of Internet on children. PAGE A-6

Sports D-1

Time Out E-16

8, 20 14

e e athlet Femal year of the

The contractors

Obituaries

AY,J UN E

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Drums are X-rayed to ensure no prohibited items are present as part of the certification for WIPP. NWP-CCP, ES, LANS

Please see JOURNEY, Page A-4

MEX ICAN AN

SUND

If a drum contains a prohibited item, it goes to remediation, where any liquids are absorbed, the item is removed and the contents repackaged. LANS, ES

labeled LA00000068660, began its life in the birthplace of the atomic bomb. From a facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Area G, where the waste was repacked, to a room in the salt cavern near Carlsbad, where the drum was stacked and waiting to burst, a whole slew of people were responsible for how it was handled. Tracing the container’s path from Los Alamos to WIPP reveals the complexities of overseeing and safely handling the transfer of radioactive waste from the nation’s nuclear programs. LANL and other facilities have relied on the cavernous salt beds at WIPP as a permanent solution for dealing with the waste from decades of nuclear arms research and production. The process of packaging and shipping the waste involves more than a dozen state and federal agencies and private contractors — creating layer upon layer of regulatory and supervisory checkpoints. The Feb. 14 leak has raised questions about these safeguards, both at the state and federal levels. Among the discoveries since the leak, for example,

NEW

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3. Remediation

Each drum undergoes a two-step process in a highefficiency neutron counter. This process determines the identity of radioactive materials and how much of each constituent it contains. NWP-CCP, ES, LANS

TAV ON/

The Class of 201 4

4. Real-time radiography

5. Radioassay

MON

THE

Each drum is X-rayed (real-time radiography) to ensure it does not contain items prohibited by WIPP, such as aerosol cans, corrosive or ignitable matrials or liquids. If a drum contains no prohibited items, it move to step 5. LANS, ES

A LANL drum’s trip to WIPP

INSIDE E E.

2. Pre-screening

7. Certification

u The best prep athletes of 2013-14. LUK

Tracing breached container’s path from Los Alamos to Southern N.M. dump reveals complexities of overseeing, handling transfer of waste from nation’s nuclear programs 8. Loading

u A salute to local graduates

WALD ORF

Waste drum’s journey: From LANL to leak

WIPP personnel compile all available data and certify that the containers meet the criteria for disposal at WIPP. NWP-CCP, ES, LANS

2 SECTIONS OF STARS

Storm system pounds New Mexico, spurs tornado watch for Santa Fe County. LOCAL NEWS, C-3

The pair of education advocates had a big idea, a new approach to transform every public-school classroom in America. By early 2008, many of the nation’s top politicians and education leaders had lined up in support. But that wasn’t enough. The duo needed money — tens of millions of dollars, at least — and they needed a champion who could overcome the politics that had thwarted every previous attempt to institute national standards. So they turned to the richest man in the world. On a summer day in 2008, Gene Wilhoit, director of a national group of state school chiefs, and David Coleman, an emerging evangelist for the standards movement, spent hours in Bill Gates’ sleek headquarters near Seattle, trying to persuade him and his wife, Melinda, to turn their idea into reality. Coleman and Wilhoit told the Gateses that academic standards varied so wildly between states that high school diplomas had lost all meaning, that as many as 40 percent of college freshmen needed remedial classes and that U.S. students were falling behind their foreign competitors. The pair also argued that a fragmented education system stifled innovation because textbook publishers and software developers were catering to a large number of small markets instead of exploring breakthrough products. That seemed to resonate with the man who led the creation of the world’s dominant computer operating system.

Please see GATES, Page A-5

Coming home to controversy As POW Bergdahl prepares to return to U.S., questions remain By Martha Mendoza The Associated Press

Bowe Bergdahl stands, hands at his sides, his loosefitting Pashtun smock and pants bright white against the rocky landscape. The hillsides are dotted with armed Afghans, rifles ready. A Black Hawk appears in the clouds. After almost five years in captivity, the American soldier, head shaved, eyes blinking, is about to finally see freedom. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time,” a member of a special forces team shouts over the roar of the copter. Bergdahl breaks down. It was supposed to be a moment for celebration, America’s only military captive in the 13-year Afghan conflict free at last. And in his hometown in Idaho, where trees are bedecked with yellow ribbons and prayers never stopped, indeed it is. But for the rest of the country, Bergdahl’s capture and release have thrust him into a furious debate.

Please see POW, Page A-6

Neighbors C-5

BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

Six sections, 76 pages 165th year, No. 159 Publication No. 596-440


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