Regulatory compliance at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Many activities are being pursued at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to ensure full environmental compliance. Some of these activities are unique because WIPP is, at present, a one-of-a-kind installation, a mined repository for the storage/disposal of transuranic waste, much of which will be regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) because of the presence of hazardous constituents. The success or failure of this facility is extremely important to the nuclear industry because of national concerns about the ultimate disposal of nuclear waste. The major activities pertaining to ensuring environmental compliance at the WIPP are discussed in this paper. The regulations with the biggest impact at this facility are as follows: (1) the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), (2) the RCRA, and (3) radiation protection programs. Internal self-assessments are conducted by several different organizations at the WIPP to ensure that existing regulatory compliance requirements are being met