TRU Waste Management at Area G
Management of transuranic waste storage, characterization, and remediation
Area G Site History
Technical Area 54 (TA-54) is the legacy waste management area at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Opened in 1957, Area G is a site within TA-54 that contains legacy radioactive waste disposal areas. This site includes 32 pits, 194 shafts and four trenches with depths ranging from 10 to 65 feet below the original ground surface. Area G is now dedicated to storing, characterizing and remediating LANL’s legacy transuranic (TRU) and low-level waste before it’s shipped off-site for permanent disposal.
goal:
Ensure contaminated waste from past LANL operations does not threaten human or environmental health
Project priority:
Location:
Safety Systems
The TRU waste containers are stored in domes equipped with fire detection and air monitoring systems. The containers are routinely monitored and inspected. TRU waste from LANL’s legacy defense-related activities is disposed deep underground at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico. Prior to shipment, the containers and their contents are independently, non-destructively analyzed and certified under a state- and Environmental Protection Agency-approved program to confirm that containers meet the WIPP Waste Acceptance Criteria.
TRU WASTE
TRU waste is radioactive waste containing more than 100 nanocuries of alpha-emitting transuranic isotopes per gram of waste, with half-lives greater than 20 years. Transuranic elements are those with a higher atomic number than uranium (92).
LATEST STATUS
Since May 2018, N3B has
- Completed 165 shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste totaling 526.35 cubic meters to WIPP.
- Shipped off-site more than 11,900 cubic meters of low-level and mixed low-level radioactive waste for disposal.
CORRUGATED METAL PIPES
In 2022, N3B initiated retrieval and size-reduction operations for 158 corrugated metal pipes (CMPs). In 1986, the CMPs, containing cemented radioactive waste, were buried in Area G. The waste comes from a former LANL radioactive liquid waste treatment facility at TA-21 that operated during the Cold War era. Each CMP is 20 feet long and weighs between 10,000 and 14,000 pounds. The CMPs must be retrieved and cut into five pieces. Each piece is loaded into a standard waste box and will be characterized and certified prior to shipment off-site.
Shipping Waste Off-Site
TRU waste containers destined for WIPP, such as drums, standard waste boxes and 10-drum overpacks, are secured inside shipping containers that meet strict Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements and testing under extreme conditions. Work at Area G also includes shipping mixed low-level waste and low-level waste to off-site disposal facilities.
WIPP WASTE ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA
Below-ground Waste at Area G
Preparations are underway to begin retrieval of TRU waste buried at Pit 9, a former waste disposal site. Pit 9 contains an estimated 3,882 metal drums, 191 fiberglass reinforced plywood boxes, and six other containers. Retrieval is scheduled to begin in late 2026.
