Radiactive Waste Facility Taken Over

Print View Posted on: 19 March 2025

On Sunday March the 2nd, 2025, at approximately 6:30 AM (UTC-06:00), personnel from the municipality of Temascalapa forcibly took over the Low and Medium Level Radioactive Waste Storage Center (CADER), property of the National Institute of Nuclear Research (ININ), evicting the personnel who were at the facility and subsequently placing seals of closure at the entrances. The video surveillance and environmental radiation monitoring systems that CADER has were disabled and there was no way to know the status inside the Center.
Negotiations took place out between personnel from the government of the State of Mexico and the Municipality of Temascalapa, without reaching agreements so far.
In addition to the radioactive material and depleted uranium that are kept in the facility, work tools from a foreign company were also retained inside it.
Federal Authorities were working to regain control of the facility. The source term of the facility is estimated at approximately 1,041.55 TBq of Co-60 and its surface area is 16.2 HA

On Thusrday March the 13th, 2025, people from the Comisión Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear y Salvaguardias (CNSNS) conducted two reconnaissance procedures at the CADER, one on safety and the other one on security.
No abnormal conditions were detected during the safety inspection.
Regarding the security inspection, the following were observed:
• It was confirmed that no intrusion occurred in any of the three CADER radioactive waste warehouses.
• Intentional damage was found to equipment related to CCTV, alarm systems, voice and data transmission, and other systems. According to the personnel from the ININ who attended the reconnaissance procedure, the extent of the damage was such that it was not possible to restore these systems during the procedure. Additionally, two CCTV cameras were removed and a third was disabled (covered with a plastic bag), all of which located in the security booth.
• It was confirmed that personnel not associated with the facility broke into the CADER administrative offices. According to ININ staff, a solid-state storage drive containing sensitive CADER information was initially detected missing. The sabotage of the CADER's physical protection system left the facility in imminent risk (according to article 181 of Mexico's General Regulations on Radiological Safety), which is why the preventive and security measure consisting of securing the radioactive material stored in the CADER was executed, placing security seals at the entrances to the three warehouses for this purpose.

Finally, on Friday March the 14th, 2025, after negotiations among the Federal, State and Municipal authorities, control of the CADER was returned to ININ (who is the owner and administrator of the facility), so the CADER is back under his owner control.

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