Developing two new deep-mine panels for disposal of transuranic waste at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not entail new environmental risks, according to a document posted last week on the procurement website for a new prime contract.
Excavation and use of two replacement panels, dubbed Panels 11 and 12, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) would make up for loss of a couple of panels as a result of a February 2014 vehicle fire and underground radiation leak, DOE said in the April document, a supplemental analysis for site-wide operations. It was posted as part of a cache of records for the ongoing solicitation for a new management and operations contract.
The extra panels would mean WIPP would again have the equivalent of 10 underground panels as envisioned in a 1997 supplemental environmental impact statement, DOE said in this latest supplement analysis, a 75-page document. WIPP began disposing of defense-related transuranic waste in 1999.
“In 2018, the DOE decided not to use equivalent Panel 9 for TRU [transuranic] waste disposal in order to continue to protect WIPP workers from both radiological and deteriorating ground control conditions” following the 2014 accidents, according to the document. “Equivalent Panel 9 has been closed and equivalent Panel 10 will likely not be used for TRU waste disposal operations,” DOE said.
Also, WIPP abandoned parts of Rooms 4, 6, and 7 within Panel 7, the panel where waste emplacement is now winding down, DOE said in the 75-page document. Salt mining is nearly complete at Panel 8, which should be ready for waste emplacement by spring 2022, DOE has said.
The blessing of the New Mexico Environment Department must be obtained prior to mining Panel 11 and Panel 12, DOE said in the recent analysis. The agency anticipates approval in the summer of 2023.
Nuclear Waste Partnership, an Amentum-BWXT team, has the existing $2.7 prime contract that started in October 2012 and is slated to run through March 2022. Bids for a new contract, potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years, are due to DOE by Aug. 3.
Also in the 2021 supplemental analysis, the DOE said the population within 50 miles of WIPP grew from roughly 118,000 to 129,000 people from 2010 to 2020 based on census figures. The rising population is attributed in large part to booming business in the regional oil business.
