The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
The Energy Department and WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) have stopped mining Panel 8 until September to shift resources to address ground control issues in other areas of the underground transuranic waste site, according to the latest site report from the DNFSB.
Ground control is a mining term to refer to upkeep of underground shafts, by roof bolting and other means, to preserve evacuation routes and protect workers from being hurt or killed by falling rock.
The Energy Department is spending $8 million to $9 million to mine Panel 8 and prepare it for waste emplacement in 2021. The agency had hoped to mine 50,000 tons of salt in fiscal 2018, but the facility is on pace to extract only between 35,000 and 40,000 tons.
There are various reasons. For one, only one mining machine is currently operating at WIPP, so progress halts with any maintenance or unexpected repair, DOE told the DNFSB. It is possible a second machine could be recovered from another area of the mine. The purchase of a used or refurbished machine from a local potash mine is also possible.
There is also currently only enough airflow underground to accommodate two haul trucks, which are used to carry away the muck from salt mining. Panel 8 will need about 113,000 tons of rock salt to be mined and moved out of the panel prior to waste emplacement, DOE said. A contract for construction of a new permanent WIPP ventilation system could be announced in September.
