By spring, the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico expect to complete overhauling an underground staging area for lifting mined salt to the surface, DOE said Tuesday.
“The team is in the process of safely demolishing the old structural steel and will begin work on the new structure soon,” said Brandon Jones, the capital assets projects manager for prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), said in a DOE press release.
In April, DOE and Salado announced the hiring of subcontractor Cementation, a mine development company, for $15 million to rebuild the underground salt bin. WIPP is the nation’s only deep underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office boss Mark Bollinger said in Tuesday’s release that WIPP has been operating for 25 years and the same creeping salt where the waste drums are emplaced can gradually erode infrastructure over time. Crews mine salt to create room for the waste emplaced underground at WIPP
Status of the salt pocket project has been monitored by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board over the past year.
DOE said the project includes demolishing the existing loading pocket and structural steel as well as installing supports and building a new 110-foot-deep loading pocket, according to the release. The revamped salt pocket will also have better hoist controls, installed at a safe distance, to improve worker safety.
