EM approves critical decision 4 for WIPP SSCVS project

According to an April 4 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management approved an exemption request to allow for critical decision 4 approval for the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

The Environmental Management office approved the request on March 12, the report said. Critical decision 4, meaning the formal approval stage where a project is considered complete and ready to operate, would happen after the management self assessment, but before contractor and federal readiness assessments are completed, the report said.

Staff from the safety board were onsite at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., from March 17 through March 20 to observe contractor readiness to startup the ventilation system. Earlier in March, DOE said it has finished commissioning the long-anticipated new underground ventilation system. 

The roughly $500-million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is designed to more than triple underground airflow to WIPP up to 540-,000 cubic feet per minute, DOE has said.

Exchange Monitor reported in January that the Industrial Company, a Kiewit company that completed the ventilation system after the original project subcontractor was replaced, was on the brink of handing over control of the ventilation system to Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, which is the WIPP prime.

The new ventilation system should eventually enable WIPP to conduct simultaneous operations for waste disposal, salt mining and maintenance.