House Panel to Hold Hearing on WIPP ?Oversight Failures?

A House Energy and Commerce panel Friday will hold a hearing titled “Oversight Failures Behind the Radiological Incident at [the Department of Energy’s] Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.” It stands to be the first hearing in Congress specifically focused on WIPP since the February 2014 radiological release and truck fire that shut down the transuranic waste repository. “Investigative reports by the Department of Energy completed this past April have revealed that proper oversight of operations at both Los Alamos National Laboratory and the WIPP site, both in New Mexico, could have prevented the incident and some of its consequences,” states a committee release. “Resumption of WIPP operations, necessary to dispose of certain waste forms from the nation’s nuclear weapons operations, has been estimated to cost upwards of $500 million. The hearing will also address questions of DOE’s system of oversight for contractors.” The hearing by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Friday in the Rayburn House Office Building. A list of witnesses has not yet been posted.