After its waste shipment rate declined briefly due to staffing, the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is again sending about 12 shipments most weeks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a recent report.
After bosses at the Idaho National Laboratory cut the number of weekly shipments during October to seven from 12, the rate bounced back to 12 starting in mid-November, according to a staff report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
Hitting 12 shipments per week of operation from the Idaho lab’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project can require staff overtime, and managers temporarily cutback on that prior to a Nov. 17 continuing budget resolution. The latest stopgap funding deal ends Jan. 19.
Separately, the DNFSB staff report dated Dec. 1, said some defense-related transuranic waste drums from Idaho “are approaching their age limit to be shipped without overpacking,” which involves use of additional packaging inside the container to improve safety.
DOE managers at Idaho instituted a long-term order on overpacking after a drum sent to WIPP in 2022 leaked and had to be returned to Idaho, according to the DNFSB report. “The board’s staff plans to follow the evaluation of risk of shipping these older waste containers without overpacking.”
