The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., this week saw its community rate for COVID-19 drop to “medium” from “high,” according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a result, it appears the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) might be the only DOE nuclear cleanup site approved to ditch its masks while indoors this week.
That is according to the latest data recorded Friday morning, based on information updated Thursday, by the online county-by-county online tracker run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
DOE typically requires its sites to reimpose indoor masking rules when the local transmission rate goes high, as reflected by the CDC data.
As was the case last week, most DOE Office of Environmental Management locales remain in the high category.
Here is a state-by-state rundown of community rates, according to CDC:
- California: Alameda County. (Livermore National Laboratory) was high, as was Ventura County (Santa Susana Field Laboratory).
- District of Columbia: (DOE headquarters) is low.
- Idaho: Bonneville County, Idaho (Idaho National Laboratory) was listed as medium.
- Kentucky: Fayette County (Lexington project office) was high as was McCracken County (Paducah Site).
- Nevada: Nye County (Nevada National Security Site) was high.
- New Mexico: Eddy County (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) was medium, likewise Los Alamos County (Los Alamos National Laboratory) was medium.
- New York: Cattaraugus County (West Valley Demonstration Project) was low.
- Ohio: Pike County (Portsmouth Site) was high as was Hamilton County (Cincinnati-based Consolidated Business Center).
- South Carolina: Aiken County and Barnwell County (Savannah River Site) were both high.
- Tennessee: Anderson County and Roane County were both high (Oak Ridge Site).
- Utah: Grand County (Moab Tailings) was high.
- Washington: Benton County and Franklin County (Hanford Site) were both high.
The number of active onsite cases of COVID-19 at Office of Environmental Management locations within the past week was 180, which is eight below last week’s total, a spokesperson said by email Friday.
