N3B finishes cutting up corrugated metal pipes at Los Alamos

The Huntington Ingalls-led Department of Energy contractor in charge of remediating legacy waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has finished excavating and cutting down to size corrugated metal pipes long buried at Technical Area 54.

That is according to an update this week from Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) President and General Manager Brad Smith.

N3B has finished size reduction of 158 corrugated metal pipes, each weighing upwards of 10,000 pounds, and containing transuranic waste, Smith said in a company report on work occurring during the first quarter of fiscal 2025. Fiscal 2025 began Oct. 1 2024.

The huge concrete-filled pipes have been buried at Technical Area 54, Area G since the 1980s. N3B started digging up the pipe for DOE in 2022. Each pipe was chopped up into five sections using a hydraulic sheer, according to the contractor’s report.

“Up next is certifying the CMP [corrugated metal pipe] waste and shipping it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico,” starting later in 2025, Smith went on to say in the summary.

In the update, Smith also said N3B has implemented around-the-clock operations for the hexavalent chromium interim measures treatment system.

In December, DOE picked up N3B’s final two-year option for cleanup work at Los Alamos. The N3B cleanup contract, which started in 2018, is valued at roughly $2.1 billion. The contractor is scheduled to stay on the job at Los Alamos through April 2028.