The Energy Department has applied for renewal of the state permit to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
The New Mexico Environment Department issued the current Hazardous Waste Facility Permit to DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership in late November 2010. The state agency has said it has no timetable for deciding on the permit application submitted in March.
This new permit would potentially extend operation of the underground transuranic waste disposal site for 10 years and eliminate language in the current permit that says WIPP will stop emplacing waste in 2024 and be permanently closed within a decade afterward, according to the 1,300-page application.
The Energy Department noted in the application that WIPP ceased waste disposal operations for three years as a result of a February 2014 underground radiation leak. In essence, “the final waste emplacement date is unknown at this time,” DOE says.
Citizens groups in New Mexico are wary of this change, with Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) Administrator Don Hancock calling this new approach “WIPP forever.”
The application says the underground facility will be considered full when it reaches maximum capacity of about 176,000 cubic meters of waste, as allowed by the 1992 Land Withdrawal Act for WIPP.
