Recovery operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) were temporarily shut down Monday when high levels of non-nuclear airborne contamination were found in the northwestern and southern edges of the underground transuranic waste storage facility.
The “safety pause,” which has not been lifted, was announced in a Tuesday press release from Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), WIPP’s management and operations contractor.
“On two occasions during the past week air quality instruments, carried by an underground worker on a bolting crew, detected elevated levels of carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds,” the contractor said in the press release.
Workers left the affected areas and put up barriers around them, NWP said, adding that the workers “were examined by site medical personnel and released,” and “the Safety Pause will remain in effect in the impacted areas until NWP has fully developed and implemented the appropriate compensatory measures necessary to ensure worker safety in all areas of the mine.”
An NWP spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the cause of the high readings. WIPP’s ventilation system is being improved after an accidental underground fire and unrelated radiation release forced NWP to tamp down the airflow in the underground to avoid spreading contaminants.
The Energy Department aims to reopen WIPP to waste shipments from across the DOE weapons complex by Dec. 12. It was not immediately clear how the safety pause will affect that timeline.
