An advocacy group has asked the New Mexico Environment Department to hold public meetings soon on the Energy Department’s plan to build a new underground multi-use shaft into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.
In an April 15 letter to the state agency, Southwest Research and Information Center Administrator Don Hancock said the state needs to hold public meetings as it considers a December 2017 modification to DOE’s hazardous waste permit allowing construction of the complex shaft project.
Hancock said Monday that NMED made no decision in 2018 on the matter while it focused on considering approval of a change to calculating waste volume should be calculated in the WIPP underground.
The Energy Department’s prime contractor for WIPP, Nuclear Waste Partnership, issued a sources-sought notice in October 2018 seeking a subcontractor to sink the new utility shaft about 2,200 feet deep and 30-feet in diameter. The contractor hopes construction can start in July of this year and be finished around August 2022 at the transuranic waste disposal site.
The multipurpose shaft that would provide a second point of access for moving workers and materials into the WIPP mine, NWP spokesman Donavan Mager said by telephone Monday. This second access point would be important as new waste-storage rooms and panels are gradually added to the underground footprint, he added.
In addition to access, the new shaft would connect to the existing facilities for ventilation purposes, according to the modification request. The new shaft, No. 5, will be located nominally 1,200 feet west of the air intake shaft and will provide most of the intake air to the repository, according to the modification request.
An NMED spokeswoman said the state agency is reviewing additional information submitted by the applicant in March.
