The Energy Department this week put in place just over $15 million in funding to support administrative tasks within various state governments necessary to resume shipments of radio-contaminated material and equipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
The move, announced in a pair of press releases, represents a small but necessary bit of groundwork that greases the skids for the resumption of cross-country shipments of the contaminated material and equipment known as transuranic that have been suspended ever since 2014, when WIPP closed after an accidental underground radiation leak and unrelated underground fire. The mine is scheduled to reopen in December, and to begin accepting new waste shipments in early 2017, DOE has said.
The funding just announced is split between two cooperative agreements, one of which was extended and one of which is new. In one Thursday press release, DOE said it renewed a cooperative agreement with the Western Governors’ Association for joint coordination of waste shipment routes to WIPP and training of safety personnel. The five-year extension runs into 2021 and is worth about $9 million.
In a second Thursday presser, the agency announced it had awarded a five-year, $6.8 million cooperative agreement to the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department to coordinate with other state agencies that have jurisdiction over various facets of transuranic waste-transportation within the Land of Enchantment. That pact also runs into 2021.
The Western Governors’ Association’s WIPP Transportation Technical Advisory Group is DOE’s primary point of contact with state governments in the region about transuranic waste on its way to WIPP, or from one DOE-managed site to another. The group includes state officials from California, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Under the extended cooperative agreement, the member states of the Western Governors’ Association will continue to provide:
- Inspection of drivers, vehicles, and packages.
- Reporting on bad weather and road conditions.
- Safe parking areas and parking procedures.
- Advance notice of WIPP shipments heading over the road.
- Medical emergency response and training.
- Emergency response plans and procedures.
Meanwhile, DOE’s new five-year cooperative agreement with the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department will help the state pay for:
- Monitoring of WIPP shipments.
- Emergency response planning.
- Emergency response training and drills.
- Equipment and supplies for transportation emergency responses.
- WIPP Transportation Safety Program activities, including public awareness campaigns.
WIPP is slated to reopen Dec. 12, according to a 12-month WIPP restart schedule made public in February. The department maintains it will reopen on or around that date, even though some activities associated with the restart began much later than expected.
For example, integrated cold runs — by-the-book waste-emplacement dress rehearsals in which workers practice official disposal procedures with non-radioactive waste containers — started June 1. That is three months later than the Feb. 22 start-date on the public schedule.
The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office did not reply to a request for comment this week about how much margin the agency and WIPP prime contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, have built into the public WIPP restart schedule.
As recently as a town hall held in Carlsbad on June 1, Jim Blankenhorn, Nuclear Waste Partnership’s WIPP recovery manager and deputy project manager, said the company and its customer remained on track to “meet or beat” the Dec. 12 restart date.
