The U.S. Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico on Aug. 21 announced a $75 million award for a subcontractor to build a new underground utility shaft.
The contract went to Harrison Western-Shaft Sinkers Joint Venture, the DOE Carlsbad Field Office and AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a press release.
Colorado-based Harrison Western provides tunneling, underground mine development, mine remediation, and industrial construction. An Internet search also indicates a firm called Shaft Sinkers is the mining operations company for South Africa-based United Mining Services.
The proposed multipurpose shaft would augment the ongoing ventilation upgrade project at the WIPP underground, and provide a second point of access for moving people and materials into the mine.
“This is an extremely important day for us,” said NWP President and Project Manager Bruce Covert in the release. “After an exhaustive and thorough procurement process, we believe the Harrison Western joint venture is the right contractor to undertake this important project.”
Nuclear Waste Partnership on Aug. 15 filed a modification request to its New Mexico Environment Department hazardous waste permit for WIPP. The permit is required to be modified when major infrastructure projects are added.
The company hopes site preparation for the shaft will start early next year, spokesman Bobby St. John said in an Aug. 22 email.
The shaft should be finished in 2022 and be 26 feet wide and extend 2,275 feet below ground. The contract also calls for mining two access drifts, or tunnels, to link the shaft with the existing WIPP underground. By connecting with new equipment on the surface the new shaft can adjust the intake fan and exhaust fan flow, a change that accommodates fluctuations in surface temperature and barometric pressure.
The utility shaft is part of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS), which should provide roughly 540,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of air to the underground, up from the present level of 170,000 cfm.
“This will allow for increased activities in the underground that require the use of diesel equipment,” St. John said. “It will also allow for activities to occur concurrently, for example mining and waste emplacement.”
Sources say enhanced ventilation is needed for various reasons. It should ensure safe conditions underground, particularly as work resumes to pre-2014 levels and new waste disposal panels are added.
The ventilation upgrade should ease compliance with tougher underground air quality regulations from the Labor Department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Last October, WIPP suspended waste disposal for two weeks after several workers became ill from a combination of heat stress and underground air quality. “Low airflow conditions remain a significant underground worker safety challenge” at WIPP, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said at the time.
Nuclear Waste Partnership is also taking measures to limit worker exposure to underground diesel equipment used for loading and underground haulage.
Airflow was reduced in the wake of WIPP’s February 2014 underground radiation leak in order to limit the spread of contamination.
The 2014 radiation incident kept WIPP offline for about three years before it reopened to shipments in a limited capacity in 2017, the Energy Department noted in a Aug. 19 procurement document.
Since reopening, WIPP has run its underground air through filters to improve the mine’s air quality. The filtration process will continue after the new ventilation system is operating, although it will also have the ability to run in non-filtration mode, St. John said.
Work on the primary ventilation infrastructure started last summer under a $135 million contract awarded to Critical Applications Alliance (CAA), comprised of Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries, both of Houston.
DOE Begins Market Research on Technical Support for Carlsbad
Meanwhile, the DOE Office of Environmental Management is doing early planning for a new technical assistance contract for the Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees WIPP.
On Aug. 19, the federal agency issued a request for information (RFI)/sources sought notice for interested businesses with the necessary expertise to do the work.
While the RFI is not a request for proposals, the Carlsbad office is looking for a vendor to provide technical advice and assistance in areas including WIPP waste acceptance criteria, audits and assessments, security, compliance with environmental and other regulations, packaging and transport of transuranic radioactive waste, and general business operations.
The current $43.6 million contract, held by Idaho-based North Wind Portage, started Nov. 12, 2015, and runs through Dec. 3, 2020.
The Energy Department is trying to decide if all or part of any new technical assistance contract should be set aside for small business. Prospective vendors should be aware of the “highly competitive labor and housing markets” around Carlsbad, due to an ongoing oil and gas boom in the area, according to the RFI.
Capability statements should be a maximum of 15 pages and provide an overview of a firm’s experience doing similar work over the past five years, as well as feedback on DOE’s proposed scope of work. The documents must be submitted no later than 7:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 16 to Contracting Officer Ian Rexroad, at [email protected].
Any questions about the RFI announcement should also be emailed to Rexroad.
Pre-accident levels of salt mining and waste emplacement should resume by fiscal 2025, following completion of the new underground ventilation system and new utility shaft, according to the RFI.
