Due to the continued shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, New Mexico is extending deadlines for storing waste aboveground at the site, according to an order by the New Mexico Environment Department released yesterday. The extension only applies to waste that had reached the facility but had not been placed underground before WIPP was shut down following a Feb. 5 fire. For contact-handled packages to be moved from the parking area container storage into the waste handling building, a 30-day limit has been extended to 60 days. And for contact-handled waste already in the waste handling building, a 60-day limit will be extended to 105 days.
WIPP should not accept new waste until normal operations resume, according to the NMED order. “If the TRU mixed waste stored in the WHB cannot be placed in the WIPP underground by the expiration of the deadlines … the Permittees shall submit a written proposal to the Department outlining alternative storage options ten days prior to the expiration of such deadlines,” the order states.
