During the first month-and-a-half of operations in 2018, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 30 shipments of transuranic waste, with two-thirds of them coming from the Idaho National Laboratory.
That comes out to an average of almost five shipments per week over a six-week period. In addition to 20 shipments from INL, Waste Control Specialists in Texas sent seven shipments and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee sent three. Data was available through Feb. 16.
The underground salt mine received 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, which exceeded its own internal target.
After an almost three-year outage following a February 2014 underground fire and subsequent radiation release, WIPP resumed operations in December 2016 and started receiving waste shipments again last April. The Energy Department’s latest budget request indicates the facility aims to eventually hit 10 shipments per week although it was unclear exactly when DOE hopes to reach the target.
During 2013, its last full year of operation, WIPP received 724 shipments, which would translate to almost 14 per week.
