The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 27 shipments of transuranic waste in April, which marks its busiest month since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) logged five months in 2020 when it received 20 or more shipments. October was the busiest month, with 25 recorded shipments, according to the public database for the disposal site.
Shipments are typically recorded on the public website about two weeks after they arrive at the mine.
WIPP received 20 shipments during January before starting a nearly two-month maintenance outage the following month that resulted in only three shipments being received during February and zero during March.
All but eight of the shipments during the past month came from Idaho National Laboratory, according to data from DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico sent six shipments and two from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Staffing restrictions connected with the COVID-19 pandemic depressed WIPP throughput in 2020, when the transuranic waste disposal site received only 192 shipments.
WIPP was forced offline for about three years following an underground radiation leak in February 2014. Officials from DOE have said the facility will not reach its pre-accident totals of 700 shipments or better until a new ventilation system is completed, something now targeted in 2025.
