The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 56 shipments of transuranic waste in June, according to the federal agency’s public website for the site.
There were 45 during June from the Idaho National Laboratory; four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, three from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and four from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the latest monthly data.
One year earlier, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received only 30 shipments, a little over half the most recent monthly total, for June 2022.
For the first six months of 2023, the deep underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste has received 230 shipments, more than double last year’s pace. WIPP took in only 97 shipments during the first half of 2022.
WIPP suspended waste emplacement for about three years following a February 2014 accident where a ruptured drum contaminated the Panel 7 disposal space. Because of the accident, workers were forced to don additional protective gear while putting waste in Panel 7, which was filled last year.
The highest yearly total waste emplacement in Panel 7 following the accident was 311 during 2018. Disposal has occurred at a higher clip since WIPP opened the uncontaminated Panel 8, which does not require the extra gear, in November 2022.
DOE, the state of New Mexico and other stakeholders recently reached an agreement on a new 10-year state permit for WIPP. The modified permit will be published Aug. 15 and will formally take effect in November.
