An equipment problem at the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico held up emplacement of transuranic waste in December, according to a regular monthly report filed by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
Nuclear Waste Partnership, DOE’s contractor in charge of operating the salt mine disposal site, paused waste receipts due to a deficiency with waste hoist tail ropes, Alexander Velazquez-Lozada, an engineer for the board, explained in the December report to DNFSB Technical Director Christopher Roscetti.
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration issued a citation to WIPP “indicating that the waste hoist could not be used until a deficient tail rope, originally identified in May, was replaced,” Velazquez-Lozada wrote in the DNFSB document dated Jan. 3. It does not indicate when shipments were suspended.
The rope has now been replaced and WIPP expects to again start accepting waste shipments this month, the DNFSB document adds.
The Energy Department’s public database for waste disposal at WIPP, which tends to run about two weeks behind actual shipments, shows the facility receiving seven shipments last month, all between Dec. 4 and Dec. 6. Heading into December, WIPP recorded 285 shipments during the first 11 months of 2019. Unless more shipments arrived during December, the facility will finish behind its 2018 total of 311 shipments received.
The disposal facility near Carlsbad was offline for almost three years following a February 2014 underground radiation release.
