The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., had its busiest month of 2022 during December, receiving 53 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste.
Forty shipments originated from the Idaho National Laboratory, 12 came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one came from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The last shipment of the year arrived from Idaho at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) on Dec. 30, according to the DOE public website for WIPP.
For the 2022 calendar year, WIPP received 272 shipments. By comparison, in 2021, the underground salt mine received 210 shipments. In December 2021, it took in 17.
Since an underground radiation leak in February 2014, which kept the facility out of service for about three years, WIPP has only topped 300 shipments annually once. Prior to 2014, the deep geologic disposal site frequently emplaced 700 or more shipments per year.
In October, WIPP crews started disposing of waste in the new Panel 8. Workers in Panel 8 are not required to wear as much personal protective gear as they wore in Panel 7, which was contaminated by the 2014 radiation accident.
According to WIPP management, the new panel and infrastructure projects, such as a planned ventilation system that could triple the underground airflow rate by 2026, give hope of returning to pre-2014 shipping rates. The agency had targeted 400 shipments for fiscal 2022, which ended Oct. 1, but took in fewer than 300.
In July, a Bechtel affiliate, Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, won a contract potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years, to operate WIPP. It will take over the keys from Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership early next month.
