After disposing of only 192 shipments of transuranic waste during 2020, the Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will receive many more over the next 12 months as the COVID-19 pandemic gradually subsides.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could receive up to 325 shipments of transuranic waste for disposal between Feb. 1 of this year, and Jan. 31 of 2022, according to a virtual presentation for the New Mexico legislature made Tuesday morning by top brass from the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and the Amentum-led prime contractor for WIPP.
Just over half of the total, 165, could come from the Idaho National Laboratory, according to the figures provided to the state lawmakers for planning purposes. The other top shippers are likely to be the Los Alamos National Laboratory (80) in New Mexico and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (28).
During the presentation, Sean Dunagan, president and project manager for WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership, said the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly all aspects of work at the site. Just in the past week, a crew of workers needed to be quarantined after one member tested positive for the virus, and a replacement crew was called in, Dunagan said.
So far during the 2021 fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, 2020, there have been 70 shipments received at WIPP, Dunagan said.
In addition, 153,000 tons of salt were mined during 2020. Despite the pandemic salt mining has enabled workers to complete the “rough cut” for Panel 8, Dunagan said. The panel should be certified for waste emplacement by January 2022, he added.
WIPP continues to enjoy increased federal funding, going to about $420 million in fiscal 2021 from $407 million in fiscal 2020 and $403 million in fiscal 2019, the manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, Reinhard Knerr, said.
