The U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 10 shipments of transuranic waste during November, bringing the total to 285 for the first 11 months of 2019.
The figures, from WIPP’s publicly available database, show the underground transuranic waste disposal site has again fallen behind its 2018 pace. It received 291 shipments during the first 11 months of 2018.
While the facility emplaced 19 shipments during November 2018, it received nine fewer this November. There is a gap of roughly two weeks between the actual shipments and when they are posted in the public database, so final 2019 numbers won’t be available until later this month. Officials at WIPP did not immediately comment by press time.
The facility received a total of 311 shipments during 2018.
After a slow start to shipping in 2019, due to an extended maintenance outage and wintry weather, the facility had pulled ahead of the 2018 pace going into November. It received 275 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the first 10 months of this year, compared to 272 during the same period in 2018.
During the first 48 weeks of 2019, which roughly translates to Nov. 30, WIPP averaged almost 5.9 shipments per week. The Idaho National Laboratory accounted for 225 of the 285 shipments received through November.
Aside from INL, other shippers during the first 11 months of 2019 includes Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (27), Oak Ridge in Tennessee (27), and two each from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and Waste Control Specialists in Texas.
Last year was the second full year of operation for WIPP since it shut down for nearly three years following an underground radiation leak in February 2014.
The disposal site received 318 for the 2019 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. In a five-year draft WIPP strategic plan, DOE said it anticipates 400 shipments for fiscal 2020. A total of 31 came in during the first two months of the fiscal year.
AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership operates the underground disposal facility for DOE.
Idaho Shipments Paused Briefly in November Due to Problem Drum
One possible reason that November numbers were not higher is that WIPP briefly held up some shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho facility after discovery of a hole in one drum, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
The 4 millimeter-hole in a corroded area on the outside of a 55-gallon drum of sludge waste from INL was found Nov. 2 by WIPP inspectors, according to a regular monthly report filed by engineer Alexander Velazquez-Lozada with DNFSB Technical Director Christopher Roscetti on Dec. 6.
No radiological contamination turned up on the drum shipped from INL on Oct. 23. The Energy Department has criteria on how much damage is acceptable on WIPP-bound shipments, but the question of how much rust is allowable is still largely a judgment call, according to the report.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant suspended at least some shipments of INL waste upon discovery of the drum with the hole, but has since resumed taking them, according to the document, which did not say how long new shipments were held up. Fluor Idaho, the DOE contractor that manages waste packing and all other cleanup at the lab, is tightening its drum inspection procedures, according to the DNFSB report.
Six of the 10 shipments received at WIPP during November came from INL, according to the public DOE database.
The problem drum was actually packed with waste in 2014 prior to shipment.
