Two key projects at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico are nearing completion.
Construction of the North Access Road should be finished by the end of the month, according to Donavan Mager, spokesman for WIPP management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership.
The purpose of the $10 million, 3-mile bypass is to connect north and south access roads and direct non-WIPP traffic away from the underground disposal site for transuranic waste. Intersections will be added and missing or damaged signs will be replaced.
The Energy Department contractor said truck traffic around WIPP has increased in recent years, largely due to a boom in natural gas and oil production near Carlsbad, N.M. The bypass is meant to shift traffic away from WIPP construction projects such as the sinking of a new 2,300-foot utility shaft that will augment the planned Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System.
In addition, the disposal site’s annual maintenance outage should be completed around March 15, Mager said. During the outage, which began Feb. 17, no waste from DOE sites is being emplaced.
One of the largest maintenance tasks is replacement of one of six head ropes on the facility’s 45-ton capacity waste hoist — a four-day effort. The 2,200-foot steel rope comprises 151 wires. The hoist is used to lower equipment and material into the mine.
As of Feb. 13, the latest date for which the data is publicly available, WIPP has received 34 shipments so far during 2020.
