The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received eight shipments of defense-related transuranic waste during the month of January, according to the latest data on the public website for the disposal facility.
During January the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received four shipments each from the Idaho National Laboratory and an in-state DOE facility, the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The latest shipment for the month arrived Jan. 27 from Los Alamos. It typically takes about two weeks for the waste shipments to be posted on the public website.
Since the beginning of 2022, WIPP has received 13 shipments, a spokesperson for the disposal site said by email Thursday.
By contrast there were 24 shipments received at WIPP during January 2020, at a time when many Americans were not yet familiar with the term COVID-19.
Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the very contagious omicron variant hindered WIPP efforts to keep fully staffed waste disposal teams on the job at the underground salt mine.
That was the assessment by DOE’s manager of the Carlsbad Field Office, Reinhard Knerr, as well as the top boss for WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership, Sean Dunagan, during a presentation Jan. 31 to New Mexico state legislators.
After receiving 192 shipments of transuranic waste during 2020, WIPP took in 210 shipments during the 2021 calendar year. WIPP executives expect shipments to accelerate over the next couple of years as waste emplacement moves out of Panel 7, damaged during a February 2014 underground radiation leak, and into contamination-free Panel 8.
Also, between now and 2025, WIPP is expected to commission a new ventilation system capable of tripling underground airflow and allowing simultaneous mining, maintenance and waste disposal operations.
