The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 18 shipments of transuranic waste during March, according to the latest available data.
During the past month, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) took in 13 shipments from Idaho National Laboratory, four from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and one from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
During the first three months of 2022, there have been 36 shipments to WIPP, compared with 23 during the first three months of 2021, although it should be noted the several-week maintenance outage the disposal complex normally holds during January and February is being moved to the fall in 2022 to coincide with installation of an new electrical substation.
As for fiscal 2022, which started Oct. 1, there have been 97 shipments so far, which is ahead of the pace at this point in fiscal 2021, when WIPP had received 73 shipments, according to the facility’s website.
The DOE and WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership hope the shrinking impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with moving out of Panel 7, will quicken the pace of underground waste disposal.
When a transuranic waste drum from Los Alamos ruptured underground at WIPP in February 2014 it contaminated much of Panel 7. When WIPP resumed operations in 2017 following the underground radiation leak, workers in Panel 7 had to be clothed in personal protective equipment to guard against contamination. Such extensive garb won’t be needed in a few months when emplacement starts in Panel 8, WIPP officials have said.
Over the weekend WIPP’s CH-Bay, where waste containers are removed and prepared to be transported to the underground, had to be evacuated after discovery of a liquid containing low-level radioactive waste at the bottom of a transportation container. The DOE is investigating the incident.
