The Department of Energy on Tuesday said it approved changes to an official safety document that lays the groundwork for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., and resume nuclear waste disposal in the underground facility after two years spent recovering from a radiation release and equipment fire.
While the approved changes to the so-called Documented Safety Analysis prepared by NWP mark a major paperwork milestone, they are no guarantee WIPP will reopen in mid-December, as DOE plans; the agency thought the documented safety analysis would be approved in February, according to the WIPP reopening schedule the agency published that month. NWP delivered the Documented Safety Analysis to DOE officials in Carlsbad in December, according to the same schedule.
Notwithstanding the delay, DOE maintains WIPP will reopen by year’s end.
“Completion of this key milestone keeps us on track to resuming operations by the end of this year,” Todd Shrader, head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said in a Tuesday press release announcing the document’s approval.
The documented safety analysis details NWP’s plans for coping with a variety of accident and disaster scenarios at WIPP, the country’s only permanent disposal facility for the radio-contaminated material known as transuranic waste. WIPP closed in February 2014 after an accidental radiation release blamed on an improperly sealed container, and an unrelated, earlier underground fire.
NWP personnel now will spend months drilling the safety procedures in the just-approved document, along with conducting dress rehearsals of waste disposal with empty canisters. Prior to receiving DOE authorization to resume waste operations, the site will undergo a number of readiness reviews by subject matter experts, DOE contractors, and department personnel.
Meanwhile, DOE and NWP marked another milestone this week, reporting Tuesday to the New Mexico Environment Department that WIPP’s ventilation system — operating at far lower levels than before the 2014 accidents that shuttered the facility — has been modified so that it can keep air clean enough for workers to resume waste storage, once DOE deems it safe to do that.
