The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday.
By Wednesday, the transuranic disposal facility will be down to essential mission critical operations. This could include roof bolting and other work necessary “to ensure the safe and secure operation of the facility,” according to the spokesperson.
The underground salt mine will continue to take up to four or five shipments per week – particularly if they were scheduled prior to March 27, roughly half what the facility might do in a good week. The Energy Department told its Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership to start scaling back operations Friday.
The DOE spokesperson last week said most of WIPP’s roughly 1,000 employees are probably either telecommuting or have been told to stay home temporarily. The work that is still occurring on-site is carried out in accordance with federal and state health guidelines, including “social distancing,” designed to inhibit the spread of the virus.
Also on Friday, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered people who enter the state by airplane to self-isolate for 14 days. More than half the 281 COVID-19 cases in the state have resulted from out-of-state visitors, according to the governor.
One contractor said by telephone last week such orders affect federal and industry personnel who fly into the state for business trips to WIPP, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, or Sandia National Laboratories .
The Energy Department acknowledged last week that with the exception of two sites, one each in Utah and Tennessee, the number of employees working on-site at facilities across the weapons complex is reduced dramatically due to COVID-19.
