The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is asking the New Mexico Environment Department for certain permit modifications, including approval of four new shielded containers suitable for carrying remote-handled transuranic waste.
DOE and Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors filed the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit modification document with the state March 29. Remote handled waste is typically more radioactive than contact-handled waste, the latter being safe enough for human beings to touch.
The modification request for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will be the subject of a public meeting by the disposal site on April 17, according to an online notice. The meeting, which will also be available online, will originate from the Skeen-Whitlock Building, 4021 National Parks Highway in Carlsbad, N.M., starting at 2 p.m. Mountain time.
The permit modifications sought by WIPP would also give DOE more leeway to depart from annual audits of waste generation sites regardless of “whether a certified site is shipping” transuranic mixed waste. Mixed waste includes hazardous chemicals in addition to radioactive material.
More than 95% of the defense-related transuranic waste disposed of in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the less radioactive contact-handled transuranic waste. The remote-handled waste has a surface dose rate of 200 mrem/hour or greater, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Remote-handled TRU mixed waste emplacement in boreholes has been suspended since 2014, according to the permit modification request. “Shielded containers provide an additional option,” for such waste, according to the filing.
“The four new shielded containers will allow the generator/storage sites to proceed with their RH TRU [remote-handled, transuranic] mixed waste shipments for disposal at the WIPP facility,” according to the filing. “This will allow the Permittees to emplace RH TRU mixed waste in active waste panels during the suspension of RH TRU mixed waste activities.”
