The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., took in 10 shipments of transuranic waste during December and 192 for all of 2020.
The 2020 figure is a major drop-off, 100 fewer than the total of 292 for 2019, according to data from DOE’s public website for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).
The December shipments included six from the Idaho National Laboratory and four from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Idaho lab, under a legal mandate to move its transuranic waste out of state, was again the dominant shipper for the year, accounting for just over half (98) of the 192 shipments to WIPP in 2020.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, DOE and prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership cut back to minimal shipping, receiving only two per week on average, during the latter stages of 2020, according to reports filed with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
That pace should increase somewhat to about five shipments per week from DOE-approved generator sites until early February as the underground facility prepares for an annual maintenance outage schedule to start Feb. 15, said contractor spokesman Donavan Mager in a Wednesday email to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
In one of its latest updates on the virus, the DOE website for WIPP said the facility has confirmed 177 positive cases as of Dec. 21, which was up nine from the prior week.
