In another step toward normal operations following a pair of February 2014 accidents, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico resumed long-anticipated salt mining operations on Monday.
The Energy Department and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership had been talking about resumption of mining for months, and a spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday work was underway. The parties also released a press release that day.
“Resuming mining operations will allow us to continue fully restoring WIPP and fulfilling our important mission of providing a transuranic waste solution for the DOE complex,” DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said in the release. “As with the restart of waste emplacement operations last year, WIPP will take a slow, deliberate approach to mining, keeping safety as a Core Value.”
Mining of storage Panel 8 started in late 2013, but was suspended after an underground fire and radiological in February 2014, WIPP said in the release.
The resumption of salt mining in Panel 8 will open more space for disposal of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex. Waste emplacement will move to Panel 8 after WIPP crews finish filling Panel 7, according to the release. Completion of mining in Panel 8 is scheduled for 2020.
Crews at WIPP use a machine called a continuous miner, which cuts into rock with a rotating drum. A human miner operates the machine, which can generate 10 tons of salt per minute, according to WIPP.
More than 112,000 tons of salt will be removed to complete the panel, which will contain seven rooms for waste disposal. Each room is 300 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 13 feet high, according to WIPP.
WIPP resumed taking waste from other DOE sites in April 2017, and over the course of the year received 133 shipments, the latest publicly available data shows. The site hopes to increase the rate of waste emplacement during 2018.
Waste disposal is suspended for a couple weeks under a maintenance outage that began on Jan. 15. It was unclear if the maintenance outage would affect the just-restarted salt mining operation. The outage manager will confer with both DOE and the contractor before deciding if mining continues during this period, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman Donavan Mager.
“As of today, priority will be given to completing maintenance activities. Having sufficient ventilation to support simultaneous mining and maintenance activities is the primary driver,” Mager said by email.
The Energy Department has previously said activities scheduled during the outage include applying a new epoxy coating to a floor in the above-ground Waste Handling Building and doing electrical work that can only be done while the power is off.
WIPP is also proposing construction of major new above-ground storage, a 65,280- cubic-foot concrete facility for contact-handled TRU waste. The Energy Department has extended the comment deadline for a draft environmental assessment (EA) on the proposal until Jan. 29. The storage facility is expected to cost about $8 million. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in 2021.
