The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 51 shipments of transuranic waste during May, according to the facility’s public website.
The majority, 36, of the May shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) came from the Idaho National Laboratory.
Eight originated from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, four came from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and three came from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the website.
The 51 shipments represent a big jump from the 28 shipments received at WIPP in May 2023.
During the first five months of the 2024 calendar year, WIPP has received 178 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste, slightly up from the 174 shipments during the first five months of 2023, even with the facility undergoing a month-long maintenance outage in February and March.
WIPP is managed by Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors. The vice president of the WIPP prime, Tammy Hobbes, said this month at Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit that construction on a major capital project, the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System is complete.
A readiness assessment on the project should be done by December, she added.
