Dan Leone
WC Monitor
1/29/2016
The Department of Energy plans to complete installation of an interim ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) facility near Carlsbad, N.M., in March or April, another milestone required to reopen the underground transuranic waste-storage facility by December, a DOE official said Thursday.
The ventilation installation was mentioned by J.R. Stroble, director of DOE’s national transuranic waste program, in a presentation in San Juan, N.M., to the DOE-chartered Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board.
The installation schedule is one of the few details made public regarding the new performance measurement baseline for reopening WIPP that was announced Jan. 21 by DOE. The voluminous document lays out the path for restarting waste operations by December, and includes a long-awaited update to DOE’s cost and schedule estimates for reopening the facility.
The interim ventilation system is needed before waste emplacement can resume at WIPP. It will boost airflow that dropped drastically after the February 2014 radiation release at the underground due to necessary filtering. The months-long acquisition and installation of the system has faced a number of complications, including components that were damaged in transport and ductwork that needed to be reworked. DOE also later plans to install a supplemental ventilation system needed before mining of the facility can resume, and ultimately a permanent system to drive airflow back to standard levels.
A DOE spokesman this week declined to say when the department might release its new WIPP performance measurement baseline to the public. However, the department will brief state and local stakeholders about the document at a meeting scheduled for mid-February at the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, the spokesman said.
On April 7, DOE will unveil more of its thinking about the WIPP restart at a Carlsbad Town Hall slated to be webcast from the Carlsbad City Council Chambers.
