The Energy Department has relaunched a database that lets the public see what kind of nuclear waste the agency is burying at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, and when.
The Waste Data System/WIPP Waste Information System went live again recently without any formal announcement by DOE. The system allows the public to see how much waste was sent to WIPP, and from which DOE sites — but not until two weeks after the containers are placed in permanent disposal areas in the deep-underground salt mine.
The database also shows users where in the mine DOE buried the waste. In some cases, there is information about the waste itself, including its place of origin and radioactive properties.
So far, the database lists five deliveries from April 7, when shipments to WIPP resumed after a three-year pause, to April 21. The source facilities are the Idaho National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
However, more waste than that has shipped and not yet been cataloged in the public database, according to people in New Mexico. That includes a shipment of Los Alamos National Laboratory waste that had been stored at Waste Control Specialists’ privately operated storage site near Andrews, Texas.
The five shipments already disposed of, according to the WIPP database, are:
| Shipment Number | Shipping Program | Receipt Date |
| IN170001 | INL | 4/7/2017 |
| IN170002 | INL | 4/13/2017 |
| IN170003 | INL | 4/22/2017 |
| SR170001 | SRS | 4/13/2017 |
| SR170002 | SRS | 4/21/2017 |
