The North Access Road Bypass at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico opened to traffic on May 8.
The $9 million, 3-mile bypass connects north and south access roads for the DOE site and directs other traffic away from the underground disposal facility, particularly the construction area on the surface for sinking a new utility shaft.
In December 2018, WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership hired California-based Granite Construction to build the road.
Until lately at least, a boom in natural gas and oil production in the Carlsbad, N.N., region caused a spike in truck traffic around WIPP. The traffic has decreased somewhat lately with the reduced transportation taking place in New Mexico and elsewhere due to COVID-19, a source said Tuesday.
The Energy Department said in an October 2018 environmental analysis that about 1,555 vehicles per day of non-WIPP traffic use nearby roads, with projections indicating the number could more than double by 2021.
Energy Department and Nuclear Waste Management managers have frequently mentioned traffic concerns abound WIPP in various public forums during the past couple years.
Jan Carlin has stepped down as managing director of the Waste Management Symposia (WMS), the nonprofit organizer of the annual conference in Phoenix for the nuclear cleanup and waste management industries.
Carlin, a nuclear business consultant, started on the job in September 2017 and had only intended to remain for two years, but stayed on past the March 2020 conference, according to a press release Tuesday. Waste Management Symposia President Jim Fiore is heading up a search panel for Carlin’s successor. The position will be held in the interim by WMS director Robert Weiler.
The Waste Management Symposia conference drew about 2,100 participants this year, down 10% from usual levels, as the severity of the COVID-19 health crisis was becoming more apparent. Nearly all large events around the world have since been postponed or canceled for the year.
Two WMS participants afterward showed signs of potential infection by novel coronavirus 2019, but both tested negative.
“In these uncertain times we will have a challenging period up until the March 7-11, 2021 conference,” Fiore said in the release. “We will need to appoint a person who can take up this challenge and ensure we have a successful 47th year of providing the premier global conference on radioactive waste management.”
Carlin is director of business development for robotics company Walischmiller Engineering GmbH, along with owner of Carlin Consulting Services, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has committed to staying on as an adviser for WMS through September.
