The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 47 shipments of transuranic waste during the first four months of 2020. That is down from 83 for the same period in 2019, according to the Energy Department’s public database for the waste disposal facility.
In late March, WIPP reduced operations due to concern over the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it would only take perhaps four or five shipments per week. That is roughly half what it normally might receive in a good week.
On-site staffing at the site has been reduced from about 1,000 to perhaps 250 Monday-through-Thursday, the Energy Department has said. The reduced on-site staffing was still in effect as of Thursday.
The reduced shipments are due in part to the fact that WIPP reduced its staff and cut back on operations in late March due to COVID-19. In addition, generator sites, which also temporarily reduced their workforce, also were not preparing as much TRU for shipment.
The DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership also conducted a maintenance outage from Feb. 15 to March 15. No shipments are accepted during those periods. This year’s outage lasted almost two weeks longer than the one in 2019.
Of the 47 shipments received at WIPP between Jan. 1 and April 30, 26 came from the Idaho National Laboratory, 13 from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and eight from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, two employees of WIPP subcontractors have to date tested positive for the coronavirus. An employee for a WIPP contractor, Constructors Inc., received a positive test on May 15. Prior to that, an employee for technical assistance contractor North Wind Portage tested positive in March.
