Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has opened a training center in Carlsbad, N.M., to prepare staff for resumption of shipments of remote-handled waste at the underground disposal facility, the agency tweeted Monday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has not taken shipments of remote-handled (RH) transuranic waste using RH-72B casks since 2014, […]

Developing two new deep-mine panels for disposal of transuranic waste at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not entail new environmental risks, according to a document posted last week on the procurement website for a new prime contract. Excavation and use of two replacement panels, dubbed Panels 11 and […]

Like a spending bill passed earlier this month by the House Appropriation Committee, the National Defense Authorization Act that cleared Senate Armed Services last week,restores $5.7 million in community funds the Joe Biden White House left out of its fiscal 2022 budget request for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 26 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to its public website. Eight were received from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee but the rest traveled from the Idaho National Laboratory. During the first half of 2021 the underground disposal site had at […]

The Department of Energy in amendments made this week to its ongoing solicitation for a new multibillion-dollar prime contract at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is increasing the performance fee cap to 7% from 5%. The amendments came out after some prospective bidders for the potential $3-billion, 10-year prime contract for the […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, this week asked a federal court in New Mexico to dismiss a $500,000 lawsuit filed by an African American security employee who claims he was bypassed for a promotion due to his race. While the Amentum-BWX Technologies partnership acknowledges plaintiff […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that runs the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, this week asked a federal court in New Mexico to dismiss a $500,000 lawsuit filed by an African American security employee who claims he was bypassed for a promotion due to his race. While the Amentum-BWX Technologies partnership acknowledges plaintiff […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is dealing with a software error that forced some transuranic waste to be sent back to the Idaho National Laboratory in late May because of duplicate shipment data. Generation of duplicate package numbers “was an extremely rare occurrence that will be addressed by an […]

Some prospective bidders for the Department of Energy’s potentially $3-billion, 10-year prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico are worried about the financial penalties the agreement prescribes for failing to finish a new ventilation system and other infrastructure projects, according to questions and answers published last week. The next Waste Isolation […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 26 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to its public website. Eight were received from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee but the rest traveled from the Idaho National Laboratory. During the first half of 2021 the underground disposal site had at […]

The House Appropriations Committee proposed a marginal increase for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, to $7.8 billion from the $7.6 in 2021, as part of a 2022 spending bill sent to the House floor Friday. The full committee advanced the energy and water spending package on a 33-to-24 vote party line vote, […]

The environmental regulator in New Mexico should decide by this fall whether to allow the Department of Energy and its contractor to resume digging a new underground shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this fall, a state official told the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive & Hazardous Materials Committee this week.  The final decision by […]

Despite a shortfall so far compared with the agency’s goals for 2021, disposing of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory continues to be a high priority for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a federal manager told the New Mexico Legislature’s Radioactive & Hazardous Materials Committee Wednesday. The federal agency had […]

At least one company that unsuccessfully bid against Tennessee-based Navarro Research and Engineering for the new Technical Assistance Contract at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico will be debriefed next week by the Department of Energy, a source said Thursday. The DOE announced July 1 that Navarro won a potential five-year, $100-million technical assistance […]

The Department of Energy now expects to restart an underground fan at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico by early fall as a means to bolster airflow until a new permanent ventilation system is operational in a few years.  Restarting the 700-C underground fan should add about 90,000 cubic feet per minute, bringing […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received more than 1,000 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste since the deep underground repository reopened in 2017 after the underground radiation leak of February 2014. More than three weeks ago, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received its 1,000th shipment since April 2017, […]

Bidders vying for a potential five-year $100-million contract for moving containers of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should inform the Department of Energy about all their recent vehicle accidents, even those where a truck hits a deer. That is one of the takeaways from the questions and answers published […]

Shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from National Nuclear Security Administration operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were set to resume this week after being on hold since an ignition scare in February, according to the Department of Energy. “After a careful review of the drum event” […]

Bidders vying for a potential five-year $100-million contract for moving containers of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should inform the Department of Energy about all their recent vehicle accidents, even those where a truck hits a deer. That is one of the takeaways from the questions and answers published […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received more than 1,000 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste since the deep underground repository reopened in 2017 after the underground radiation leak of February 2014. More than three weeks ago, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received its 1,000th shipment since April 2017, […]

Environmentalists this week sued to stop the National Nuclear Security Administration from building a plutonium pit plant at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., alleging violation of environmental law. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should have to reopen the environmental record for the planned Savannah River Plutonium Pit Production Facility (SRPPF) and a […]

Late Thursday, the Department of Energy awarded Tennessee-based Navarro Research and Engineering the new Technical Assistance Contract at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico potentially worth $100-million over five years, a move with implications for the agency’s ongoing search for a new operations manager at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Barring a bid protest, […]

In documents released this week, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management expressed reluctance to resume the pre-pandemic practice of in-person meetings on contract procurements, such as the ongoing prime contract solicitation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Ten pages of questions and answers on the potential 10-year, $3-billion contract for management and operation […]

Bidders for the new prime contract at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., are getting two more weeks, until Aug. 3, to submit their proposals. In a notice published on a procurement website Tuesday the DOE Office of Environmental Management said it plans to extend the submission deadline for the […]

Contractors serving the Department of Energy’s weapons complex are watching eagerly to see what contract awards are made for a trio of solicitations, including one for a new prime at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and multibillion-dollar awards elsewhere in the complex. Questions were due over the weekend, and proposals are due […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week praised the Senate’s Tuesday confirmation of Ali Nouri by voice vote to serve as DOE’s assistant secretary for congressional and Intergovernmental affairs. “As both a scientist and a proven consensus-builder, Ali will bring unparalleled perspective and expertise to his work with Congress and our federal, state, and local […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management currently has 48 active confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is five less than a week ago, a spokesperson for the cleanup office said in a Thursday email. The number of weekly confirmed cases in the cleanup complex stayed within a tight range of 47 to 53 for […]

A month-long moratorium on transuranic waste shipments using filler material commonly known as dunnage ended in early June, a spokesperson for DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant said this week. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico notified DOE that transuranic waste generators were estimating the weight of their payloads, including the dunnage, instead of […]

The Department of Energy expects to use one of five firms selected in December for a task order to move transuranic waste currently stored at the Separations Process Research Unit facility in Schenectady County. N.Y., an agency spokesperson said via email this week. EnergySolutions, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists and Veolia […]

The Department of Energy expects to use one of five firms selected in December for a task order to move transuranic waste currently stored at the Separations Process Research Unit facility in Schenectady County. N.Y., an agency spokesperson said via email Monday. EnergySolutions, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Unitech Services Group, Waste Control Specialists and Veolia Nuclear […]