Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Kirk Lachman, a longtime hand around the Department of Energy’s weapons complex and current field office manager of the agency’s Office of Environmental Management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, is retiring June 27. Lachman will be retiring from DOE after 30 years of federal service, a spokesperson for the agency said […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 27 shipments of transuranic waste in April, which marks its busiest month since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) logged five months in 2020 when it received 20 or more shipments. October was the busiest month, […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should transport between 10 and 20 shipments of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico starting in 2028. The vast majority (99%) of the defense-related transuranic waste now at Hanford’s central plateau, in the 200 West Area, will be hauled to the […]

A three-day New Mexico Environment Department hearing on the need for a new underground shaft for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant kicked off this week with a lawyer for DOE saying the case is not about a life extension for the transuranic waste disposal site. The hearing is about efforts to “restore […]

The Department of Energy’s largest and most complex nuclear cleanup property is looking at relaxing its COVID-19 protocols soon but has made no changes yet, Hanford’s site manager Brian Vance said in a Tuesday memo to all employees. Likewise,  the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky are “for now” keeping their […]

A three-day New Mexico Environment Department hearing on the need for a new underground shaft for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant kicked off Monday with a lawyer for DOE saying the case is not about a life extension for the transuranic waste disposal site. The hearing is about efforts to “restore a […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 27 shipments of transuranic waste in April, which marks its busiest month since the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) logged five months in 2020 when it received 20 or more shipments. October was the busiest month, […]

The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should transport between 10 and 20 shipments of transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico starting in 2028. The vast majority (99%) of the defense-related transuranic waste now at Hanford’s central plateau, in the 200 West Area, will be hauled to the […]

Department of Energy nuclear cleanup sites were tracking 76 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday, down 30 from last week and the lowest weekly case count since the fall. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) case numbers were last this low during early October. The figures provided via email from an EM […]

Waste Control Specialists in West Texas could remain home for up to 74 containers of radioactive waste, which Texas authorities want to evict, for three more years, under an extension announced Thursday by the Department of Energy. The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s Los Alamos field office issued a task order to keep Waste Control […]

An April 16 staff report by a federal watchdog questions if the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration have fully learned lessons stemming from a drum breach and radiation release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in February 2014. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

An April 16 staff report by a federal watchdog questions if the Department of Energy and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration have fully learned lessons stemming from a drum breach and radiation release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in February 2014. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) […]

The Department of Energy has issued a request for information on “innovative approaches” for information technology at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. This ranges from workaday software to cyber security solutions for the office that oversees agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), according to a notice published Thursday on a federal procurement website. […]

The next several weeks could be a busy time for the Department of Energy’s procurement in the weapons complex. The long-awaited draft request for proposals (RFP) for the potential 10-year, $21.5-billion operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was issued last week. The draft RFP virtual meetings kick off May 11. The […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told a House Appropriations panel Thursday that she supports a new on-site landfill at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and that the Department of Energy is studying contamination at a school near the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee called Granholm in to […]

The next several weeks could be a busy time for the Department of Energy’s procurement in the weapons complex. The long-awaited draft request for proposals (RFP) for the potential 10-year, $21.5-billion operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina was issued last week and anyone interested in participating in next week’s virtual pre-solicitation […]

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

The Department of Energy said this week it plans to extend the current Waste Control Specialists agreement for storing some potentially combustible drums of transuranic waste in Texas beyond the June 7 expiration date. The DOE Office of Environmental Management published the notice of award for extension of the current sole-source contract Wednesday on a […]

The Department of Energy said this week the solicitation for a new five-year, $100-million transportation contract for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should be released in the next 25-to-60 days. As a result, the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Procurement should be out […]

he Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

The Department of Energy said Monday the solicitation for a new five-year, $100-million transportation contract for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should be released in the next 25-to-60 days. As a result, the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Procurement should be out by […]

Barring extensions, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has four contracts set to expire within the next 60 days, according to the contract summary page for the $7-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch. Portsmouth Mission Alliance, a partnership between North Wind Group and Swift & Staley, has the roughly five-year, $190-million infrastructure service contract at […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week published a minor amendment to Waste Control Specialists’s state radioactive material license, allowing the company to keep potentially combustible drums of Department of Energy transuranic waste at a commercial site in Andrews County until Dec. 23, 2022. The amendment proposed Dec. 9 by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years is targeted for late July, officials for the Department of Energy and its prime contractor in Carlsbad, N.M. said Thursday night. The summer target timeframe was shared by Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) operations manager Don McBridge […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue the final solicitation for a new prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico between now and June, according to a procurement notice this week.  The agency said the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out between […]

Within 10 years, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management hopes to have its vitrification plant humming at the Hanford Site in Washington state, with 40% of the tanks closed at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and also be about done with legacy cleanup at the Moab Site in Utah as well […]

Barring extensions, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has four contracts set to expire within the next 60 days, according to the contract summary page for the $7-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch. Portsmouth Mission Alliance, a partnership between North Wind Group and Swift & Staley, has the roughly five-year, $190-million infrastructure service contract at […]