Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Later this year, the National Nuclear Security Administration will begin a formal review of its program to dispose of the 34 metric tons of plutonium once slated to be recycled into commercial reactor fuel, an agency official said. It was unclear whether the agency would heed the advice of the National Academies of Sciences and […]

As of this morning, the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has confirmed a total of 609 cases of COVID-19 among its roughly 11,000-member workforce. The numbers, posted online by the Aiken, S.C., site, represent a rise of 18 cases from the prior week’s total of 591. Also, 568 of those employees […]

Shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico are down more than 40% for both the first nine months of 2020, and the just-completed 2020 fiscal year, based on figures from the site’s public database. During the first nine months of pandemic-affected 2020, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received […]

Two members of the security detail for Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette tested positive for the coronavirus Thursday, a spokeswoman for the agency chief said. “Although Secretary Brouillette tested negative and is not exhibiting symptoms, out of an abundance of caution, the Secretary and traveling staff will be returning by vehicle to Washing and following” guidance […]

Nuclear cleanup contractors for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management received $426-million during fiscal 2020 to help cushion the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for employees not able to report to work. That’s according to a spokesperson for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The figure represents reimbursements EM paid to […]

Officials at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory are looking into Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board concerns that the New Mexico site should do more to minimize the risk of a transuranic waste drum explosion. The board, in a letter dated Sept. 24, found that safety bases for both DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received six new positive COVID-19 tests for its workers between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7, bringing the site total to 45 so far in the pandemic. In addition, another worker at the DOE Hanford Site in Washington state has tested positive, bringing the total […]

The Department of Energy said in a Tuesday Federal Register notice that it is withdrawing its designation of Waste Control Specialists in West Texas as its long-term storage site for elemental mercury. The DOE and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality previously granted the necessary approvals for the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews […]

As of mid-week, there had been a total of 175 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said Wednesday during a webcast advisory board meeting. Vance, the Hanford site manager, provided the number in response to a question from a member of the […]

Joe Franco, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager at the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office in Washington state, is leaving the agency to become a special adviser to the prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a Thursday press release that Franco will become special adviser to the […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership’s current eight-year, $2.4-billion contract for management and operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is being extended for at least one more year, potentially two. The DOE and Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership agreed Sept. 15 to a one-year option through Sept. 30, 2021, contractor spokesman Donavan […]

Joe Franco, the Department of Energy’s deputy manager at the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office in Washington state, is leaving the agency to take another job. Tuesday was the “farewell” day at Richland for Franco, Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said during his update Wednesday to the Hanford Advisory Committee. Franco has been a DOE […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership’s current eight-year, $2.4-billion contract for management and operation of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is being extended for at least one more year, potentially two. The DOE and Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership agreed Sept. 15 to a one-year option through Sept. 30, 2021, contractor spokesman Donavan […]

For the first time in 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is making shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a lab spokesman said this week. Three shipments left Lawrence Livermore for WIPP during the week of Sept. 21, one week after a […]

There are 74 active cases of COVID-19 currently within the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s nuclear cleanup sites, an agency spokesperson said late Thursday. That is slightly up from the 70 active cases the prior week across the 16 former Cold War and Manhattan Project sites overseen by the office, but still less […]

For the first time in 15 years, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is making shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a lab spokesman said this week. Three shipments left Lawrence Livermore for WIPP during the week of Sept. 21, one week after a […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is making shipments of transuranic waste to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, a lab spokesman said Monday.  Three shipments left Lawrence Livermore for WIPP during the week of Sept. 21, Livermore spokesman Nolan O’Brien wrote in an email. Livermore crews expect to […]

Most Americans don’t like the way 2020 is playing out, at least if social media posts are any guide, and the first eight months of the year have not gone well for productivity at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. There have been 121 shipments from Jan. 1 through Aug. […]

The business dismissed recently for slow progress in building a new underground ventilation system for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expects to leave the New Mexico project by the end of the month. The parties are working out a financial settlement, said Mark Christensen, owner and president of Christensen Building Group, and […]

More than half of the Department of Energy’s 11,000-member workforce at the Hanford Site are back inside the fence, a Department of Energy official said Wednesday. Hanford is bringing 190 additional workers back onsite this week, DOE’s Erik Olds, told the Hanford Advisory Board during an online meeting. That brings the current number of federal […]

The business dismissed recently for slow progress in building a new underground ventilation system for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expects to leave the New Mexico project by the end of the month. The parties are working out a financial settlement, said Mark Christensen, owner and president of Christensen Building Group, and […]

The Government Accountability Office is tracking DOE’s progress on returning the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to a pre-accident operations clip and plans a full report this year, an official with Congress’ investigative arm said recently. The report will be among the first comprehensive external looks at DOE’s efforts to transition its unique, […]

There are currently 83 active cases of coronavirus infections within the nuclear cleanup complex overseen by the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, an agency source said Thursday. That is one up from the 82 active cases of COVID-19 the prior week. The DOE nuclear cleanup office does not release the number of total cases […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has still received no definitive timetable from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management for removing stranded drums of potentially-combustible transuranic waste from temporary commercial storage in Andrews County, a commission spokesperson said this week. The state regulator expected to receive a technical analysis from the Environmental Management office […]

The Government Accountability Office is tracking DOE’s progress on returning the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to a pre-accident operations clip and plans a full report this year, an official with Congress’ investigative arm said recently. The report will be among the first comprehensive external looks at DOE’s efforts to transition its unique, […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management acknowledged late Friday afternoon it will not remove remaining stranded drums of potentially-combustible transuranic waste from temporary storage in Andrews County, Texas this year. “Due to the unique technical considerations” of removing the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) TRU from Waste Control Specialists, “as well as still-to-be-determined impacts […]

While the Energy Department faces a December deadline to remove some problem transuranic waste from a commercial disposal site in West Texas, there appears to be a chance the material might stay there for two more years. On Aug. 24, Waste Control Specialists requested the Nuclear Regulatory Commission relax its existing order that allows the […]

Addressing the elephant in the desert, an official with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Wednesday warned that ongoing nuclear-weapon maintenance will require a transuranic waste disposal site that is open beyond 2050: the current, best-case availability for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “From an NNSA perspective, with an enduring mission, […]

A top official with the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management declined Wednesday to specify when a new subcontractor might be selected to finish building a new underground ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. “It is certainly a high-priority for us,” Todd Shrader, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for environmental […]

The COVID-19 pandemic helped sell the top brass at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management on the value of telecommuting, the No. 2 official there said Wednesday. When the DOE office was forced to roll back on-site work at nuclear remediation operations starting in mid-March, “a lot of people had their doubts” on the […]