Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

All 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management have at least initiated Phase 1 remobilization operations, after on-site work was drastically scaled back this spring in an effort to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19 among the workforce. In addition, Phase 2 is now underway at the Idaho National […]

The Energy Department contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 83%, or $14.3 million, of a potential $17.3 million fee for its work during fiscal 2019. The DOE fee scorecard for the period from Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, was recently posted online for Nuclear Waste Partnership, a joint […]

The Energy Department contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., earned 83%, or $14.3 million, of a potential $17.3 million fee for its work during fiscal 2019. The DOE fee scorecard for the period from Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, was recently posted online for Nuclear Waste Partnership, a joint […]

A story in the Monday edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have said the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico on June 15 entered Phase 2 of the Energy Department’s remobilization following on-site staffing drawdowns in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Energy Department said Friday that a third worker at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., has tested positive for COVID-19. The employee of WIPP management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership “became ill earlier this week and was tested by WIPP Health Services on Wednesday,” the Energy Department announced on its social […]

Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The appointment is part of a flurry of new assignments unveiled this week by the DOE Office of Environmental Management. Knerr is currently federal project director […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received only 67 shipments of transuranic waste during the first five months of the year, compared to 125 during the same period in 2019. The underground disposal site for defense-related TRU received 20 shipments in May. Thirteen came from the Idaho National Laboratory and seven […]

In an official report to Congress about tritium-safety oversight, the Department of Energy again sought to avoid a legal fight about whether its workforce is subject to recommendations from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The independent federal agency feared the Energy Department might have rejected a 2019 recommendation to bolster the Savannah River Site’s […]

Reinhard Knerr, a director at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office (PPPO), will in mid-July become the new permanent manager for the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. Knerr is currently federal project director for conversion of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky. His […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received only 67 shipments of transuranic waste during the first five months of the year, compared to 125 during the same period in 2019. The underground disposal site for defense-related TRU received 20 shipments in May. Thirteen came from the Idaho National Laboratory and seven […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is ramping up operations that have been reduced for months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no set schedule for a return to prior waste emplacement levels, according to the head of the Department of Energy contractor for the facility. “I unfortunately don’t have […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said the Energy Department might rely too much on its waste acceptance criteria program to keep potentially combustible material out of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The DOE’s National Transuranic Program employs the criteria at department facilities around the country to flag hazards in defense-related […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is ramping up operations that have been reduced for months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is no set schedule for a return to prior waste emplacement levels, according to the head of the Department of Energy contractor for the facility. “I unfortunately don’t have […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said the Energy Department might rely too much on its waste acceptance criteria program to keep potentially combustible material out of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The DOE’s National Transuranic Program employs the criteria at department facilities around the country to flag hazards in defense-related […]

Nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. In six pages of comments filed last month about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March finding that the […]

Starting Monday, more than half of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup sites will be in Phase 1 of a gradual return to normal operations that have been effectively suspended since March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental remediation operations at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio, the Paducah Site in Kentucky, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

Nuclear waste will pile up at the Los Alamos National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to make nuclear-weapon cores there, according to the New Mexico Environment Department. In six pages of comments filed last month about the plan, the state agency also challenged the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) March finding that the […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has entered Phase 1 of its gradual return to normal operations, which have been reduced for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Tuesday. Like nearly all of the 16 nuclear cleanup sites overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the transuranic waste disposal […]

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 […]

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 […]

After weeks of speculation, three Department of Energy nuclear sites are entering the first phase of the full resumption of remediation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed Friday. The Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, and the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee are the first to take […]

The Energy Department intends to issue a sole-source contract to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) for continued administrative support for certain radioactive material already stored at its Andrews County, Texas, facility. In a pair of notices published Monday and Tuesday on a federal procurement website, the Energy Department said it wants to prevent a lapse in […]

The Energy Department intends to issue a sole-source contract to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) for continued administrative support for certain radioactive material already stored at its Andrews County, Texas, facility. In a pair of notices published Monday and Tuesday on a federal procurement website, the Energy Department said it wants to prevent a lapse in […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico on Monday reported its second confirmed case of COVID-19. An employee of subcontractor Constructors Inc. received a positive test for the novel coronavirus 2019 on Friday, DOE and WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a Facebook post. The worker developed symptoms, which can […]

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 […]

The Energy Department expects to issue a final request for proposals this month for the Idaho Cleanup Contract, according to a procurement update made public last week. The potential 15-year, $6.4 billion agreement will replace Fluor Idaho’s nearly $2 billion, five-year deal that runs through May 2021. It would also replace Spectra Tech’s roughly five-year, […]

The Energy Department expects to issue a final request for proposals this month for the Idaho Cleanup Contract, according to a procurement update made public Thursday. The potential 15-year, $6.4 billion agreement will replace Fluor Idaho’s nearly $2 billion, five-year deal that runs through May 2021. It would also replace Spectra Tech’s roughly five-year, $45 […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is renewing a $14.4 million grant for New Mexico State University to continue environmental monitoring near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees WIPP, announced the five-year financial assistance grant April 30 to support the NMSU engineering college’s Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring […]

AECOM, the former owner of what is now Department of Energy contractor Amentum, generated $3.2 billion in revenue during its second quarter of fiscal 2020, down from $3.4 billion for the same period a year earlier. Net income for the Los Angeles-based engineering and infrastructure multinational landed at $49 million, or $0.31 per share, for […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office should update the technical review process for sites that ship transuranic material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to a new interim federal report. The DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) said April 29 it wants the Carlsbad Field Office to carry out technical reviews […]