Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Even as the Energy Department stays mum on the schedule for staffing up operations that have been depopulated during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are increasing indicators that nuclear remediation sites will gradually start bring more workers back inside the fence before the end of June. This is based on comments from sources around the DOE […]

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 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 Thursday to support the NMSU engineering college’s Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research […]

The primary obstacle to the Department of Energy’s plan for diluting and disposing of surplus plutonium deep underground in New Mexico is scaling up the technology and workforce to do the job, a National Academies panel said Thursday in a long-awaited final report. At the same time, the congressionally chartered group warned, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear […]

An Albuquerque advocacy organization is asking the New Mexico Court of Appeals to block last week’s temporary state approval for the U.S. Department of Energy to sink a new underground shaft at the Waste isolation Pilot Plant. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) filed its motion for a stay with the court on April […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina on Thursday confirmed two more cases of COVID-19, bringing its total to 13 of the 20 known instances of infection among personnel working at sites overseen by the agency’s Office of Environmental Management. A spokesperson for the DOE office at Savannah River declined to provide any […]

A New Mexico advocacy organization is asking the state Court of Appeals to block last week’s temporary state approval for the U.S. Department of Energy to sink a new underground shaft at the Waste isolation Pilot Plant. The Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) filed its motion with the court Friday. That same day, the […]

A contractor employee at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, left New Mexico on March 23. An article in the Monday Weapons Complex Morning Briefing misstated the date.

An employee of the technical services vendor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has contracted COVID-19. This marks the facility’s first confirmed infection of novel coronavirus 2019. The employee of North Wind Portage tested positive Friday after working remotely since March 18, according to a news release from DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy expects within 60 days to issue a final request for proposals for a small business to provide technical assistance to the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced its plans Thursday on a federal procurement website. Idaho-based North Wind Group is the incumbent, with a […]

The Energy Department office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M., is in the market for a satellite location about four hours north in the city of Albuquerque. “Due to the low availability of housing and high cost of living in Carlsbad, New Mexico, multiple offices in the Carlsbad Field Office are short […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., emplaced 40 shipments of transuranic waste during the first three months of 2020, according to data from its public website. That is down significantly from 59 shipments in the first three months of 2019. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant completed a three-week maintenance outage […]

The Energy Department has applied for renewal of the state permit to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The New Mexico Environment Department issued the current Hazardous Waste Facility Permit to DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership in late November 2010. The state agency has said it has no timetable for […]

The Energy Department has applied for renewal of the state permit to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The New Mexico Environment Department issued the current Hazardous Waste Facility Permit to DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership in late November 2010. The state agency has said it has no timetable for […]

The Energy Department has applied for renewal of the state permit to operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The New Mexico Environment Department issued the current Hazardous Waste Facility Permit to DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership in late November 2010. The state agency has said it has no timetable for […]

Federal and industry sources said this week they don’t foresee major environmental or public safety concerns emerging if the current level of reduced staffing at Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites due to COVID-19 lingers for months. Nearly all of the 16 remediation sites overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management have temporarily reduced their workforce […]

Two Department of Energy contracts held by subsidiaries of Idaho-based North Wind Group, together valued at over $277 million, are due to expire by the end of this year. North Wind Solutions has a $232 million contract to operate the Transuranic Waste Processing Center at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee. The five-year contract, which […]

The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday. The Energy Department told its Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to start scaling back operations March 27. The disposal site is […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for permanent disposition of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico that has been stored for years at a privately held facility in Texas. The Energy Department could either technically confirm the radioactive waste can be safely shipped straight to […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is studying two options for removing leftover Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic waste from a privately held facility in Texas. The Energy Department could either technically confirm the waste can be safely shipped straight to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, or send it back […]

The Energy Department is temporarily ramping down operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., because of the COVID-19 crisis, a spokesperson said by email Monday. By Wednesday, the transuranic disposal facility will be down to essential mission critical operations. This could include roof bolting and other work necessary “to ensure the […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is taking a reduced number of waste shipments following a recently concluded maintenance outage that coincided with a national public health emergency. The underground disposal facility for defense-related transuranic waste is accepting “limited shipping to support critical operations within the DOE complex while observing COVID-19 […]

While only a handful of COVID-19 cases have been confirmed to date across the Energy Department nuclear complex, most nuclear remediation sites are dramatically scaling back operations as the pandemic expands. That finding is based on conversations with sources who work with DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, public websites and social media posts, and stay-at-home […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is taking a reduced number of waste shipments following a recently concluded maintenance outage. The underground disposal facility for defense-related transuranic waste is accepting “limited shipping to support critical operations within the DOE complex while observing COVID-19 precautions through consultation with our stakeholders,” a DOE […]

PHOENIX — By the end of 2020, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management expects to start operation of facilities in Idaho and South Carolina that will convert radioactive tank waste into stable forms for eventual disposal, agency officials said here Monday. The Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) at the Savannah River Site in South […]

PHOENIX –The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is still drafting its response to a Texas state agency on plans for removal of potentially combustible drums of radioactive material from Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) wants a federal plan by the end of this month for removal […]

PHOENIX — As time goes by, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico could increasingly dispose of transuranic material from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a top nuclear cleanup official said here Monday. The Idaho National Laboratory is far and away the No. 1 shipper of defense-related transuranic waste to the […]

A heavy equipment accident last summer indicates the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., needs to strengthen its safety oversight of subcontractors, according to a March 4 enforcement letter from DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). In July 2019, a backhoe operated by an employee for subcontractor […]

PHOENIX — As time goes by, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico could increasingly dispose of transuranic material from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a top nuclear cleanup official said here Monday. The Idaho National Laboratory is far and away the No. 1 shipper of defense-related transuranic waste to the […]

PHOENIX –The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is still drafting its response to a Texas state agency on plans for removal of potentially combustible drums of radioactive material from Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) wants a federal plan by the end of this month for removal […]