Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

The Department of Energy has extended the public comment period by 45 days for the new 2.2-million-cubic yard waste disposal facility at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. Comments are now being accepted through Dec. 10. The department has also postponed a public hearing on the landfill, which had been scheduled for Oct. 18, until […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is expected to make four more shipments of transuranic waste  to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the near term, after having just revived shipments from LANL’s Area G. A weekly report dated Sept. 28 from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) indicated […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico last year shipped 5,058,687 kilograms of low-level radioactive waste off-site for disposal at federal and commercial properties. Operations at storied nuclear weapons laboratory generate low-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, mixed low-level waste, and mixed transuranic waste, according to the 2017 Annual Site Environmental Report […]

A combustive mixture of oxygen and substances within radioactive waste sludge being processed at the at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory is believed to be behind the April 11 rupture of four storage drums, according to site cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho. At a briefing Tuesday with officials from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., had through Oct. 3 received 254 shipments of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in 2018. At least one more has come in since then — a shipment from Area G of DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The Energy Department and its LANL […]

The Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., should improve certain practices to ensure safe operation of its underground ventilation, according to a recent DOE report. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) should also communicate more with union labor at the waste disposal facility, particularly regarding to expectations for work […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., had received 250 shipments of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in 2018, as of the end of September. That figure, available from publicly accessible data, does not include a shipment from Area G of DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico. The Energy […]

The Energy Department’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., should improve certain practices to ensure safe operation of its underground ventilation, according to a recent DOE report. Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) should also communicate more with union labor at the waste disposal facility, particularly when it comes to expectations […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is considering a 10-year permit renewal for the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The current permit expired June 4. However, INL cleanup contractor Fluor Idaho filed its renewal application six month prior to that date so it is allowed to […]

The public has 60 days to weigh in on a proposal to modify the fashion in which the Department of Energy classifies “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW), following publication Wednesday of a formal notice in the Federal Register. The Energy Department announced Oct. 4 it would seek to classify HLW more on its radioactive traits and […]

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is considering a 10-year permit renewal for Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The current permit expired June 4. However, lab management contractor Fluor Idaho filed its renewal application prior to that date so it is allowed to continue to operate, […]

Another Department of Energy facility is preparing to resume shipping its transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Shipments of contact-handled waste from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California should begin in 2019, lab spokesman Nolan O’Brien said Tuesday by email. The resumption is based on availability of funding […]

Another Department of Energy facility is preparing to resume shipping its transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Shipments of contact-handled  waste from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California should begin in 2019, lab spokesman Nolan O’Brien said Tuesday by email. The resumption is based on availability of funding […]

The House of Representatives passed in a voice vote Monday a bill to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July. The amended version of the bill would hike the site’s funding to $75 million annually starting immediately through fiscal 2028 and […]

The Department of Energy has denied a local advisory group’s request to make treated liquid waste at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The request, submitted in July by the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), asked the Energy Department to recharacterize […]

When President Donald Trump signed a multiagency appropriations package Sept. 21, it assured the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management about $7.2 billion in funding for the 2019 fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The DOE-funding “minibus,” approved by Congress earlier this month, provides the largest budget for the department’s nuclear cleanup office since it received […]

Less than two months after stepping aside as the No. 2 official in the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office, James Owendoff is taking a new job within the agency. Starting next week, Owendoff will be DOE-wide chief risk officer, a senior executive position within the office of the Chief Financial Officer John Vonglis. He formally […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to start receiving remote-handled transuranic waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois by the end of this year, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said recently. “We are about to add a new site, Argonne, this fall,” Shrader said Sept. 12 […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to start receiving transuranic waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois by the end of this year, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said recently. “We are about to add a new site, Argonne, this fall,” Shrader said Sept. 12 at […]

The New Mexico Environment Department issued notice Saturday it is moving ahead with an Oct. 23 public hearing in Carlsbad on the Department of Energy’s application to amend the state hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The hearing will be held at 9 a.m. the Carlsbad branch of New Mexico […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects during the first week of October to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since July 22, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to keep stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico for an additional two years. The Dallas-based company asked the agency for an extension until Dec. 23, 2020, to allow the state of Texas, the Department of Energy, […]

The Energy Department apparently still hasn’t submitted a report to Congress due Feb. 1 on classifying certain defense nuclear waste. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, signed last December, said the “Secretary of Energy shall conduct an evaluation of the feasibility, costs, and cost savings of classifying covered defense nuclear waste as […]

The New Mexico Environment Department has wrapped up the public comment period on an application by the Energy Department to amend the state hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. The state received about 100 pages of comments by Sept. 20, from dozens of individuals and groups, both praising […]

The Energy Department apparently still hasn’t submitted a report to Congress due on Feb. 1 on classifying certain defense nuclear waste. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, signed last December, said the “Secretary of Energy shall conduct an evaluation of the feasibility, costs, and cost savings of classifying covered defense nuclear waste […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects next week to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since late July or early August, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman Donavan […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to keep stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico for an additional two years. The Dallas-based company asked NRC for an extension until Dec. 23, 2020, to allow the state of Texas, the Energy Department, the NRC, […]

Layoffs are expected to start within a couple months at Fluor Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said Thursday. The facility workforce at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory “is on its way out the door,” Casper said. This is expected “before the New Year, before the holidays,” […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor voluntarily suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the close-by Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]