Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

HENDERSON, Nev. — Department of Energy officials and industry executives expressed hope Wednesday that no last-minute snags hold up passage of a fiscal 2019 budget with healthy funding for the agency’s nuclear weapons and cleanup operations. “Who wants to do layoffs in an election year?” Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development, nuclear and environment, […]

Department of Energy officials and industry executives expressed hope Wednesday that no last-minute snags hold up passage of a fiscal 2019 Energy Department budget with healthy funding for its nuclear weapons and cleanup operations. “Who wants to do layoffs in an election year?” Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development, nuclear and environment, for the […]

The Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office is finalizing a study into the economic viability of continued use of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) should it be allowed to process radioactive waste from out of state. “I like to make these decisions based on good data and facts. To that end, […]

The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). Mining is paused in the newest planned disposal area, Panel 8, until September […]

The Energy Department last week issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a small business set-aside contract, potentially worth almost $25 million over five years, to tackle low-risk, low-complexity characterization and remediation for the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management in Tennessee. The Y-12 National Security Complex, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the […]

The Department of Energy is said to be reviewing a study on options for dealing with troublesome transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico that remains stranded at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas. A source Wednesday said the feasibility study is complete and has been delivered to […]

The Department of Energy is said to be reviewing a study on options for dealing with troublesome transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico that is currently stranded at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas. A source Wednesday said the feasibility study is complete and has been delivered […]

The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Energy Department and WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) have stopped […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

Most work resumed Monday on the Hanford Site’s SX Tank Farm after a stop-work order was lifted. One or more workers called a halt to work Friday in the radioactive waste storage area out of safety concerns that a hole discovered the day before could impair the integrity of a nearby underground tank. However, a […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad, N.M., Field Office is accepting public comments through Aug. 29 on the potential environmental impact of building a 3-mile-long bypass road near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The public comment period began July 31 for the draft environmental assessment, according to a recent notice from DOE. The subcontract for the […]

The Department of Energy said it has addressed the problem of transuranic waste drums with higher levels of exterior radioactive contamination going from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. A July 6 report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, posted later in […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public […]

With one day left to spare, the U.S. Energy Department announced Monday that it would extend by one year the contract for the Savannah River Site’s management and operations provider. The initial contract for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), a 10-year deal worth $9.5 billion, was set to expire on July 31. In its press […]

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the final version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to sign a bill that would tighten congressional oversight of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The $717 billion bill sailed through on an 87-10 vote, less than […]

Fluor Idaho is in the advanced stages of its investigation into the cause of an April 11 incident in which four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids, causing waste to spill onto the floor at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Representatives of the contractor, Energy Department officials in Idaho, and the Idaho […]

Transuranic waste shipments from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee early this month were still arriving at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant with elevated radiological readings that exceed the New Mexico disposal site’s waste acceptance criteria (WAC), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a July 6 report. “Although there is no evidence […]

The Energy Department wants a proposed change for counting the volume of transuranic waste disposed of in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to be retroactive to 1999. That is among the primary points included in a July 12 letter from Todd Shrader, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, and Bruce Covert, president […]

The Department of Energy should reclassify treated liquid waste stored in glass logs at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., so the material will be eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) recommended Tuesday. The recommendation, approved in a 19-2 vote, asks the […]

The Department of Energy should reclassify treated liquid waste stored in glass logs at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. so the material will be eligible for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., the SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) recommended Tuesday. The recommendation, approved in a 19-2 vote, asks the […]

The Energy Department wants a proposed change for counting the volume of transuranic waste disposed of in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to be retroactive to 1999. That is among the primary points included in a July 12 letter from Todd Shrader, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, and Bruce Covert, president […]

Bob McQuinn, an AECOM senior executive who, among other things, led the prime contractor team for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), for about a year following a 2014 accident, has announced he will retire at the end of August. McQuinn is vice president of the company’s performance assurance and high-level waste sector. […]

A federal judge has placed a South Carolina lawsuit against the Department of Energy on hold until an appeals court decides if she was right to block the agency from stopping work at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). It would not make sense to address other issues in the high stakes […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor received 169 shipments of transuranic waste for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico during the first six months of 2018. That averages out to 6.5 shipments per week for the first 26 weeks of the year. By comparison, there were 133 shipments, or […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico will hold their next WIPP Town Hall update on Aug. 2 in Carlsbad, N.M. These public briefings on the underground transuranic waste disposal site are webcast. The Energy Department and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership had initially planned to have […]

Bob McQuinn, an AECOM senior executive who, among other things, led the prime contractor team for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), for about a year following a 2014 accident, has announced he will retire at the end of August. McQuinn is vice president of the company’s performance assurance and high-level waste sector. […]

The Energy Department is seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval for a one-time shipment of 2.5 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel material from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Idaho National Laboratory for research purposes. The nuclear regulator said June 26 it had received DOE’s application for approval of a shipment route and […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina would look for ways to accelerate shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico under a proposal being studied by a local advisory board. The Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board is expected to vote on making the recommendation to DOE […]

The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state and instruct the Government Accountability Office to prepare a report on radioactive waste at the site. The bill passed on a voice vote is an amended version of legislation forwarded June 27 by the […]