Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

A pair of public meetings have been scheduled in March on proposed changes in the New Mexico hazardous waste facility permit for the U.S. Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The meetings, scheduled in Carlsbad and Santa Fe, will center around clarifying transuranic “Mixed Waste Disposal Volume Reporting,” according to a memo […]

Having completed a two-week maintenance outage, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., can do same-day salt mining and waste disposal at the underground facility, a spokesman said Friday. The outage finished Jan. 28, and WIPP actually resumed taking transuranic waste the week of Jan. 22, Donavan Mager, a spokesperson for site […]

Stoller Newport News Nuclear (SN3) President Nick Lombardo has been tapped to lead the management team for the joint venture recently awarded the $1.39 billion legacy cleanup contract at the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Lombardo will serve as program manager for Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, which will be responsible […]

By John Stang A week after announcing that private-equity firm J.F. Lehman had acquired Waste Control Specialists (WCS), the companies are largely closed-mouth about details of the deal. The involved parties – Lehman, WCS, and former owner Valhi Inc. – announced the sale in three separate press releases after market close on Friday, Jan. 26. […]

An advisory board that monitors environmental management issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to reclassify old liquid waste equipment so it can be shipped off-site for permanent disposal. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) voted 22-1 Tuesday to request that DOE investigate whether used liquid waste melters and certain […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, exceeding its own target since resuming waste emplacement. Last March, during a WIPP Town Hall meeting, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader publicly identified a target of 128 shipments from April […]

An advisory board that monitors environmental management issues at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to reclassify old liquid waste equipment so it can be shipped off-site for permanent disposal. The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) voted 22-1 Tuesday to request that DOE investigate whether used liquid waste melters and certain […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., by taking 133 shipments of transuranic waste from around the DOE complex during 2017, beat its own target for resuming waste emplacement. Last March, during a WIPP Town Hall presentation, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader publicly identified a target of 128 shipments from […]

In another step toward normal operations following a pair of February 2014 accidents, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico resumed long-anticipated salt mining operations on Monday. The Energy Department and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership had been talking about resumption of mining for months, and a spokesman for the company confirmed […]

In another step toward normal operations following a pair of February 2014 accidents, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico resumed long-anticipated salt mining operations on Monday. The Energy Department and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership had been talking about resumption of mining for months, and a spokesman for the company confirmed […]

The comment period on a draft environmental assessment (EA) for a planned above-ground storage facility at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., has been extended by two weeks, DOE said recently. The original 30-day comment period, from Dec. 15 through Jan. 15, will now end Jan. 29, DOE said in a […]

Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette told a House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee Tuesday the Energy Department continues to make headway on the massive cleanup of its nuclear weapons complex. “In 2018, we will continue to make progress on key facilities and capabilities,” Brouillette said during a hearing on DOE modernization. For example, DOE continues […]

Since reopening to shipments in April 2017, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 133 transports of transuranic waste as of Dec. 21, the last date for which data is publicly available. The Idaho National Laboratory made nearly two-thirds, or 88, of the shipments. Under a 1995 settlement agreement with Idaho, […]

Like everyone else, the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and its contractors have turned the page to 2018, which is shaping up to be another year of transition, according to an informal survey of veteran watchers of the DOE nuclear cleanup complex. Here are a few of the issues to watch: A new leader […]

The Energy Department is seeking public comment until Jan. 15 on plans to build a 65,280- cubic-foot above-ground concrete storage facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., for contact-handled transuranic waste. The comment period opened Dec. 15 on the draft environmental assessment, required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The surface storage […]

The New Mexico State Auditor’s Office has questioned whether the state Environment Department (NMED) went too easy on the Department of Energy during legal settlements in recent years over cleanup problems and violations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In a Nov. 21 letter to New Mexico Environment Secretary Butch Tongate, […]

Since it resumed receiving transuranic waste again last April, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., has received 130 shipments from DOE-approved generator sites as of Dec. 15, 2017. That is the most recent date for which shipment data is publicly available. During its first 36 weeks of operation since reopening, WIPP […]

The Energy Department is seeking public comment until Jan. 15 on plans to build a 65,280- cubic-foot above-ground concrete storage facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., for contact-handled transuranic waste. The comment period opened Dec. 15 on the draft environmental assessment, required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The surface storage […]

The New Mexico State Auditor’s Office has questioned whether the state Environment Department (NMED) went too easy on the Department of Energy during legal settlements in recent years over cleanup problems and violations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In a Nov. 21 letter to New Mexico Environment Secretary […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has authorized Waste Control Specialists (WCS) to store radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for an additional two years, to nearly the end of 2018. The decision is one of a long list of updates to the company’s state radioactive material license approved […]

After a three-year hiatus, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should resume salt mining in a matter of days, according to site management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP). The resumption would mark another key step toward a return to normalcy for the nation’s only permanent underground disposal site […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is seeking to modify its New Mexico hazardous waste facility permit in order to dig a new ventilation shaft to increase underground airflow. The new shaft will extend from the surface to the underground mine used for disposal of DOE transuranic waste. The shaft is a major […]

When the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico gets its permanent ventilation system installed in a few years, it will have to dispose of an increased amount of low-level filtration wastes, according to a recent supplemental analysis from the DOE. The permanent ventilation system’s new filter building will contain far more waste […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has received 118 shipments of transuranic waste since reopening to shipments in April, officials said Wednesday night at the WIPP Town Hall in Carlsbad. WIPP is now averaging between five and six shipments per week from other DOE sites, according to Bruce Covert, president and […]

An advisory committee that monitors nuclear waste issues at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina wants the Department of Energy to consider reclassifying retired waste-treatment equipment and waste containers so they are eligible for permanent disposal off-site. On Tuesday, the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Waste Management Committee voted 10-1 to approve a […]

Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis. “Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute […]

The Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management will remain open for business on Monday thanks to a continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress late Thursday to keep the government running through Dec. 22. The House of Representatives passed the stopgap spending plan 235-193 while the Senate passed it 81-14. The measure is largely […]

The Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico reported 25 breaches of its state hazardous waste facility permit during fiscal 2017, according to a recent filing with the New Mexico Environment Department. The 25 infractions in the budget year ended Sept. 30 are far less than noted in preceding years, when the annual […]

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has begun analyzing whether the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico would be a viable facility for storage of plutonium that would be downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In its fiscal 2017 budget, Congress mandated that the nongovernmental research organization conduct […]