Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

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 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 recommendation […]

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 […]

Details on resumption of salt mining at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should emerge during Wednesday’s WIPP Town Hall, headlined by DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader and Nuclear Waste Partnership President and Project Manager Bruce Covert. WIPP expects to remove about 112,000 tons of salt from Panel 8 […]

Controlling the costs of multibillion-dollar Cold War cleanup projects remains a struggle for the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, the DOE Office of inspector General said in a Nov. 27 special report. In the report, the Inspector General’s Office analyzed management challenges facing the department and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration […]

Salt mining at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is expected to resume within a matter of weeks, a spokesman for site management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said last week. In addition, a director of mining should be hired in early 2018 for the underground transuranic waste storage facility near Carlsbad, […]

Salt mining at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is expected to resume within a matter of weeks, a spokesman for site management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said Wednesday. In addition, a director of mining should be hired in early 2018 for the underground transuranic waste storage facility near Carlsbad, N.M. […]

The Idaho National Laboratory sent 66 of the first 102 shipments of transuranic waste to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to data posted online as of Nov. 22. The update arrived as the Energy Department works to comply with an agreement on moving TRU waste stored at the Idaho site […]

Thomas Gardiner While southeastern New Mexico has been a hub for nuclear business, and its leaders eagerly pursue new opportunities, there is some pushback against advancing plans to build an interim nuclear waste storage facility in the region. “We have a rather long nuclear history in New Mexico, we have a nuclear cluster,” said John […]

AECOM management said Monday the company remains a major player in cleaning up the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear complex and believes it has a real chance of overturning the recent loss of the $4.7 billion contract for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. “We still consider the Savannah River […]

Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff was scheduled to meet with Washington state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon on Thursday, at least in part to discuss ideas about speeding up progress on construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, a state official confirmed. The visit follows […]

The U.S. Energy Department confirmed Tuesday that the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has finished treating 60 potentially combustible containers of radioactive waste, ending ahead of the latest targeted date and setting the stage for the next phase of nitrate salt processing. The drums contained a mix of nitrate salts and organic kitty […]

The U.S. Energy Department confirmed Tuesday that the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has finished treating 60 potentially combustible containers of radioactive waste, ending ahead of the latest targeted date and setting the stage for the next phase of nitrate salt processing. The drums contained a mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic […]

BWX Technologies is scheduled to release its third-quarter earnings after market close on Monday, then follow the financial report with management’s earnings call with analysts at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The Lynchburg, Va.-based nuclear parts and fuel specialist, one of the major players in the Department of Energy complex, reported revenue of $410 million and diluted […]

The Santa Fe City Council is urging the U.S. Energy Department and New Mexico Environment Department to “strengthen” a 2016 consent order governing cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and also suspend any expanded plutonium pit production at the site “until safety issues are resolved.” The resolution, passed Oct. 25, calls for additional characterization […]

Processing of potentially combustible waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be finished by Thanksgiving, a source in New Mexico said this week. That would be ahead of the latest official schedule for completion in December. An official with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management told the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory […]

Processing of potentially combustible waste containers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be finished by Thanksgiving, a source in New Mexico said this week. That would be ahead of the latest official schedule for completion in December. The source said an official with the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management told the Northern New […]

The Santa Fe City Council is urging the U.S. Energy Department and New Mexico Environment Department to “strengthen” a 2016 consent order governing cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and also suspend any expanded plutonium pit production at the site “until safety issues are resolved.” The resolution, passed Oct. 25, calls for additional characterization […]

While no director of mining has been hired yet for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the transuranic waste disposal site continues to move to resume salt mining. Work to clear out more space for storage has been held up for more than three years, after a pair of underground […]

An Energy Department contract for loading of transuranic waste prior to shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., will not be renewed when it expires at the end of this month. Georgia-based-Celeritex Services physically loads certain transuranic waste at DOE generating sites prior to its transport to WIPP. That covers assembling payloads, […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry told a House of Representatives panel Thursday that progress is being made in improving the history of cost overruns and missed deadlines on big projects administered through the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. Perry testified for more than three hours before the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee. While much […]

Fresh off a win in the contract for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, BWX Technologies is eyeing additional contract awards in the near future, according to the company’s Oct. 4 investor day presentation. BWXT partners with fellow DOE major AECOM in Nuclear Waste Partnership, which in September secured a $928 […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to receive 170 shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory between August 2017 and August 2018, officials said during a WIPP Town Hall last week in the city of Carlsbad. Idaho will account for nearly two-thirds of the 258 anticipated total […]

Weeks before it was awarded a six-month extension for legacy nuclear cleanup operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, contractor Los Alamos National Security was slightly more than halfway through processing canisters of problem waste. As of early September, the lab’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility (WCRRF) was treating the 34th […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to receive 170 shipments of transuranic waste from the Idaho National Laboratory between August 2017 and August 2018, officials said during a WIPP Town Hall on Thursday in the city of Carlsbad. Idaho will account for nearly two-thirds of the 258 anticipated total […]

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it had awarded a $19.3 million task order to Waste Control Specialists for continued storage in West Texas of transuranic and Greater-Than-Class-C waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Dallas-based waste storage specialist said the agreement includes research into ultimate disposal of the waste at […]

Since it resumed accepting transuranic waste in April, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has received 68 shipments as of Sept. 25, officials said Thursday during a “WIPP Town Hall” in Carlsbad, N.M. The officials also offered some details of a potential rock fall situation in one of the underground mine’s storage rooms. With […]

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it had awarded a $19.3 million task order to Waste Control Specialists for continued storage in West Texas of transuranic and Greater-Than-Class-C waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Dallas-based waste storage specialist said the agreement includes research into ultimate disposal of the waste at […]

Almost $27 million will be earmarked for road improvements around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) as an outgrowth of a 2016 settlement between the Energy Department and the state of New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez said this week. The funding should shore up New Mexico routes used for transporting Energy Department transuranic waste to […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s independent watchdog for defense nuclear sites backed off a formal safety recommendation to the Energy Department here Tuesday, citing a lack of confidence that the measure would better prepare DOE facilities for emergencies. In an open meeting at its headquarters, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) voted 4-1 to […]