Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

The management and operations contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico stands to earn up to $12.5 million in fees in fiscal 2018, based on its capacity to carry out a number of missions, including mining additional storage space and mitigation of areas contaminated by the 2014 underground radiation release, according to […]

The extended closure of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico threatens the Energy’s Department legal obligation to remove all transuranic waste from Idaho by the end of 2018, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in a report released on Sept. 15. Department officials have acknowledged the possible risk cited in the IG’s […]

The Energy Department announced on Sept. 15 it would extend the current contract for management and operations of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico through September 2020. DOE employed three of the available five years of options remaining in its contract with Nuclear Waste Partnership, according to a late afternoon press release. AECOM […]

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of David Jonas to be Department of Energy general counsel by a 14-9 vote. The roll-call vote split almost entirely along party lines, with only Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) Angus King (I-Vt.) breaking ranks with the Democrats to support Jonas’ nomination. There […]

Changes to the legal and regulatory framework for management of Energy Department nuclear waste could save $40 billion in costs for cleanup of the DOE nuclear complex and hasten the removal of that waste from local communities, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said in a new report. “ECA understands this is a large change from […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico failed to keep watch over suppliers’ capacity to carry out their quality assurance (QA) directives, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in a new report that highlighted several QA challenges at the site. The report, dated Sept. 14 and released this week, found that some […]

The National Academies will, over the next year, evaluate technology development activities within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The study, led by the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, is being conducted at the request of DOE EM. It has two primary purposes: reviewing […]

Changes to the legal and regulatory framework for management of Energy Department nuclear waste could save $40 billion in costs for cleanup of the DOE nuclear complex and hasten the removal of that waste from local communities, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said in a new report. “ECA understands this is a large change from […]

The extended closure of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico threatens the Energy’s Department legal obligation to remove all transuranic waste from Idaho by the end of 2018, the DOE Inspector General’s Office said in a report released Friday. Department officials have acknowledged the possible risk cited in the IG’s audit of interim […]

The Energy Department announced Friday it would extend the current contract for management and operations of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico through September 2020. DOE employed three of the available five years of options remaining in its contract with Nuclear Waste Partnership, according to a late afternoon press release. AECOM AND BWXT […]

Former Sen. Peter Domenici (R-N.M.), a stalwart ally of virtually all things nuclear in his state, died Wednesday following complications from abdominal surgery, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He was 85. Domenici was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served six terms. During his Senate career, he chaired the chamber’s Energy Committee and Budget […]

A number of major policy questions must be addressed before the federal government drops the mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) project in South Carolina in favor of a “dilute and dispose” approach to disposal of 34 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium, House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Thursday. “There are a […]

Within recent days, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico has received its 60th shipment since it resumed receiving radioactive waste from other Department of Energy sites in April. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent repository for transuranic waste, and its nearly three-year closure following a February 2014 radiation release left shipments stranded […]

Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff said Wednesday not to expect a major formal “list” of objectives to be published from his recently completed 45-day review of the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. “There is not a list out there per se,” he said during DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]

The Department of Energy should take a number of steps to ensure it comprehensively understands its transuranic waste management needs as it looks to dispose of 34 metric tons of diluted plutonium at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Plans for a new permanent ventilation system at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico should not be held back by a continuing resolution that will keep the federal government running into December, DOE’s top official at the site said Wednesday. Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader shared his prediction […]

The Department of Energy should take a number of steps to ensure it comprehensively understands its transuranic waste management needs as it looks to dispose of 34 metric tons of diluted plutonium at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent underground […]

The Department of Energy should take a number of steps to ensure it comprehensively understands its transuranic waste disposal needs as it looks to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent disposal […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) might have to wait to get the funding boost being considered on Capitol Hill, assuming an anticipated short-term budget measure becomes reality in the next few weeks. Congress, returning to Washington on Tuesday after its August recess, has only a few weeks to pass some sort of […]

The Energy Department will host a pair of meetings about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico later this month, including an industry day for those interested in bidding on a contract to build parts of the mine’s new ventilation system. The first of the two meetings, scheduled for Aug. 8, involves “strategic planning for […]

Tuesday was the 10th anniversary of the start of construction of the Energy Department’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina — an occasion unheralded by either the agency or its contractor while lawmakers again debate whether to cancel the facility. As part of an arms-control agreement with Russia, initiated in 2000 and finalized in 2010, […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is this week sending its eighth shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste in this fiscal year to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The shipment meets the projection managers at the South Carolina facility set forth earlier this year. Two shipments apiece were sent to […]

Tuesday was the 10th anniversary of the start of construction of the Energy Department’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina — an occasion unheralded by either the agency or its contractor while lawmakers again debate whether to cancel the facility. As part of an arms-control agreement with Russia, initiated in 2000 and […]

The Energy Department will host a pair of meetings about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico later this month, including an industry day for those interested in bidding on a contract to build parts of the mine’s new ventilation system. The first of the two meetings, scheduled for Aug. 8, involves “strategic planning for […]

In a letter to the local Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper Monday, two local New Mexico officials clamored for Congress to bump up the budget for maintenance at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in fiscal 2018. “A significant infrastructure failure could put us back where we were in 2014 — facing several years with a complete […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapon-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapons-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received more shipments of transuranic waste in June than in any of the three months since it again began accepting waste from across the Energy Department’s nuclear complex, official records show. Since reopening its gates in April to waste from across the country, DOE has confirmed receipt of 31 […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]