Transuranic Waste

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 […]

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’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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The acting head of the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup program is due to brief the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week on the 45-day review of his office’s operations and other key issues. An entry on the DNFSB calendar says the five-person board is scheduled to receive one of its periodic briefings from EM-1, […]

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, […]