Transuranic Waste

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 […]

Two sources in New Mexico said Thursday the Los Alamos National Laboratory is slightly more than two-thirds through treatment of potentially combustible waste containers. At a late September meeting of the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board, an Energy Department official reported that 20 drums of inappropriately remediated nitrate salts remained to be treated, one […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

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 […]

Waste Control Specialists has withdrawn a request for an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store select radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The exemption became unnecessary after all shipments of transuranic waste to Waste Control Specialists’ storage complex in West Texas were halted when a container of material from the Energy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday it is is pleased with the outcome of a federal operational readiness review (FORR) for the Transuranic Waste Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, in which 12 of the 13 functional areas passed muster. “This was a successful review in the eyes of […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has as of this week treated half of its stock of containers filled with a volatile mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a spokesman said Tuesday. Thirty of 60 drums of waste from Cold War-era nuclear weapons operations have been processed at the Energy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday it is is pleased with the outcome of a federal operational readiness review (FORR) for the Transuranic Waste Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, in which 12 of the 13 functional areas passed muster. “This was a successful review in the eyes of […]

A federal operational readiness review (FORR) for the Transuranic Waste Facility at the Las Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico was completed earlier this month, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board reported recently. The review at the Energy Department facility began in late July and was scheduled for completion on Aug. 9, according to […]