Transuranic Waste

New Mexico and the Department of Energy will get until July 8 to continue settlement talks on revising a 2016 consent order governing legacy waste cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a federal court said this week. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Robbenhaar issued a Monday order extending the timeline following the latest joint status […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is asking the New Mexico Environment Department for certain permit modifications, including approval of four new shielded containers suitable for carrying remote-handled transuranic waste. DOE and Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors filed the Hazardous Waste Facility Permit modification document with the state March […]

An electric company serving New Mexico, representatives of a nearby uranium enrichment plant and various consulting, engineering and government groups showed up for the clean power information day at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this week.  More than a dozen groups participated in Wednesday’s event at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

New Mexico wants assurance transuranic waste, held 10 years at a commercial storage facility in Texas, won’t pose an ignition threat before signing off on shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. As a result, DOE is now facing pressure from both Texas and New Mexico. The Texas attorney […]

New Mexico wants assurance transuranic waste, held 10 years at a commercial storage facility in Texas, won’t pose an ignition threat before signing off on shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. As a result, DOE is now facing pressure from both Texas and New Mexico. The Texas attorney […]

The Department of Energy prime for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Monday stood by its handling of a January incident where two workers were temporarily stuck in a hoist 1,500-feet below the surface of the facility in Eddy County, N.M. “The safety of our workforce is always our top priority,” a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should have reported a Jan. 23 incident, where two miners were stuck up to 30 minutes in a waste hoist lowering them underground, to the Department of Energy’s accident reporting system, a federal safety watchdog says. “Site personnel determined that an erroneous digital signal caused a breaker to trip, resulting […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are conferring with stakeholders and generators to better define legacy transuranic waste, managers said during a public meeting Tuesday in Roswell, N.M. In addition, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should bring online two major infrastructure projects, the ventilation system and […]

PHOENIX — Hanford Site managers in Washington state intend to have their transuranic waste program certified by the Department of Energy in fiscal 2026 and start shipping to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in 2028, a contractor official said at a conference last week. Mike Douglas, waste projects manager for Amentum-led Central […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are conferring with stakeholders and generators to better define legacy transuranic waste, managers said during a public meeting Tuesday in Roswell, N.M. In addition, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should bring online two major infrastructure projects, the ventilation system and […]

PHOENIX — Hanford Site managers in Washington state intend to have their transuranic waste program certified by the Department of Energy in fiscal 2026 and start shipping to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in 2028, a contractor official said at a conference last week. Mike Douglas, waste projects manager for Amentum-led Central […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant should have reported a Jan. 23 incident, where two miners were stuck up to 30 minutes in a waste hoist lowering them underground, to the Department of Energy’s accident reporting system, a federal safety watchdog says. “Site personnel determined that an erroneous digital signal caused a breaker to trip, resulting […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

PHOENIX— A maintenance outage at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., which started Jan. 26, concluded Monday, a site manager said. Shipments of defense-related transuranic waste to the underground salt mine should resume Friday, March 15, Tammy Hobbes, vice president of site prime contractor Salado Isolation Mining Contractors said Monday […]

PHOENIX — The Savannah River Site could send as many as 40 shipments of diluted surplus plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2024, a manager at the Savannah River Site said here. Or maybe half that many, Lee Sims, K Area Facility Manager at Savannah River for the site’s Fluor-led prime contractor, Savannah […]

PHOENIX— A maintenance outage at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., which started Jan. 26, concluded Monday, a site manager said Monday. Shipments of defense-related transuranic waste to the underground salt mine should resume Friday, Tammy Hobbes, vice president of site prime contractor Salado Isolation Mining Contractors said on the […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Board staff says some seismic monitoring equipment at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is out of service and DOE’s prime contractor plans to replace the gear later this year.  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) seismic equipment  on the surface “has failed and is unable to perform its […]

The Defense Nuclear Safety Board staff says some seismic monitoring equipment at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is out of service and DOE’s prime contractor plans to replace the gear later this year.  The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) seismic equipment  on the surface “has failed and is unable to perform its […]

While the Department of Energy is satisfying a New Mexico push to move more transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the Idaho National Laboratory remains the underground mine’s top shipper, a DOE panel heard Thursday. Although a 2019 update to a legal settlement between the […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 50 shipments of transuranic waste during January, according to the facility’s public website. 39 of the 50 came from the Idaho National Laboratory while five were shipped from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, four from the Savannah River Site in […]

The Department of Energy expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will increase by more than 50 in fiscal year 2024, and DOE is also in the early stages of a carbon-free energy procurement for the site, New Mexico lawmakers heard last week. Total shipments to the underground salt […]

The Department of Energy expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will increase by more than 50 in fiscal year 2024, and DOE is also in the early stages of a carbon-free energy procurement for the site, New Mexico lawmakers heard last week. Total shipments to the underground salt […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch thinks it could complete major infrastructure projects in New Mexico and South Carolina during calendar year 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top priorities for 2024 include final testing of a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico; […]

While Triad National Security’s program appears adequate to detect potentially combustible chemicals in transuranic waste from National Nuclear Security Administration work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a safety board wants to see improvement. That is the crux of a Jan. 19 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) letter to Secretary of Energy  Jennifer […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch thinks it could complete major infrastructure projects in New Mexico and South Carolina during calendar year 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The DOE Office of Environmental Management’s top priorities for 2024 include final testing of a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in […]

While Triad National Security’s program appears adequate to detect potentially combustible chemicals in transuranic waste from National Nuclear Security Administration work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a safety board wants to see improvement. That is the crux of a Jan. 19 Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) letter to Secretary of […]

About two years after it released a draft of the document, the National Nuclear Security Administration published a final environmental review of its plant to dispose of dozens of tons of surplus, weapon-usable plutonium. The nuclear weapons agency published its final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program (SPDP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register on […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant have started the two-year effort to carve out a new underground panel for transuranic waste disposal at the salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., the department said Tuesday. In late December, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors made its first cut into […]

A stop work order, issued after a tool basket fell about 2,150 feet down the utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, was lifted last month, according to a recent safety watchdog report. The stop work order triggered by the Nov. 20 accident was partly lifted Dec. 16, […]