Transuranic Waste

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

An article in the April 27 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“Hanford TRU Waste Would Move to WIPP by 2050”] should have said crews will retrieve about 17,500 containers of waste stored underground in Hanford’s low-level burial grounds.

Moving transuranic waste stored at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state to an underground disposal site in New Mexico would be completed by September 2050 instead of 2030 under a proposed change by agencies involved in remediating the former plutonium production complex. The delayed schedule for moving transuranic waste from Hanford to […]

The Department of Energy said this week it plans to extend the current Waste Control Specialists agreement for storing some potentially combustible drums of transuranic waste in Texas beyond the June 7 expiration date. The DOE Office of Environmental Management published the notice of award for extension of the current sole-source contract Wednesday on a […]

The Department of Energy said this week the solicitation for a new five-year, $100-million transportation contract for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should be released in the next 25-to-60 days. As a result, the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Procurement should be out […]

he Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

The Department of Energy’s prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has hired a Kiewit affiliate, The Industrial Co. or TIC, as the replacement subcontractor to complete construction of a major underground ventilation project. Nuclear Waste Partnership in a Wednesday press release it has awarded the subcontract, worth about $163 million, […]

The Department of Energy said Monday the solicitation for a new five-year, $100-million transportation contract for its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should be released in the next 25-to-60 days. As a result, the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services Procurement should be out by […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this week published a minor amendment to Waste Control Specialists’s state radioactive material license, allowing the company to keep potentially combustible drums of Department of Energy transuranic waste at a commercial site in Andrews County until Dec. 23, 2022. The amendment proposed Dec. 9 by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years is targeted for late July, officials for the Department of Energy and its prime contractor in Carlsbad, N.M. said Thursday night. The summer target timeframe was shared by Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) operations manager Don McBridge […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue the final solicitation for a new prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico between now and June, according to a procurement notice this week.  The agency said the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out between […]

Barring extensions, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has four contracts set to expire within the next 60 days, according to the contract summary page for the $7-billion-plus nuclear cleanup branch. Portsmouth Mission Alliance, a partnership between North Wind Group and Swift & Staley, has the roughly five-year, $190-million infrastructure service contract at […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday published a minor amendment to Waste Control Specialists’s state radioactive material license, allowing the company to keep potentially combustible drums of Department of Energy transuranic waste at a commercial site in Andrews County until Dec. 23, 2022. The amendment proposed Dec. 9 by Waste Control Specialists (WCS) […]

The next contractor in charge of moving defense-related transuranic to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a planned five-year contract may handle 500-to-800 shipments annually, the Department Energy said in comments posted online recently. “Over the last 10 years, WIPP carrier miles have varied greatly from roughly 300,000 miles to more than […]

The Department of Energy expects to issue the final solicitation for a new prime contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico between now and June, according to a Monday procurement notice. The agency said the final request for proposals (RFP) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should be out between 30 […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s planned revival of an underground ventilation fan that has been idle for years poses scant radiological risks, according to the Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the facility in New Mexico. Data gleaned from a four-hour test of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)’s 700-C ventilation fan on […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site should finish construction there later this year of a new storage facility for drums of down-blended plutonium that will ultimately be certified as transuranic waste and sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Once the Aiken, S.C. site’s K Area storage facility, with […]

A former ventilation subcontractor’s lawsuit against Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prime Nuclear Waste Partnership was put on hold Wednesday while the parties attempted to settle their differences out of court. The prime, Nuclear Waste Partnership, and subcontractor Critical Applications Alliance have agreed to stay the case while pursuing mediation, their attorneys said in a joint […]

A former ventilation subcontractor’s lawsuit against Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prime Nuclear Waste Partnership was put on hold Wednesday while the parties attempted to settle their differences out of court. The prime, Nuclear Waste Partnership, and subcontractor Critical Applications Alliance have agreed to stay the case while pursuing mediation, their attorneys said in a joint […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico has halted transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory after sparks from a waste drum prompted evacuations at both the lab and the disposal site. That is according to a […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico has halted transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s contractor for the Los Alamos National Laboratory after sparks from a waste drum prompted evacuations at both the lab and the disposal site. That is according to a […]

The Department of Energy is meeting its commitment to keep the Idaho National Laboratory as the top-priority shipper to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico but still needs to get cracking on other directives from a 2019 update to the key legal settlement between Boise and the federal government, the state said. The […]

Bosses at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., are shooting for a sharp uptick in monthly transuranic waste shipments to the underground salt mine after an ongoing maintenance outage wraps up in April, according to a recent update to a federal safety board. After seeing shipments drop to about four […]

Prospective bidders have until Monday, April 5, to submit questions to the Department of Energy on a potential five-year, $100-million small business contract for moving transuranic waste from nuclear cleanup sites around the country to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The DOE Office of Environmental Management has targeted May for publication of […]

The Department of Energy is meeting its commitment to keep the Idaho National Laboratory as the top-priority shipper to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico but still needs to get cracking on other directives from a 2019 update to the key legal settlement between Boise and the federal government, the state said. The […]

Bosses at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., are shooting for a sharp uptick in monthly transuranic waste shipments to the underground salt mine after an ongoing maintenance outage wraps up in April, according to a recent update to a federal safety board. After seeing shipments drop to about four […]

The Department of Energy is gathering information on firms interested in providing support services to the Tribal Radioactive Materials Transportation Committee, an organization of 20 federally-recognized tribes touched by shipments of nuclear waste. The request for information notice was posted Tuesday on a federal procurement website by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy’s Office of Integrated […]

Anyone who wants to testify about or provide technical comments on the planned new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant during a hearing scheduled for May 17 should let the New Mexico Environment Department know by May 3, the state agency said.  Late last week, the New Mexico Environment Department filed a formal […]

The Department of Energy is extending North Wind Solutions’ transuranic waste processing work by up to 24 months at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, according to a recently-posted notice on a federal procurement website. The DOE issued its justification for issuing the extension, without a full and open competition, on Thursday although the actual […]