Transuranic Waste

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 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 […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend 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. The federal […]

The Department of Energy has named Mark Bollinger as its new acting deputy manager for the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Bollinger took over the No. 2 manager slot on March 14 at Carlsbad, reporting to manager Reinhard Knerr, according to a Twitter post last week from […]

Jim Bittner is taking over as vice president and general manager for BWX Technologies’ Nuclear Operations Groups’ Lynchburg, Va., manufacturing facility, which manufactures reactors for naval aircraft carriers and submarines, the company announced Monday. Bittner will be in charge of about 2,200 employees in Lynchburg, which is one of the two commercial facilities certified by the Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy plans a virtual pre-solicitation conference March 30 to share details on procurement for the new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Transportation Services Contract. The DOE cleanup office plans to skip the draft-request-for-proposals stage and issue a final solicitation this spring, possibly in May. The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management will hold the […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could go offline for a major ventilation upgrade right around the time the Los Alamos National Laboratory starts casting new nuclear weapon cores and generating a slew of new defense transuranic waste, a lab official said Wednesday at the online Waste Management Symposia conference. “As we progress in our nuclear […]

Construction costs for a new ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be up to $450 million, pending a recalculation, a Department of Energy official said Monday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) planned Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) “has a cost range of $400 million up to $450 million,” Janelle Armijo, […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could go offline for a major ventilation upgrade right around the time the Los Alamos National Laboratory starts casting new nuclear weapon cores and generating a slew of new defense transuranic waste, a lab official said Wednesday at the online Waste Management Symposia conference. “As we progress in our nuclear […]

Construction costs for a new ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could be up to $450 million, pending a recalculation, a Department of Energy official said Monday. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s (WIPP) planned Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) “has a cost range of $400 million up to $450 million,” Janelle Armijo, […]

With the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico undergoing its regular annual maintenance outage, there were only three shipments of transuranic waste to the underground salt mine during February. Two of the three shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) during the month came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

With the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico undergoing its regular annual maintenance outage, there were only three shipments of transuranic waste to the underground salt mine during February. Two of the three shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) during the month came from the Los Alamos National Laboratory […]

Final solicitations for operations and transportation contracts at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., could be out as soon as May, the agency said Thursday. In one of its procurement special notices, the DOE Office of Environmental Management said the final requests for proposals (RFP) will be released “no sooner […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 20 shipments of transuranic waste during January, which represents its highest monthly total since October, according to the facility’s online waste information database. There were 12 shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory and eight from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. […]

An article in the Feb. 16 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing (“New Mexico Hearing on WIPP Shaft Set for May”) should have said that May 17 is the date for the hearing on the planned new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received 20 shipments of transuranic waste during January, which represents its highest monthly total since October, according to the facility’s online waste information database. There were 12 shipments from the Idaho National Laboratory and eight from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. […]

The New Mexico Environment Department plans consider the Department of Energy’s plan to sink a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in a Zoom hearing on May 17, an environmental activist told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The first day of the hearing will run from 12 noon through 4 p.m. Mountain Time […]

An article in the Feb. 9 Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“DOE Moves Closer to Cleaning Up Major Transuranic Tranche at Idaho”] should have reported that shipment of 5,700 cubic meters of transuranic waste remaining in interim storage at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is expected to take […]

New Mexico will hold hearings soon about restarting excavation of a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, the Department of Energy’s manager for the transuranic waste disposal site told state lawmakers in a virtual briefing Tuesday. In addition, the facility should emplace more shipments of transuranic waste in the next […]

The Department of Energy expects to treat the remainder of transuranic waste, held in interim storage at Idaho National Laboratory by the end of year, a DOE official in Idaho said recently.  Of the 65,000 cubic meters of material shipped to Idaho from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado between 1970 and […]

After disposing of only 192 shipments of transuranic waste during 2020, the Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will receive many more over the next 12 months as the COVID-19 pandemic gradually subsides. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could receive up to 325 shipments of transuranic waste for disposal between Feb. […]

The end is within sight for the Department of Energy’s effort to treat 65,000 cubic yards of transuranic waste, held in interim storage at Idaho National Laboratory, to the Waste isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Of the material shipped to Idaho from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado between 1970 and […]

New Mexico will hold hearings in the coming weeks about restarting excavation of a new utility shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, the Department of Energy’s manager for the transuranic waste disposal site told state lawmakers in a virtual briefing Tuesday. Reinhard Knerr, the DOE’s manager of the Carlsbad Field Office that […]

The New Mexico Court of Appeals has been briefed on a lawsuit brought by citizen groups challenging modifications made in December 2018 by the Department of Energy to the method used to calculate waste volumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, one of the parties said by email Sunday. The case is now […]

A standard box of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, stuck at a commercial site in Texas since 2014, has been approved for shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. When that waste box is shipped there will be 74 remaining at Waste Control Specialists, Brian McGovern, […]

The Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the Waste isolation Pilot Plant on Jan. 31 completed an early test of the long-idle 700-C fan, expected by this summer to augment underground airflow pending completion of a major new ventilation system.  Construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, meant to increase airflow to […]

A standard box of transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, stuck at a commercial site in Texas since 2014, has been approved for shipment to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. When that waste box is shipped there will be 74 remaining at Waste Control Specialists, Brian McGovern, […]

The Department of Energy and the prime contractor for the Waste isolation Pilot Plant on Sunday completed an early test of the long-idle 700-C fan, expected to augment underground airflow pending completion of a major new ventilation system.  Construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, meant to increase airflow to 540,000 cubic feet per […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 243 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in the United States a little more than a year ago while the Hanford Site in Washington state is up to about 645 cases during the same period. That is […]

Before leaving office with the rest of the Donald Trump administration, then-Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette asked a federal nuclear safety board for a 60-day extension to produce a report on concerns about transuranic waste handling at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In the letter dated Jan. 19, and posted last week on […]