Transuranic Waste

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to start receiving transuranic waste from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois by the end of this year, DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said recently. “We are about to add a new site, Argonne, this fall,” Shrader said Sept. 12 at […]

The New Mexico Environment Department issued notice Saturday it is moving ahead with an Oct. 23 public hearing in Carlsbad on the Department of Energy’s application to amend the state hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The hearing will be held at 9 a.m. the Carlsbad branch of New Mexico […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects during the first week of October to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since July 22, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to keep stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico for an additional two years. The Dallas-based company asked the agency for an extension until Dec. 23, 2020, to allow the state of Texas, the Department of Energy, […]

The Energy Department apparently still hasn’t submitted a report to Congress due Feb. 1 on classifying certain defense nuclear waste. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, signed last December, said the “Secretary of Energy shall conduct an evaluation of the feasibility, costs, and cost savings of classifying covered defense nuclear waste as […]

Layoffs are expected within a couple months at Fluor Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said last week. The facility workforce at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory “is on its way out the door,” Casper said. This is expected “before the New Year, before the holidays,” she […]

The New Mexico Environment Department has wrapped up the public comment period on an application by the Energy Department to amend the state hazardous waste facility permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad. The state received about 100 pages of comments by Sept. 20, from dozens of individuals and groups, both praising […]

The Energy Department apparently still hasn’t submitted a report to Congress due on Feb. 1 on classifying certain defense nuclear waste. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2018, signed last December, said the “Secretary of Energy shall conduct an evaluation of the feasibility, costs, and cost savings of classifying covered defense nuclear waste […]

After a pause this summer, the contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects next week to resume salt mining to dig out more disposal space. This will be the first mining in storage Panel 8 since late July or early August, according to Nuclear Waste Partnership spokesman Donavan […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for permission to keep stranded transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico for an additional two years. The Dallas-based company asked NRC for an extension until Dec. 23, 2020, to allow the state of Texas, the Energy Department, the NRC, […]

Layoffs are expected to start within a couple months at Fluor Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP), Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper said Thursday. The facility workforce at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory “is on its way out the door,” Casper said. This is expected “before the New Year, before the holidays,” […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor voluntarily suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

After a suspension of several months, Fluor Idaho is again excavating a tranche of Cold War waste at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory. The Idaho Cleanup Project contractor suspended the work in the lab’s Accelerated Retrieval Project 8 space following an April 11 breach of four drums at the close-by Accelerated Retrieval Project 5 […]

More than 40 companies signed up to attend an industry session last month to learn more about a contract for further cleanup of the Central Plateau at the Hanford Site in Washington state. There were more 90 registered participants representing companies including AECOM, Atkins, AVANTech, Bechtel, BWX Technologies, Fluor, Honeywell, Jacobs, Navarro Research, North Wind, […]

The Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup office is finalizing a study into the economic viability of continued use of the Idaho National Laboratory’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) should it be allowed to process radioactive waste from out of state. “I like to make these decisions based on good data and facts. To that end, […]

The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). Mining is paused in the newest planned disposal area, Panel 8, until September […]

The Department of Energy is said to be reviewing a study on options for dealing with troublesome transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico that remains stranded at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas. A source Wednesday said the feasibility study is complete and has been delivered to […]

The Department of Energy is said to be reviewing a study on options for dealing with troublesome transuranic waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico that is currently stranded at the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Texas. A source Wednesday said the feasibility study is complete and has been delivered […]

The Energy Department has temporarily halted salt mining at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal site near Carlsbad, N.M. Mining has gone slower than expected since it resumed in January, DOE also recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). The Energy Department and WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) have stopped […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

Most work resumed Monday on the Hanford Site’s SX Tank Farm after a stop-work order was lifted. One or more workers called a halt to work Friday in the radioactive waste storage area out of safety concerns that a hole discovered the day before could impair the integrity of a nearby underground tank. However, a […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina earlier this month sent its first shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste for 2018 to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, ending a yearlong layoff in waste exports. The DOE facility said in a press release it shipped “five standard waste boxes” to […]

The Energy Department’s Carlsbad, N.M., Field Office is accepting public comments through Aug. 29 on the potential environmental impact of building a 3-mile-long bypass road near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The public comment period began July 31 for the draft environmental assessment, according to a recent notice from DOE. The subcontract for the […]

The U.S. Department of Energy might reclassify some treated liquid waste from the Savannah River Site, along with equipment used to process the waste, and send the materials to a permanent repository in New Mexico, according to a July 30 letter that accepts a recommendation from the Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) for the South Carolina […]

The Department of Energy said it has addressed the problem of transuranic waste drums with higher levels of exterior radioactive contamination going from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. A July 6 report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, posted later in […]

The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public […]

With one day left to spare, the U.S. Energy Department announced Monday that it would extend by one year the contract for the Savannah River Site’s management and operations provider. The initial contract for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS), a 10-year deal worth $9.5 billion, was set to expire on July 31. In its press […]

Fluor Idaho is in the advanced stages of its investigation into the cause of an April 11 incident in which four drums of radioactive sludge overheated and ejected their lids, causing waste to spill onto the floor at an Idaho National Laboratory facility. Representatives of the contractor, Energy Department officials in Idaho, and the Idaho […]

Transuranic waste shipments from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee early this month were still arriving at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant with elevated radiological readings that exceed the New Mexico disposal site’s waste acceptance criteria (WAC), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a July 6 report. “Although there is no evidence […]

The Energy Department wants a proposed change for counting the volume of transuranic waste disposed of in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to be retroactive to 1999. That is among the primary points included in a July 12 letter from Todd Shrader, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, and Bruce Covert, president […]