Transuranic Waste

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has as of this week treated half of its stock of containers filled with a combustible mix of remediated nitrate salts and organic kitty litter, a spokesman said Tuesday. Thirty of 60 drums have been processed at the Energy Department site’s Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility. […]

Waste Control Specialists has withdrawn a request for an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store select radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory.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 Los Alamos […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico last week halted treatment of remediated nitrate salts for two days after a fire suppression system was damaged at the facility where the work is being conducted. The Department of Energy lab is treating 60 drums filled with a combustible mix of organic kitty litter and irradiated salt […]

Management at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has acknowledged it will not meet upcoming contractual milestones for treatment of nitrate salts, according to a recently released site report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The news comes just days ahead of the scheduled period for the Department of Energy to award […]

After five years, the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee has resumed shipping transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The waste is largely from research and isotope production operations previously carried out at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, according to a press release from DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental […]

A key piece of technology at the Department of Energy’s Idaho site has in 100,000 hours of operation compacted over 238,000 containers of transuranic waste. The “supercompactor” at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project compresses the 55-gallon drums into pucks just 5 to 7 inches thick, according to an Aug. 2 press release from site […]

The Energy Department will host a pair of meetings about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico later this month, including an industry day for those interested in bidding on a contract to build parts of the mine’s new ventilation system. The first of the two meetings, scheduled for Aug. 8, involves “strategic planning for […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is this week sending its eighth shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste in this fiscal year to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The shipment meets the projection managers at the South Carolina facility set forth earlier this year. Two shipments apiece were sent to […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site is this week sending its eighth shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste in this fiscal year to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The shipment meets the projection managers at the South Carolina facility set forth earlier this year. Two shipments apiece were sent to […]

French waste management company Veolia plans to acquire Ohio-based Wastren Advantage in a move that would further boost the Paris-based company’s reach into the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup market. “I can confirm we are in the process of being acquired by Veolia subject to the necessary approvals from DOE for our mitigated entity,” Wastren Chief […]

The Energy Department will host a pair of meetings about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico later this month, including an industry day for those interested in bidding on a contract to build parts of the mine’s new ventilation system. The first of the two meetings, scheduled for Aug. 8, involves “strategic planning for […]

In a letter to the local Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper Monday, two local New Mexico officials clamored for Congress to bump up the budget for maintenance at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in fiscal 2018. “A significant infrastructure failure could put us back where we were in 2014 — facing several years with a complete […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapon-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

At the Energy Department’s request, the congressionally chartered National Academies will study the potential for sending 34 metric tons of processed weapons-grade plutonium — and possibly other waste — to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. Besides the 34 metric tons of plutonium — which under an arms control pact with Russia […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) received more shipments of transuranic waste in June than in any of the three months since it again began accepting waste from across the Energy Department’s nuclear complex, official records show. Since reopening its gates in April to waste from across the country, DOE has confirmed receipt of 31 […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]

The Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant notified the New Mexico Environment Department last week that they plan to start major upgrades to the site’s ventilation system by next December. The notification was part of a recently published letter to John Kieling, chief of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste […]

After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico remains compliant with U.S. environmental law essential to the transuranic waste facility’s ongoing operations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. Every five years, under the federal law that created the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), EPA must recertify that the Department of Energy is complying with the […]

After a federal judge blocked Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists’ takeover by EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, the Texas company is still trying to figure out what to do with more than 100 potentially flammable containers of transuranic waste it is storing for the Energy Department. Asked what the canceled merger means for the company’s contract […]

The Energy Department has received permission from the state of New Mexico to keep 26 containers of potentially flammable waste above ground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) until June 30, 2018. The agency made the request on June 9 and received the OK from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on June 23, according to a […]

The Energy Department has received permission from the state of New Mexico to keep 26 containers of potentially flammable waste above ground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) until June 30, 2018. The agency made the request on June 9 and received the OK from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on June 23, according to a […]

The Council of State Governments’ Midwestern Region will continue overseeing transuranic waste shipments to the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for another five years, under a $1.4-million cooperative agreement-extension announced late Friday. The council distributes the DOE funds to states through which transuranic waste moves on its way to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

The New Mexico Environment Department will continue non-regulatory oversight of the Energy Department’s environmental monitoring programs at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant under a five-year, $2-million grant extension announced Thursday. The grant now will run through June 30, 2022, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management wrote in a press release. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

Through June 9, the Energy Department had made 21 shipments of transuranic waste to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for disposal, according to the latest official DOE records. The count includes only shipments that have been buried at the deep-underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., for two weeks, meaning the actual shipment total in […]

Through June 9, the Energy Department had shipped 21 shipments of transuranic waste to the reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for disposal, according to the latest official DOE records. The count includes only shipments that have been buried at the deep-underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., for two weeks, meaning the actual shipment total could […]

An article in the June 16 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor, “DOE Budget Plan Doubles Funding for WIPP Ventilation,” did not include the full fiscal 2018 Environmental Management funding request for the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge, Tenn., site. The total amount is $390.2 million.

The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically […]

Twenty-six containers of transuranic waste shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for disposal years ago might not be buried there until 2018, the Energy Department disclosed on June 9 in a regulatory filing. Hundreds of containers of transuranic waste — radioactively contaminated material and equipment produced by Cold War nuclear weapons programs — were […]

The Department of Energy intends to more than double funding in fiscal 2018 for work on the new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, according to the detailed budget justification released this week for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. Airflow at the transuranic waste storage mine was reduced drastically […]