Transuranic Waste

Jeffrey Carswell has been promoted to deputy manager of the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, putting an end to talk that one of the leading figures in the agency’s years-long drive to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was headed up the road to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Carswell — one […]

The recently reopened Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could be ready to accept new shipments of nuclear waste from across the Energy Department’s nuclear complex by May, under an ambitious schedule being discussed internally in Carlsbad, N.M. For that to happen, WIPP prime Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) must bury transuranic waste marooned above ground at the site’s […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico has completed construction of its Transuranic Waste Facility (TWF) and the readiness process has begun, an individual familiar with the project said this week. The facility is expected to begin receiving waste by next spring or summer. The facility is intended for storage of newly generated […]

Technicians with Nuclear Waste Partnership have moved transuranic waste into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for the first time in nearly three years, the New Mexico Environment Department said late Wednesday in a press release. Closed since February 2014 following an accidental underground radiation release and earlier, unrelated undergound fire, WIPP received Energy Department clearance […]

Jeffrey Carswell has been promoted to deputy manager of the Energy Department’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, putting an end to talk that one of the leading figures in the agency’s years-long drive to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was headed up the road to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Carswell — one […]

The Department of Energy announced Friday that it had given approval for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to resume waste storage operations after nearly three years. The initial waste emplacement should be carried out next month following final, limited ground control operations, DOE said. The announcement comes a week after the New […]

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Pendleton, Ore., will conduct “activities to ensure the safe transportation” of nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico under a five-year, $375,000 cooperative agreement with the Energy Department. DOE announced the arrangement in a press release Monday. The agreement will help the […]

The New Mexico Environment Department has given the U.S. Energy Department the OK to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), removing one of the last major hurdles to resuming transuranic waste disposal at the site after a nearly three-year shutdown. In doing so, the state mandated that DOE and WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) begin […]

The Energy Department will not commit to reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by Dec. 31, an agency official told local stakeholders Thursday. “Our goal, based on everything we know, continues to be December,” Todd Shrader, head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said in a town hall meeting webcast from Carlsbad, N.M., some 40 miles […]

New Mexico state regulators have completed a critical review of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, but have yet to disclose the results. “Once our inspectors have compiled their observations, we will formally notify WIPP of the results of the inspections,” New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary Butch tongate said in a press […]

The Energy Department is expected to announce Thursday whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is ready to reopen its doors for nuclear-waste disposal after a nearly three-year pause. DOE finished its final operational readiness review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) earlier this month. The two-week checkup was designed to gauge whether contractor Nuclear […]

The Energy Department’s final review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s recovery effort uncovered 21 punch-list items the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership must address before the mine can reopen after its nearly three-year pause. In addition to those 21 so-called corrective actions, DOE prescribed 15 fixes that the local field […]

The Energy Department’s final review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s restart effort uncovered 21 punch-list items the agency’s Carlsbad Field Office and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) must address before the mine can reopen after its nearly three-year pause. In addition to those 21 so-called corrective actions, DOE prescribed 15 fixes that the local field […]

The Energy Department has canceled a meeting that was expected to be the forum for a major announcement about whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant would be ready to resume disposal of nuclear waste this year. Sources said Tuesday DOE canceled the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) town hall scheduled for Thursday. The move will […]

As soon as Thursday, the Energy Department could declare it is ready to once again dispose of nuclear waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after a nearly three-year pause. At 8:30 p.m. Eastern time that day, DOE and the city of Carlsbad, N.M., plan to webcast their latest quarterly Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) […]

Waste Control Specialists is seeking leniency from federal regulators after apparently violating its federal waste-storage permit to prevent a possible radiation release in 2014, according to an official account the company filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The 12-page account, the most detailed Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has offered publicly on the situation, is printed […]

This week, as the Energy Department weighed decisions that will determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) reopens in 2016, news broke that New Mexico’s U.S. senators believe the facility needs tens of millions of dollars more than expected to safely resume nuclear waste disposal. After numerous setbacks this year, DOE and site contractor […]

President-elect Donald Trump has promised massive tax reform during his administration, and maybe, just maybe, that could present an opportunity for the adoption of a carbon tax. The theory, termed “The Great Swap” in a report released Wednesday by public policy professor Joseph Aldy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, is that the […]

The Energy Department is scheduled on Friday to complete the last agency-led review standing in the way of reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for transuranic waste-disposal operations, sources in New Mexico said Wednesday. DOE is set to conduct its exit interview with WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) in the early afternoon, local […]

Waste Control Specialists is seeking leniency from federal regulators after apparently violating its federal waste-storage permit to prevent a possible radiation release in 2014, according to an official account the company filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The 12-page account, the most detailed Waste Control Specialists (WCS) has offered publicly on the situation, is printed […]

The Energy Department is due to conclude this week its final review of whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico is ready to reopen for transuranic waste disposal nearly three years after a pair of accidents closed the deep-underground facility. DOE on Nov. 14 began an operational readiness review that was expected to take […]

A final, crunch-time review to determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is ready to receive nuclear waste for the first time in nearly three years will take less time to finish than once thought, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. The DOE-led operational readiness review that began Monday, as first reported in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, will […]

A final, crunch-time review to determine if the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is ready to receive nuclear waste for the first time in nearly three years will take less time to finish than once thought, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday. The DOE-led operational readiness review that began Monday, as first reported in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, […]

The Energy Department on Monday started a critical safety review that could clear the way for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., to reopen by the end of the year, an agency spokesperson said. The agency operational readiness review, which kicked off at 7:30 a.m., is due to last 22 days and serve […]

The Energy Department is scheduled to begin today a critical review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that could clear the way for the transuranic waste disposal facility to reopen its doors after more than two years of recovery from a pair of underground accidents. Sources in New Mexico had pegged Nov. 14 as the date […]

Energy Department contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership was back on the job preparing to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) only about two days after the latest rockfall in the deep underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., the agency wrote on its website late Tuesday. Workers with Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) made their way back underground Saturday, […]

Energy Department contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership was back on the job preparing to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) only about two days after the latest rockfall in the deep underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., the agency wrote on its website late Tuesday. Workers with Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) made their way back underground Saturday, […]

While the latest rockfall at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant occurred in the storage area where a container of nuclear waste burst open in 2014, there is no sign the incident released any radioactive material, the Energy Department said Friday. The underground transuranic waste storage facility was evacuated Thursday following the rockfall. On Friday, geotechnical, radiological control, […]

Another underground rockfall prompted workers to evacuate from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) on Thursday, the Energy Department said. The collapse occurred even as WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) prepares to welcome DOE officials Nov. 14 for the final review standing in the way of reopening the deep-underground transuranic waste-storage facility, which […]

By completing a critical contractor review in less than half the time originally scheduled, the Energy Department clawed back about two weeks of lost time on the reopening of the the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, keeping a late-December reopening in play. The agency had been about a month behind schedule to reopen WIPP […]