Transuranic Waste

Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, has completed the penultimate review standing in the way of reopening the nation’s only permanent disposal facility for transuranic waste in December. The end of the so-called contractor operational readiness review, which began Oct. 3, clears the way for a […]

The Energy Department sped along with plans to build an above-ground waste storage building at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with a public meeting on the proposed structure Thursday — a legal requirement of the agency’s WIPP operating permit that moves the facility one small step toward approval. The agency has long desired the logistical breathing space that […]

After the surprise announcement that it will close part of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and sacrifice several football fields’ worth of storage space in the process, the Energy Department this week told local officials it could start pulling out of the mine’s collapsing, contaminated southern end by the end of the year. A critical first […]

The Energy Department thinks it can check off critical steps toward permanently shuttering the south end of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by year’s end, the the nuclear point man for the city of Carlsbad, N.M., said Tuesday. After repeated ceiling collapses this year and last at the southern end of the Waste Isolation Pilot […]

The Energy Department late Friday appeared to hedge its timetable for reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., following a major announcement last week that the agency would permanently seal off the mine’s southern end following a series of ceiling collapses there. “Closure of this area will not affect reopening preparations and waste emplacement […]

The Energy Department will close the southern end of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) after several ceiling collapses in the underground nuclear waste storage facility, a DOE official said Thursday. Todd Shrader, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, made the bombshell announcement in the final 10 minutes of a nearly two-hour town hall meeting […]

All eyes turn to Carlsbad, N.M., on Thursday, where the Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will appear for a webcast town hall meeting to reassure the public about the suddenly escalating number of ceiling collapses in the deep-underground salt mine. So far, DOE has been unequivocal: no personnel […]

The start of a crucial contractor review required to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to nuclear waste shipments from across the country was overshadowed this week by the second partial ceiling collapse discovered in a seven-day stretch at the deep underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M. So far, the Energy Department says the […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) said Tuesday it has received permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep a potentially dangerous batch of federal transuranic waste in Andrews, Texas, for another two years. The company in June sought permission to retain custody of the improperly packaged, radioactive nitrate-salt waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National […]

For the second time in just over a week, the Energy Department has discovered a partial ceiling collapse at the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The latest collapse was discovered Tuesday near the entrance to the disused Panel 3 storage area, which was filled to capacity with transuranic waste from across the […]

Waste Control Specialists (WCS) said Tuesday it has received permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep a potentially dangerous batch of federal transuranic waste in Andrews, Texas, for another two years. The company in June sought permission to retain custody of the improperly packaged, radioactive nitrate-salt waste from the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) […]

The city of Carlsbad, N.M.’s, main nuclear-waste liaison said Monday he expects little trouble from a partial ceiling collapse at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which the Energy Department maintains will still reopen as scheduled in December or January. “Any back collapse is a concern, but it’s not an area where people are working,” John Heaton, chairman […]

Part of the ceiling has collapsed at the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant transuranic waste disposal facility near Carlsbad N.M., the Carlsbad Current-Argus newspaper reported Saturday. According to the local paper, which obtained a letter disclosing the incident from Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the collapse was discovered Sept. 27. […]

It was not clear this week whether Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership began a scheduled operational readiness review that is a critical choke point for reopening the nation’s only disposal facility for the radioactively contaminated material known as transuranic waste. Bill Taylor and Tim Runyon, spokesmen for the Department of […]

Transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site (SRS) will not be certified for shipment to New Mexico for permanent disposal until at least March, the top Department of Energy official at the South Carolina facility told a citizens group this week. Earlier this year, DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office released stricter new standards for packaging and […]

Transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site (SRS) will not be certified for shipment to New Mexico for permanent disposal until at least March, the top Department of Energy  official at the South Carolina facility told a citizens group this week. Earlier this year, DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office released stricter new standards for packaging and shipping […]

The state of South Carolina appears to hope a letter sent out by the Energy Department that addresses the timeline for new nuclear waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will buffer the state’s argument that the federal government should continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River […]

The New Mexico Environment Department on Monday approved the Energy Department’s request to ease airflow restrictions in the deep-underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: a move the agency says will help ensure smoother waste disposal operations at the mine, once it reopens. The modification is effective Oct. 19, according to a letter Monday from Kathryn Roberts, […]

The state of South Carolina appears to hope a letter sent out by the Energy Department that addresses the timeline for new nuclear waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will buffer the state’s argument that the federal government should continue building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River […]

A trucking industry safety group will continue to train transportation safety officials to inspect shipments of radioactive waste headed to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., under a $1.7 million, five-year cooperative agreement the Energy Department announced late Tuesday. The Greenbelt, Md.-based Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance will “coordinate and implement activities to train Motor […]

The New Mexico Environment Department on Monday approved the Energy Department’s request to ease airflow restrictions in the deep-underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: a move the agency says will help ensure smoother waste disposal operations at the mine, once it reopens. The modification is effective Oct. 19, according to a letter Monday from Kathryn Roberts, […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Transuranic waste has been piling up around the Energy Department’s nuclear complex since the only disposal site for such material closed in 2014, and it will continue to pile up in relative safety for at least a little while longer, senior DOE officials said here Thursday. “We’re still looking at good space […]

This month, the Energy Department will begin preparing some 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. Downblending will begin once DOE completes an assessment of a recently completed two-month long cold run of the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) […]

This month, the Energy Department will begin preparing some 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the National Nuclear Security Administration said this week. Downblending will begin once the quasi-independent DOE agency completes an assessment of a recently completed two-month long […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A tranche of the same kind of transuranic waste that leaked radiation into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in 2014 could be cleaned up and ready to ship out of the Los Alamos National Laboratory next summer, a Department of Energy official said here. There are still some 60 barrels of what […]

This month, the Energy Department will begin preparing some 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., a senior agency official said last week at the ExchangeMonitor’s 2016 RadWaste Summit. “We’re going to start the downblending activities […]

Carlsbad, N.M., is open for nuclear business, John Heaton said proudly last week. There are a few irons in the fire — the city is all in favor of the consolidated interim nuclear waste-storage facility Holtec International wants to build outside town — but Carlsbad’s crown jewel is, of course, the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation […]

LAS VEGAS — The Energy Department wants to build an above-ground waste-storage facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Calrsbad, N.M., and expects to submit an application to state regulators in the coming weeks, the agency’s top nuclear-waste-cleanup-policy regulator said here Wednesday. “I would expect the permit mod would probably be submitted in the […]

LAS VEGAS — By April, the first shipments of transuranic waste since 2014 could be rolling into the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a nominal timeline provided here by a DOE official at the ExchangeMonitor’s 2016 RadWaste Summit. The April date assumes DOE approves WIPP prime contractor Nuclear […]

LAS VEGAS — The Energy Department wants to build an above-ground waste-storage facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Calrsbad, N.M., and expects to submit an application to state regulators in the coming weeks, the agency’s top nuclear-waste-cleanup-policy regulator said here Wednesday. “I would expect the permit mod would probably be submitted in the next few […]