Transuranic Waste

Despite a few hiccups, workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., are generally adhering well to stricter maintenance procedures and requirements established after the 2014 accidents that have kept the nation’s only transuranic waste-disposal facility closed for more than two years, according to a report the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise […]

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has at last wrapped up a review of whether the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) nuclear waste facility complied with federal environmental regulations from 2012 to 2014. The review began a few months after the February 2014 underground fire and later, unrelated radiation release that have closed WIPP to […]

Storing transuranic waste in certain containers near the border of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) campus may be riskier than site management believes, according to a report released late Friday by the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). EA personnel visited the Livermore, Calif., lab’s Building 332 Plutonium Facility and Waste Storage Facility from […]

Once disposal resumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in early 2017, the Energy Department’s transuranic logjam will unclog at a rate of about five shipments per week, DOE told motor carriers earlier this month in a question and answer session about the agency’s next waste-transportation contract. “It is estimated that once shipping resumes, […]

Once disposal resumes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in early 2017, the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste logjam will unclog at a rate of up to five shipments per week, DOE told motor carriers earlier this month in a question and answer session about the agency’s next waste-transportation contract. “It is estimated that once […]

The Environmental Protection Agency has finished its latest biennial compliance review of the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transuranic waste disposal facility near Carlsbad, N.M., EPA announced Tuesday in a Federal Register notice posted online. The environmental review, which EPA conducts every two years, covers April 1, 2012, through March 31, 2014. The […]

Storing transuranic waste in certain containers near the border of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) campus may be riskier than site management believes, according to a report released late Friday by the Energy Department’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA). EA personnel visited the Livermore, Calif., lab’s Building 332 Plutonium Facility and Waste Storage Facility from […]

Just short of a dozen people representing nine firms showed up to a site tour and pre-solicitation conference for a follow-on transuranic waste shipping contract June 1 and 2, according to an attendee list posted online by the Department of Energy. The new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services contract will cover transport of […]

Shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., could resume from across the Department of Energy complex as soon as February, an official told members of a DOE-chartered citizens group Tuesday. “TRU shipments are expected to resume in February of 2017,” Jeff Bentley, general engineer with the Energy Department’s Savannah […]

Just short of half a dozen people representing nine firms showed up to a site tour and pre-solicitation conference for a follow-on transuranic waste shipping contract June 1 and 2, according to an attendee list posted online by the Department of Energy. The new Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Transportation Services contract will cover transport of […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week cleared the way for the Department of Energy to ship radio-contaminated barrels that qualify as transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. WIPP has been closed to new shipments of transuranic waste since an accidental […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., held firm Thursday on a mid-December restart date for the nation’s only disposal facility for the contaminated material and equipment known as transuranic waste. AECOM and BWXT-led contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) and DOE are on a […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday released a draft solicitation for a waste transportation contract that will combine services now provided for the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., under a pair of separate contracts. Reserved for small businesses, the competitively awarded WIPP Transportation Services contract is a five-year, indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract that […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday said it approved changes to an official safety document that lays the groundwork for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., and resume nuclear waste disposal in the underground facility after two years spent recovering from a radiation release and […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday said it approved changes to an official safety document that lays the groundwork for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., and resume nuclear waste disposal in the underground facility after two years spent recovering from a radiation release and equipment fire. […]

The Department of Energy and its contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., finished a crucial modification to the deep-underground facility’s ventilation system, according to an official letter dated May 2, bringing the parties a step closer to reopening the facility in mid-December. In the official correspondence to Santa Fe, DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership have made strides in updating safety procedures at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., but there are still “significant challenges” to surmount if the facility is to reopen in December as planned, according to a new report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise […]

The Department of Energy and contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership have made strides in updating safety procedures at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., but there are still “significant challenges” to surmount if the facility is to reopen in December as planned, according to a new report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise […]

The Energy Department and its contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico could do more to ensure their new safety procedures prevent a repeat of a 2014 radiation release blamed on an improperly packaged drum of contaminated waste, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). “The Department of Energy […]

The Energy Department and its contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico could do more to ensure their new safety procedures prevent a repeat of a 2014 radiation release blamed on an improperly packaged drum of contaminated waste, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). “The Department of Energy […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2017 energy and water spending proposal would provide more money than requested for the Department of Energy’s Hanford, Idaho, and Savannah River sites, plus additional funds for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a bill report released Monday. All told, the House bill would provide $6.15 billion […]

Nuclear Waste Partnership, prime contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal facility near Carlsbad, N.M., said Thursday it earned about $2.5 million in fees in fiscal 2015, good for almost 75 percent of the possible award. Todd Shrader, head of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, said in a letter the company […]

Former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) on Monday laid into a report commissioned by the Department of Energy’s lead MOX fuel facility contractor that questioned the suitability of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant as a storage site for downblended plutonium. In a commentary sent to media outlets, Domenici charged that CB&I AREVA MOX Services is using “junk science” […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico should soon move into a new phase of its more than two-year effort to reopen for business, which remains on schedule for December, officials said Thursday. The transuranic waste storage facility near Carlsbad has been closed since a fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release […]

President Barack Obama this week submitted amendments to the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2017 budget request that are intended to provide millions of dollars to help pay for a nuclear waste management settlement with the state of New Mexico. Under a deal formalized in January, DOE will fund $74 million worth of infrastructure, emergency operations, […]

President Barack Obama this week submitted amendments to the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2017 budget request that are intended to provide millions of dollars to help pay for a nuclear waste management settlement with the state of New Mexico. Under a deal formalized in January, DOE will fund $74 million worth of infrastructure, emergency operations, […]

On Thursday, the same day the Energy Department will hold a town hall meeting to discuss the reopening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez will mark the ceremonial opening of the underground nuclear waste storage facility’s new emergency operations center. The ceremony will take place at […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s underground storage site for plutonium-contaminated waste have been cleared to return to work in portions of the mine shut down in February after high levels of non-nuclear airborne contamination were found in the facility’s northwestern and southern edges. DOE announced the end of the safety pause in an online note published […]

The Energy Department’s decision to officially ship 6 metric tons of diluted weapon-grade plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., ultimately registered as a pot-sweetener this week as flashier nonproliferation news stole the headlines during the final Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. DOE made the decision Tuesday but did not publish […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday made official its decision to send 6 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The official stamp of approval arrives a day before the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit convenes in […]