Transuranic Waste

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is still well behind its shipment rate from before a major accident in 2014, but things are gradually rebounding, according to the Government Accountability Office. “According to DOE officials, WIPP [the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.] had been receiving as many as […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is still well behind its shipment rate from before a major accident in 2014, but things are gradually rebounding, according to the Government Accountability Office. “According to DOE officials, WIPP [the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.] had been receiving as many as […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) has asked the Department of Energy for a briefing on plans to refurbish an old shaft and hoist relied upon for emergency evacuation of underground workers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). “Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts […]

The Department of Energy’s underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste is still well behind its shipment rate from before a major accident in 2014, but things are gradually rebounding, according to the Government Accountability Office. “According to DOE officials, WIPP [the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.] had been receiving as many as […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job […]

Nobody was hurt last month when a four-foot broken slab of concrete fell 1,400-feet down a utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a safety board report. Likewise, no equipment was damaged in the May 27 incident that happened while a subcontractor crew from Harrison […]

Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job […]

Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday. In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job […]

Nobody was hurt last month when a four-foot broken slab of concrete fell 1,400-feet down a utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a safety board report. Likewise, no equipment was damaged in the May 27 incident that happened while a subcontractor crew from Harrison […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 53 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May, based on revised figures. DOE revised the figures on its public website for WIPP around June 27 after learning the website initially failed to update and record the 24 shipments that took place between May […]

The legacy waste cleanup contractor at the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory has sent its first shipment of transuranic waste derived from corrugated metal pipes to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), DOE said this week. Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) has completed the first shipment of transuranic waste to WIPP that […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico, which oversees the nation’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste, would undergo one of the larger Environmental Management spending cuts in fiscal 2026, according to recent administration data. Carlsbad, in charge of the Office of Environmental Management (EM) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), would receive […]

For the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management to fully remediate 15 Cold War and Manhattan Project sites, it must dispose of over 11 million cubic meters of nuclear waste — and it needs a plan, according to a congressional watchdog. In a report made public Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Environmental […]

One of President Donald Trump’s May 23 executive orders instructs the secretary of energy to replace the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program with one to process excess plutonium for fuel for advanced nuclear technologies. Trump’s executive order entitled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” one of four nuclear-themed executive orders released last week, said the […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has only 400-odd containers of legacy transuranic (TRU) waste left for shipment to DOE’s underground disposal site in New Mexico. The Savannah River Site has loaded and shipped more than 35,000 containers of the legacy waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, […]

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., has only 400-odd containers of legacy transuranic (TRU) waste left for shipment to DOE’s underground disposal site in New Mexico. The Savannah River Site has loaded and shipped more than 35,000 containers of the legacy waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, […]

Shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) appear to be back at a normal pace, with the facility receiving 49 waste shipments in April. The numbers, posted on the public WIPP website as of May 15, would represent the highest monthly total since the 50 shipments the disposal site received in […]

Shipments to the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) appear to be back at a normal pace, with the facility receiving 49 waste shipments in April. The numbers, posted on the public WIPP website as of May 15, would represent the highest monthly total since the 50 shipments the disposal site received in […]

A center for processing and storing transuranic waste could start up at the Hanford Site in 2033, Department of Energy and Washington state officials said during a public meeting last week. DOE and Washington state Department of Ecology managers on May 7 summarized plans to build and run a proposed Contact-Handled Waste Processing Treatment and […]

A center for processing and storing transuranic waste could start up at the Hanford Site in 2033, Department of Energy and Washington state officials said during a public meeting last week. DOE and Washington state Department of Ecology managers on May 7 summarized plans to build and run a proposed Contact-Handled Waste Processing Treatment and […]

The Department of Energy has targeted disposal 425 shipments of transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico during fiscal 2025, and so far, there have been 151, a DOE official said Wednesday night. Mindy Toothman, the site operations and infrastructure division director for DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, cited the numbers during […]

The Department of Energy and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will brief the public Wednesday April 30 in Carlsbad, N.M., on issues affecting the nation’s only underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. DOE and Bechtel National’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors will hold a hybrid community forum  on Waste Isolation Pilot […]