Transuranic Waste

WC Monitor 8/22/2014 The Department of Energy this week awarded a five-year $10.4 million cooperative agreement to the Southern States Energy Board to form a committee called the Transuranic Waste Transportation Working Group. The group plans to meet twice a year to discuss transuranic waste transportation issues. “Group members will work with the Southern States […]

DNFSB Raises Safety Concerns About LANL TRU Waste Facility Project NS&D Monitor 8/22/2014 With construction looming on a new Transuranic Waste Facility project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is raising a handful of safety issues, including some that are old and some that are new. In an Aug. 7 […]

DNFSB Raises Safety Concerns About LANL TRU Waste Facility Project WC Monitor 8/22/2014 With construction looming on a new Transuranic Waste Facility project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is raising a handful of safety issues, including some that are old and some that are new. In an Aug. 7 […]

The Department of Energy yesterday awarded a five-year $10.4 million cooperative agreement to the Southern States Energy Board to form a committee called the Transuranic Waste Transportation Working Group. The group plans to meet twice a year to discuss transuranic waste transportation issues. “Group members will work with the Southern States Energy Board to develop […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz brushed off questions this week about consequences for contractors for managers who might have been at fault in a disruptive radiological release that closed the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant earlier this year. A preliminary accident investigation by DOE in April found numerous deficiencies and errors in the safety documents and emergency […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz declined to commit to many details about restarting operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in a visit to Carlsbad, N.M., yesterday, but promised attendees at a town hall meeting that the Department of Energy was committed to safely reopening the facility. An accident and radiation leak has shut down the […]

Department of Energy Idaho Site cleanup contractor CH2M-WG Idaho has wrapped up work cleaning out a seventh radioactive and hazardous waste exhumation area, the contractor said late last week. CWI said it is currently exhuming and removing targeted buried waste in an eighth area, and has removed radioactive and hazardous waste from 3.31 acres out […]

With construction looming on a new Transuranic Waste Facility project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is raising a handful of safety issues, including some that are old and some that are new. In an Aug. 7 letter to National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur […]

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has blamed confusion over its level of authority at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for why it failed to conduct required inspections, according to a letter New Mexico Senators Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D) released earlier this week. While the MSHA is required to conduct four inspections […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 8/1/2014 As the investigation into the radiological release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant continues, investigators are looking at whether a fire event within the room where the release is believed to have occurred was a contributing factor, WC Monitor has learned, though the exact cause of the incident […]

The Mine Safety and Health Administration issued more than 50 citations to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in a recent inspection, the Department of Energy said in a release issued yesterday, though DOE noted that most corrective actions taken in response to the citations have been implemented. The inspection focused on WIPP’s aboveground facilities, and […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 As the investigation continues into the cause of the radiological release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz is set to travel to Carlsbad, N.M., next month. New Mexico Senators Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D), along with Rep. Steve Pearce (R), announced […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 7/25/2014 In a move that could aid the Department of Energy’s cleanup program in tackling difficult waste, Waste Control Specialists filed a petition for rulemaking earlier this week with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to allow the disposal of some transuranic waste and Greater-than-Class-C waste in its federal facility. […]

DOE Reduces Scope of Transportation Contract WC Monitor 7/25/2014 With operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant shut down for the foreseeable future, the Department of Energy has moved to reduce the workscope of one of its two contractors tasked with transporting waste to the facility. Visionary Solutions has cut the number of its two-person […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/25/2014 Waste Control Specialists filed a petition for rulemaking earlier this week with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to allow the disposal of some transuranic waste and Greater-than-Class-C waste in its federal facility. TCEQ now has 60 days to decide whether to initiate a rulemaking process that, if enacted […]

Waste Control Specialists filed a petition for rulemaking earlier this week with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to allow the disposal of Greater-than-Class-C waste in its federal facility. TCEQ now has 60 days to decide whether to initiate a rulemaking process that, if enacted as WCS has petitioned, would enable the disposal of GTCC […]

The Department of Energy and its two main cleanup contractors at the Idaho site have wrapped up a project to prepare thousands of drums of sludge waste for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The project addressed 6,000 drums that contained a total of approximately 1,200 cubic meters of waste that had been […]

With operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant shut down for the foreseeable future, the Department of Energy has moved to reduce the workscope of one of its two contractors tasked with transporting waste to the facility. Visionary Solutions has cut the number of its two-person driving teams from 11 to three, and reduced the […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 The Department of Energy imposed the maximum possible fee reduction when it chose to cut the amount of fee Nuclear Waste Partnership can earn this fiscal year by 25 percent in response to the fire that occurred in early February at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to information DOE […]

The Feb. 5 fire that occurred at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is estimated to have caused at least $2.5 million worth of damage, according to the Department of Energy. The estimate was included in a June 23 letter, officially released yesterday, notifying WIPP managing contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership of DOE’s plans to reduce the […]

Monday, July 14, will mark five months since the radiation release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant underground that has resulted in the repository—and the Department of Energy’s transuranic waste program—being shut down for the foreseeable future.  While a host of internal and external investigations—at least five, at last count—remain ongoing, the Department of Energy […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/11/2014 In the first financial penalty levied in relation to the February events at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy has reduced the available fee for contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership by $2 million in connection with the salt truck fire in the WIPP underground, WC Monitor has learned. […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/11/2014 The Department of Energy has begun soliciting information to see if the planned follow-on technical and administrative support services contract for the Carlsbad Field Office can be set-aside for small businesses. Late this week, DOE issued a request for information notice seeking capability statements from interested companies. Support services to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/11/2014 In yet another issue linked to the incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory last week reported noncompliances in how it processed waste in a batch of drums suspected of contributing to the WIPP release. The Department of Energy and contractor Los Alamos National Security reported […]

Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Vice Chairwoman Jessie Roberson toured the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant site this week, DOE said yesterday. It remains unclear if the Board has further interest in the site or whether it has received specific complaints related to the February incidents at WIPP. “While on-site, she was briefed on the status […]

In the latest issue to come to light linked to the incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory last week reported noncompliances in how it processed waste in the drums suspected of contributing to the WIPP release. The Department of Energy and contractor Los Alamos National Security reported the noncompliances to […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/3/2014 Entries are scheduled to resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to begin some initial cleanup work as the second phase of recovery is launched, the Department of Energy said this week. No teams have entered the mine since May 30, when it was shut down for filter replacement and […]

Department Issues Draft RFP for Follow-On Contract Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/3/2014 While Wastren Advantage Inc.’s current contract to operate the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center is set to expire in early 2015, the Department of Energy appears to be planning for at least a multi-month extension, according to the draft Request for Proposals […]

Entries are scheduled to resume at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to begin some initial cleanup work as the second phase of recovery is launched, the Department of Energy said yesterday. No teams have entered the mine since May 30, when it was shut down for filter replacement and ventilation upgrades necessary after the February […]

The Department of Energy yesterday issued for industry comment a draft Request for Proposals for the new contract to operate the Oak Ridge Transuranic Waste Processing Center. The contract, which is being set aside for small businesses, is set to run for up to five years. The contract will have a three-year base period and […]