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. When or how it happened in the first place, the newspaper reported, is yet unknown.
An Energy Department spokesperson, who the Current-Argus did not identify, said the collapse will have no effect on plans to reopen the deep underground salt mine in December or January.
The collapse occurred near the entrance to Panel 4 at WIPP’s south end, according to the report. Panel 7 is where a barrel of improperly sealed waste burst open in 2014, forcing DOE to shut down the mine.
Ventilation at WIPP, which has been curtailed severely since the accident, means DOE and NWP can either place waste shipments in the underground or perform underground repairs using diesel-powered equipment, but not both at the same time.
DOE spokesmen Bill Taylor and Tim Runyon did not reply to requests for comment Sunday. NWP spokesman Donavan Mager did not reply to a request for comment Sunday.
Nuclear Waste Partnership was due last week to begin a one-month contractor operational readiness review to assess whether the firm is ready to resume waste emplacement within the next few months. Neither the contractor nor its federal customer responded to multiple requests for comment last week about whether the review had in fact started.
According to timetables provided by NWP and DOE officials as recently as mid-September, WIPP was slated to receive the first shipments of transuranic waste from across the DOE defense nuclear complex by April. That would happen after waste now stored above-ground at WIPP is moved to the underground.
