The prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has finished its $15-million overhaul of the so-called “salt pocket” at the Department of Energy’s underground transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management and Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors began the work in January. Completion of the project means WIPP crews can resume mining at Panel 11, which is the next emplacement panel for disposal of defense-related transuranic waste, according to a Tuesday press release.
The salt pocket, which is a steel-framed bin, serves as a holding area for salt removed during the mining process, according to the press release.
Work crews extract salt from the old mine and transport it to the surface using a salt hoist, DOE said in the release. Over time the walls of the salt pocket, located below the salt hoist, “creeps” and the space must be recut to its original diameter, DOE said.
“The salt pocket is critical to our continued success as we safely dispose of the nation’s defense-related transuranic waste,” DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office Manager Mark Bollinger said in the release.