August 12, 2014

Details Scant in Moniz Visit to Carlsbad as Secretary Commits to Safe Restart of WIPP

By ExchangeMonitor

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 facility for the last six months, creating uncertainties about WIPP’s future and how long it will take to recover from the incident. Moniz said DOE was focusing on understanding the incident and safely restarting operations. “Dates? We don’t need artificial dates driving us. We need understanding and performance, because we don’t want something that’s going to compromise safety if we try to start meeting some schedule before we have fully laid out what our recovery plan is based on,” he said.

He said any restart plans would need to include a scientific understanding of the circumstances of the incident, as well as a plan that appropriately addresses the waste streams that flow to WIPP. “We’ll have time to get a schedule out and we want to do it as soon as possible, but safety has to be the driver and that’s largely built on completing our understanding and getting all of us together in terms of a plan we can stand behind,” he said.

Moniz was accompanied by New Mexico’s two Senators, Democrats Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, who represents the southern-most district in the state, as well as New Mexico Environment Department Cabinet Secretary Ryan Flynn and a team of high level Department of Energy officials who are working on the problem. “Let me make no bones about it, WIPP has to come all the way back,” Moniz said. “We are absolutely committed to this facility. We are of course committed to bringing it back into initial operations and eventually full operations with safety fully in mind.” In an effort to reassure the meeting’s attendees of DOE’s commitment, he added: “You stick with us and we’re sticking with you.”

Having emphasized how fluid the process was, Moniz offered some preliminary projections in the near and medium term. “We are now in what I call the recovery phase, trying to finalize this plan,” he said, suggesting late September for completing the plan and an 18-month time frame for “at least beginning to open operations at the facility.”

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