The Department of Energy expects the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could receive up to 14 shipments of transuranic material a week in fiscal year 2022, which starts Oct. 1.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management rate of shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should go from 10 per week to 14 per week of operation thanks in part to the scheduled opening of Panel 8 in fiscal 2022, according budget justification material for the Joe Biden administration’s $7.6-billion request for the nuclear cleanup office.
In addition, the agency is buying more “Type-B” over-the-highway transport containers for hauling the defense-related transuranic waste from DOE generator sites.
William (Ike) White, the acting assistant secretary for environmental management, cited the 14-shipment per week goal in his presentation last week to the Energy Facilities Contractors Group.
On the face of it, the 14 shipments per week appears an ambitious goal given recent performance. WIPP does not receive waste shipments for probably eight weeks or more during the year due to various factors including a regular maintenance outage that can run for a month or more together with weather outages and federal, state, local and tribal holidays.
Nevertheless, if WIPP receives waste for 40 weeks out of the year and averages 14 weekly shipments, it would translate to 560 shipments in a 12-month period. However, the best WIPP has been able to manage since reopening in 2017 after a roughly three-year suspension due to a February 2014 underground radiation leak is 311 shipments in calendar year 2018.
For about the first eight months of the pandemic-ravaged 2021 fiscal year, Oct. 1, 2020 through May 28, the disposal site has received only 120 shipments, according to WIPP’s public website.
The Biden administration requested $430 million in WIPP funding during fiscal 2022, up from the $413 million enacted by Congress for the 2021 budget year.
During fiscal 2022, shipments are expected from the Idaho National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and potentially other sites, according to the budget documentation.
