DOE Expects Final Approved WIPP Baseline by End of Year

The Energy Department expects to have approved a new performance measurement baseline (PMB) for restarting operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant by the end of this year. The document could be released on the late end of that timeline as all levels of DOE leadership are required to have vetted it by the end the next two holiday-stacked months, a department spokesperson said in a brief interview yesterday. The spokesperson declined to say when the PMB, which notably would include specific schedule and cost information for reopening the transuranic storage waste site, is expected to be made public, noting an internal review process that involves passing the document back and forth between DOE and WIPP contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership before final approval.

 

“I would say we expect to have one by the end of the year, but it could be that late,” the spokesperson said. “With the holidays, they take a pretty big bite out of November and December. So we’d like to be optimistic, but realistic.” The previous PMB, which projected a $242 million recovery project that would end by March 2016, was scrapped in the face of concerns over faulty equipment and safety-related activities, among other issues.

 

The New Mexico facility has been not taken new shipments of TRU waste from DOE sites since a fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release in February 2014. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz last month said WIPP is expected to reopen by the end of 2016, but DOE “won’t really know for sure” whether that will happen until the final PMB is approved, the spokesperson said. “Our objective is to develop a realistic goal based on a well-developed PMB that has a high confidence level.”