In an email Friday announcing his retirement from the DOE, acting Carlsbad Field Office manager Dana Bryson said significant steps have been taken to resume waste emplacement at WIPP. “An integrated high confidence recovery baseline will be delivered to DOE next week. In addition, Panel 6 and Room 7 Panel 7 are isolated, ground control of mine operational areas is reestablished, the new ventilation systems are currently being installed, and significant improvements are being seen in the WIPP nuclear safety culture,” stated Bryson, a federal employee for 36 years who has worked at the office that oversees WIPP since December 2013. The DOE spokesperson said the agency is working to select a new manager for the Carlsbad Field Office, but could not say when the announcement would occur.
The manager of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is expected within a matter of days to provide the Department of Energy with a new draft schedule and funding requirement to resume storage operations at the New Mexico facility, DOE officials said. WIPP stopped accepting shipments of transuranic waste from other nuclear sites following a Feb. 14, 2014, fire and a radiation release nine days later. DOE said last September it anticipated resuming waste intake in March 2016 upon completion of a projected $242 million rehabilitation project in the underground facility. However, earlier this month, it said faulty equipment and other challenges would force the plan to be revised.
WIPP operations and management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership is expected to submit a new draft project measurement baseline (PMB) within roughly a week, a DOE spokesperson said on Sunday. The official said the plan would feature thousands of “work activities” needed to bring storage operations online again, along with the schedule and budget for finishing the project. It was not immediately known how long the department’s review of the PMB would take, but the spokesperson said the finished document would not be released this week.
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