Chris Schneidmiller
WCM Monitor
9/4/2015
Department of Energy officials said early this week that the manager of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was expected within a matter of days to submit a new draft schedule and funding requirement to resume storage operations at the New Mexico facility. As of Friday morning, there was no formal confirmation regarding whether the department had received the updated draft project measurement baseline (PMB), though a local official indicated it was in DOE hands.
WIPP stopped accepting shipments of transuranic waste from other nuclear sites following a fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release in February 2014. 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, on July 31 it said challenges including faulty equipment and additional “safety-related activities” would force the plan to be revised.
In an email last week announcing his upcoming retirement from DOE, acting Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) manager Dana Bryson said an “an integrated high confidence recovery baseline will be delivered to DOE next week” by WIPP management contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. A DOE spokesperson on Sunday confirmed that general timeline for the department to receive the document, which will “contain thousands of work activities, the schedule for completion of those activities and the budget estimates necessary to resume waste emplacement operations.” The official emphasized that DOE would review the document and that the finalized version would not be issued this week.
Officials with DOE and Nuclear Waste Partnership had by press time Friday not responded to requests for an update on the status of the PMB. Bryson also did not discuss the matter Thursday during the monthly town hall meeting on WIPP recovery in Carlsbad.
John Heaton, chairman of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force, said on Thursday that CBFO personnel had told him the baseline was going “back and forth” between their office and DOE headquarters. “The officials are answering questions between themselves, analyzing risks to the schedule achievability, etc.,” he stated by email.
“There was no clear deadline on the review process and release of a final schedule, but all the parties are anxious to get it completed and operational. It drives the train,” Heaton stated. The plan will feature thousands of “work activities” needed to bring storage operations online again, along with the schedule and budget for finishing the project, according to the DOE spokesperson.
Both Heaton and Bryson emphasized that the absence of a revised WIPP restart plan does not mean progress is not being made toward resuming operations. In his retirement announcement, Bryson said “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.”
During the town hall Thursday, the DOE official said fan and filter units for the interim ventilation system, some of which had to be repaired due to damage during transport, were at the site and set to be installed above ground. The fan for the supplemental ventilation system had also been moved underground. Combined, the systems are expected to increase the site’s ventilation capacity from 60,000 cubic feet for minute to 180,000, allowing more workers and equipment to operate underground.
“[T]he additional HEPA-filter system is being installed now, the review for completeness of options for the final ventilation between CBFO, NWP and HQ should be completed by the end of the month which will allow the final decision team to decide on the best option for WIPP’s full recovery and future,” according to Heaton. He added that work continues on an updated WIPP safety basis, which DOE has said is intended to “analyze and address all nuclear safety issues.” Roughly 120 safety training drills have been carried out to date.
Bryson, a federal employee for 36 years who has worked at the Carlsbad Field Office since December 2013, is scheduled to retire on Oct. 2. He will be replaced by longtime DOE staffer Todd Shrader, an engineer who has worked on the Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant and Yucca Mountain projects.