The U.S. Energy Department expects in coming years to speed up its waste emplacement rate at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico to 14 shipments per week, according to the newly released draft five-year strategic plan.
That would up from a current rate of less than 10 shipments per week during weeks of operation, according to the 26-page document posted late last week on the website for DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees the underground disposal site for the department’s transuranic waste.
The document drafted by federal staff outlines the agency’s goals through 2024. The emphasis during the period will be on upgrading infrastructure at WIPP, particularly construction of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System and accompanying utility shaft, acting Carlsbad Field Office Manager Kirk Lachman said in the report. The two projects together will cost more than $210 million.
The current underground ventilation system is now operating with filtered air at a reduced flow rate, “which cannot provide adequate air quality” to support simultaneous salt mining, waste emplacement, and maintenance, Lachman said. That has been the case since two underground accidents in February 2014 that forced WIPP offline for almost three years. Once the new ventilation system is completed sometime around fiscal 2022, airflow should increase to roughly 540,000 cubic feet per minute. That would roughly triple the current level.
Within the next five years, work crews at WIPP will finish waste disposal in Panel 7 and start using Panel 8. The site is currently authorized for 10 panels. The Energy Department will seek state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval for development of new underground panels, Lachman said. “We will focus on these objectives until they are completed to establish a path for TRU waste disposal through 2050.”
Comments on the draft plan are due by Sept. 30 and can be emailed to [email protected].
Article was updated at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday Aug. 27.
