The prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 23 COVID-19 cases among its employees, bringing the site-wide count to 28 to date during the pandemic.
In a memo sent to employees Monday, President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan said Nuclear Waste Partnership over the weekend confirmed the five latest infections by novel coronavirus 2019.
Four have been working at the WIPP site and were last at the facility between Aug. 18 and Aug. 26. The other has worked remotely since March. All are showing symptoms of the illness.
In addition, five smaller contractors and subcontractors at WIPP have each reported one case of COVID-19 among their WIPP workforces. “Please keep these employees and their families in your thoughts as they recover,” Dunagan wrote, reminding staff to wear face coverings and employ social distancing on the job.
About 1,000 people work at the underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste near Carlsbad, N.M.
The facility is currently in Phase 2 of the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s restart program to gradually ramp operations back up to pre-pandemic levels. Based on anecdotal information, facilities in Phase 2 can have at least 50% of their workforce on-site.
Meanwhile, the Hanford Site in Washington state, which just entered Phase 2, reported an additional COVID-19 infection over the weekend. That brings its total to at least 78, based on an informal count.
As of Thursday, there were 149 active COVID cases in the DOE Office of Environmental Management complex, according to an agency official.