Half of the key assets the Department of Energy needs to dispose of defense-related transuranic waste in a New Mexico salt mine were in “substandard or inadequate condition in 2023,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Tuesday.
In a report to congressional committees, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management should do a better job of monitoring its operations and management contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M.
Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors became the WIPP prime in 2022, taking over from Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership, GAO said.
Refurbishing or replacing aging infrastructure is a longstanding concern. Back in 2016 DOE ordered a study that found more than $37 million was needed to tackle deferred maintenance for WIPP’s site infrastructure, GAO said.
Upgrades were needed to assets such as hoists, buildings and electrical substations, GAO said. While the watchdog found some headway was made, “our analysis shows 29 of 56 assets that are essential to the mission were in substandard or inadequate condition in 2023.”
The report said 2023 data was the most recent at the time of GAO’s 2024 visit to the site in the New Mexico desert.
In comments included in the GAO report, Environmental Management’s principal deputy assistant secretary Roger Jarrell said DOE plans to implement the fixes sought by GAO by September 2026.
These changes include better use of available tools such as the Performance Evaluation and Management Plan as well as data collection through the Facilities Information Management System.
WIPP was built in the 1980s to provide underground disposal of transuranic waste, such as clothing, soil, tools and debris contaminated with small amounts of plutonium from nuclear weapons work, GAO said. But DOE now expects the facility to continue running into the 2080s. DOE said the facility was only 44% full in 2024.
WIPP and its contractors are overseen by DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office. The GAO report was sent to House and Senate Committees on Appropriation and Armed Services, as well as certain subcommittees.
The report was overseen by Nathan Anderson, GAO director of Natural Resources and Environment.
