Construction of a new permanent ventilation system for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., should not trigger any major environmental impacts, the Energy Department said in a recent supplemental analysis.
“Because of the way the underground ventilation system is segregated and operated, construction and operation of the upgraded ventilation system would not contribute to worker or offsite radiological consequences,” according to the report approved Nov. 7 by DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader and agency legal counsel.
The recent supplemental analysis was required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
WIPP, the nation’s only underground disposal site for DOE transuranic waste, reopened about one year ago after a nearly three-year waste emplacement layoff following two accidents in February 2014. The mine was forced to drastically reduce airflow in the wake of a Feb. 14, 2014, radiation release, to keep contaminants from escaping into the environment. The Energy Department has since installed interim and supplemental ventilation systems enabling underground operations.
The permanent system is intended to return ventilation to pre-2014 standards and enable WIPP to simultaneously conduct full-scale waste disposal and salt mining to create more disposal space. Current waste empanelment is well below the pre-2014 rate and a gradual resumption of salt mining will start within days. The Energy Department says improved airflow will be necessary for both activities to get back to full-scale.
The supplemental analysis conducted by DOE studied the cumulative impacts of a new 55,000-square-foot filter building that will be constructed on the surface, along with a new underground exhaust shaft. Construction of the system is due to start in April 2018 and to wrap up in March 2020.
A request for proposals for the first part of the project, which includes the filter building and a salt reduction building, should be issued in January, Federal Project Director Ronald Gill told the WIPP Town Hall gathering Wednesday in Carlsbad. Standby diesel generators will be placed at the filter building, Gill said.
The project – not including the ventilation shaft – is estimated to cost $273 million, according to information provided Wednesday by DOE and WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership. A cost estimate has not yet been completed for the exhaust shaft.
Although they are two capital asset projects for WIPP bookkeeping purposes, the exhaust shaft and the filter building complex will work together as one complete ventilation system, Gill said.
The planned permanent system would provide 540,000 actual cubic feet per minute of airflow. That would be 15 percent higher than the flow rate in 2014 prior to the radiation release.
While not considered a serious environmental impact, the analysis said construction of a salt reduction building could push water consumption beyond the 6 million gallons the city of Carlsbad provides to WIPP annually at no cost. If that happens, WIPP would buy the necessary water.
