The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) recorded 25 transuranic (TRU) waste shipments in March, following an annual maintenance outage that kept it offline since January.
The 25 shipments are the first since the facility accepted 33 shipments in December, and an uptick from March 2024 when WIPP received 13 shipments, according to the site’s receipt database.
The first five shipments this year came on March 3 and included three from Idaho National Lab (INL), and two from Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), about 350 miles north of Carlsbad, N.M. where WIPP is located. All told, INL sent 9 shipments in March, and LANL sent the other 16 to tally the 25 total shipments. The pilot plant typically receives shipments from other DOE facilities, including the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee.
WIPP, managed by Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, is the nation’s only repository for defense-related TRU waste, material contaminated with radioactive elements during nuclear missions. It typically includes protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment, and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium.