The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico last week conducted its annual emergency exercise even as it works to recover from two 2014 emergencies. The single-day event on Sept. 16 was intended to assess the nuclear waste storage site’s capacity to “recognize, respond, contain and mitigate an emergency situation that might occur at WIPP,” according to the Department of Energy. “Exercise participants at the WIPP site were evaluated on their ability to follow and implement plans and procedures, as well as their overall response to the simulated events. Personnel from DOE headquarters and national labs were on-site to observe and evaluate response operations,” DOE said.
The drill scenarios were an underground fire, mine rescue, and release of radiological material. Along with activation of site emergency responders and the WIPP emergency operations and joint information centers, participants included personnel from DOE headquarters, the New Mexico Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department, Army National Guard, and city of Carlsbad. “A post-exercise critique was held at each venue to identify activities that went well in the exercise, and areas where there are opportunities for improvement,” DOE said. WIPP has been closed to waste shipments following a truck fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation leak in February 2014. The department is assessing a revised plan for resuming operations at some point beyond the original projection of March 2016.