The Department of Energy expects the number of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will increase by more than 50 in fiscal year 2024, and DOE is also in the early stages of a carbon-free energy procurement for the site, New Mexico lawmakers heard last week.
Total shipments to the underground salt mine near Carlsbad, N.M., should hit 525 for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. That would be up from 473 in fiscal 2023, DOE and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) said during an annual breakfast presentation to state lawmakers on Jan. 31.
Likewise, fiscal 2024 shipments from DOE’s in-state Los Alamos National Laboratory should be about 155, more than double the 68 in fiscal 2023. That is according to the presentation by DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office Manager Mark Bollinger and Ken Harrawood, the president and general manager of WIPP prime, the Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors.
A copy of the slide presentation was shared recently with Exchange Monitor. Increasing waste shipments to WIPP from Los Alamos has been a priority for the New Mexico Legislature in recent years.
WIPP is coming off its best calendar year for shipments since before February 2014 when an underground fire and radiation leak from a ruptured waste drum contaminated the mine and forced suspension of operations for about three years.
Aside from increased shipments, DOE has identified about 9,000 acres of WIPP land that could be suitable for carbon-free energy projects of 200 megawatts or more, according to the Jan. 31 presentation.
A draft response for inquiry for potential energy project developers is going out soon and a Cleanup to Clean Energy Information Day is scheduled for Carlsbad on March 27, according to the slides.
DOE’s Cleanup to Cleanup Energy program, announced by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in July 2023, is part of a White House initiative to move federal installations away from reliance on fossil fuels within the next decade.
The current session of the New Mexico Legislature opened last month and ends Feb. 15 with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expected to take action on any legislation by March 6.
