While no director of mining has been hired yet for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the transuranic waste disposal site continues to move to resume salt mining.
Work to clear out more space for storage has been held up for more than three years, after a pair of underground accidents idled WIPP in February 2014. The site reopened nearly a year ago, and began accepting waste shipments from other DOE sites in April.
Most of the equipment needed for mining in Panel 8 is “ready to go,” Bruce Covert, president and project manager for WIPP management and operations contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership, said in a Sept. 28 town hall event in Carlsbad, N.M. The contractor had started to mine the new storage panel at the time of the 2014 underground vehicle fire and subsequent, unrelated radiation release.
More than 112,000 tons of salt will be removed from the underground to complete the panel, according to DOE. Work could begin in the next few weeks.
Slides presented by Covert at the event indicated that WIPP had received two new haul trucks for salt that were being assembled underground.
In addition, salt bin repairs were underway and expected to be completed this month. Likewise, an Energy Department readiness assessment was due in October in advance of WIPP’s planned installation of a supplemental ventilation system.
DOE plans to design and build a new ventilation system and exhaust shaft at WIPP, to increase underground airflow. To increase ventilation, WIPP will need a new permanent system to simultaneously carry out waste emplacement and underground maintenance and mining operations.
In recent public appearances, WIPP officials have made much of NWP plans to hire a chief mining officer to oversee extraction operations. A mining director was listed as “key” personnel in the three-year, $928 million contract extension recently awarded NWP by DOE.
WIPP’s underground mining operations are regulated by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, which is part of the Labor Department. MSHA approval for installation of a ventilation system and resumption of mining is not required, an MSHA spokesperson said Thursday.
However, WIPP has discussed future plans with MSHA officials, the spokesperson said.
