ARLINGTON, VA — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects to meet its fiscal 2025 target of receiving 425 shipments of transuranic waste within days, a DOE manager said here Wednesday.
As of this week, WIPP has received 419 shipments of defense-related transuranic waste from across the weapons complex, said Mark Bollinger, manager of DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office. The salt mine should hit the 425 mark within the next week, Bollinger said.
Bollinger made his comments during a presentation at DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop. The conference is hosted annually by the Energy Communities Alliance and the Energy Facility Contractors Group. Fiscal 2025 ends Sept. 30.
WIPP is the nation’s only underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste. In August it received 55 shipments.
“The complex down in the desert is aging,” Bollinger said, adding some WIPP infrastructure projects are nearing completion. The waste disposal site this week announced completion of the rebuild of its underground “salt pocket,” a metal cage where salt is stored until it is hoisted to the surface.
WIPP is also reaching a similar point with its utility ventilation shaft, according to Bollinger.
Earlier in the week, WIPP’s prime contractor announced it has finished its $15-million overhaul of the so-called “salt pocket” at the disposal site.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management and Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors began the salt pocket work in January. Completion of the project means WIPP crews can resume mining at Panel 11, which is the next emplacement panel for disposal of defense-related transuranic waste, according to a Tuesday press release.
The salt pocket, which is a steel-framed bin, serves as a holding area for salt removed during the mining process, according to the press release.
Work crews extract salt from the old mine and transport it to the surface using a salt hoist, DOE said in the release. Over time the walls of the salt pocket, located below the salt hoist, “creeps” and the space must be recut to its original diameter, DOE said.