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.