ARLINGTON, Va. — The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., will spend about half of 2027 down for maintenance, DOE and contractor officials told the National Cleanup Workshop here Tuesday.
WIPP will be essentially offline and not receiving waste for two three-month cycles during 2027, said Ken Harrawood, president and general manager of Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, which manages WIPP for DOE. Three months offline will be followed by three months online to catch up on transuranic waste shipments. This sequence will happen twice in 2027, Harrawood said.
The outages are being used for needed underground hoist upgrades at the salt mine site, Harrawood said.
Even when WIPP is not receiving waste in 2027 it can still excavate salt mine panels to make space for the transuranic waste disposal, Harrawood said.
Waste emplacement at WIPP’s Panel 8 should be finished sometime in 2028, Harrawood said. WIPP plans to have the new Panel 11 fully prepared to start receiving waste then, Harrawood said.
DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Mark Bollinger said WIPP should start receiving transuranic waste sometime next year.
Bollinger also said WIPP will soon be receiving larger amounts of the more radioactive remote-handled transuranic waste thanks to shielded-container assemblies approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The shielded containers make the process as safe as handling the less-radioactive contact-handled transuranic waste.