WIPP received 29 TRU waste shipments in May

The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico received 29 defense-related transuranic waste shipments in May. 

That’s a downtick from the 49 shipments the plant received in April, but more than the 13 in March when the storage site reopened after a planned outage. By comparison, the facility near Carlsbad, N.M. received 51 total waste shipments in May 2024, according to WIPP’s receipt database.

 The 29 shipments from last month include 22 from Idaho National Lab (INL), four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and three from Los Alamos National Laboratory, about 350 miles north of WIPP in New Mexico.

WIPP can currently receive up to 17 shipments a week under its operational standards, according to DOE. The shipment count is also directly linked to what the DOE production sites are prepared to send to the underground salt mine in New Mexico. 

 The facility is the nation’s only repository for defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste, material contaminated with radioactive elements during nuclear missions. It typically includes protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment, and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium.

 To date, WIPP has received 183 TRU shipments in fiscal year 2025, which began on Oct. 1, 2024. That total includes 131 from the Idaho lab. By comparison, the facility received 292 shipments from October 2023 through May 2024 last fiscal year.

WIPP is managed for DOE by Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors.