The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico received 17 shipments of transuranic waste during October, according to figures posted on its public website.
That means the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has now received 166 shipments of the defense-related waste so far this calendar year, a figure nearly identical to the 167 recorded during the first 10 months of 2020, year No. 1 of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
It’s a big drop-off from the 275 sent to the underground disposal site during the first 10 months of 2019, according to the WIPP data.
There were nine shipments last month from the Idaho National Laboratory, six from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and two from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. That’s down from 25 shipments during October 2020.
The Department of Energy has promised busier days ahead, saying installation of a new underground ventilation system in 2025 should help WIPP return to the days prior to a February 2014 underground radiation leak that basically closed the disposal site for about three years. Prior to 2014 the facility could take in 700 or more shipments annually.
