The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received at least 36 shipments of transuranic waste in November, according to its public website.
It takes about two weeks for shipments to appear on the DOE website. As of Monday, the latest received shipment posted was on Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving.
The 36 shipments represent six more than the 30 the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) took in during November 2023.
In a statistical oddity, heading into December, WIPP had received 441 shipments during calendar year 2024—matching the 441 at the underground salt mine during the first 11 months of 2023.
As usual, Idaho National Laboratory was the top shipper during the past month sending 26 to WIPP. There were also five from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; four from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and one from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
Transuranic waste includes tools, rags, soil or other debris contaminated with radioactive elements such as plutonium. WIPP is the nation’s only deep underground repository for this waste. It is operated by Bechtel’s Salado Isolation Mining Contractors.
A February 2014 radiation leak damaged the WIPP underground and idled the facility until 2017. During 2023, WIPP took in 489 shipments, making it the facility’s best year post-accident.
