Within recent days, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) in New Mexico has received its 60th shipment since it resumed receiving radioactive waste from other Department of Energy sites in April.
WIPP is the nation’s sole permanent repository for transuranic waste, and its nearly three-year closure following a February 2014 radiation release left shipments stranded at the Idaho National Laboratory and other locations.
The rate of shipments has ramped up steadily over the past few months, with four this week and six in a week expected shortly, Bruce Covert, president of WIPP management prime Nuclear Waste Partnership, said during a panel discussion Thursday at DOE’s National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va.
DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader said the pace of shipments will continue to increase, but it must be done safely. Looking forward, Shrader expects WIPP to receive about 250 shipments in the next year or so.
So far, waste shipments have been limited to four points of origin: the Idaho National Laboratory; Savannah River Site in South Carolina; Oak Ridge National in Tennessee; and Waste Control Specialists’ privately operated storage complex, which received several hundred drums from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after WIPP shut down.
Speaking last week at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit, Shrader said shipments from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico should begin in the fall. A container of improperly packaged waste from Los Alamos was behind the radiation release that closed WIPP in 2014.
Next in line after LANL are the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, and later the Hanford Site in Washington state, Shrader said.
DOE Idaho Operations Office Deputy Manager Jack Zimmerman said he looks forward to WIPP increasing its receipts of waste shipments. Idaho will continue to be the largest shipper of transuranic waste to the mine in the future, Zimmerman said.
“We do appreciate hearing that there is likely a ramp-up to six shipments [per week],” Zimmerman said. “We appreciate that as a generator site” with a large backlog. “We can ship as fast as WIPP can take it,” Zimmerman said.
The 60 shipments to date encompassed about 450 containers. Another 25,000 containers are awaiting transport eventually to WIPP, Shrader said.
Covert noted that the site also recently was recertified by the Environmental Protection Agency, but that significant work remains – including revision of its documented safety analysis.
Carlsbad Mayor Pro Tem Dick Doss said his community is obviously interested in continued future operations of WIPP. He cautioned, however, that $25 million per year is probably needed to refurbish the aging infrastructure at WIPP.
A number of steps are being taken at WIPP to improve the mining operation at WIPP, according to both Shrader and Covert. The facility should soon activate its supplemental ventilation system to increase airflow and make it possible to mine more space for storage, which will be necessary as the current storage panel is 2.5 to 3 years from filling up.
WIPP recently got the “ground control plan” for underground mining approved by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, Covert said. A chief of mining post is also being added at WIPP, he added.
