Transuranic waste from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina has landed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., for the first time in more than three years.
The material – clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris, and other material contaminated with trace amounts of plutonium – arrived last week for permanent disposal at the New Mexico facility, which reopened in January, according to a Department of Energy announcement. The update did not state how much material was shipped.
WIPP had been shut down for nearly three years due to two unrelated safety incidents in February 2014 in the underground storage area: a salt haul truck fire on Feb. 5 and the release of a small amount of radiation on Feb. 14. The incidents forced SRS and other DOE sites to cease waste shipments.
Upon reopening, WIPP first had to emplace waste that had been stranded above ground there at the time of the accidents. The Idaho National Laboratory sent the first shipment to the reopened mine last week, followed by the SRS waste. Also in the near-term queue are the privately operated Waste Control Specialists complex in Andrews County, Texas; the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The Savannah River Site expects to send eight shipments to WIPP this year, including the one already sent. “We are excited to begin shipments to WIPP and ship transuranic waste out of South Carolina,” DOE SRS Manager Jack Craig said in a press release. “It took a concerted effort, not just at SRS, but DOE wide, to ensure all people, processes, and materials were safe and ready to ship.”
SRS housed more than 15,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste in 2001 when shipments to WIPP began. Prior to the recent shipment, the site held about 600 cubic meters of the material. Following the rest of this year’s shipments, SRS will still house some TRU waste, but it is unclear exactly how much.
