While much of the government was shut down, the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico stayed open and received 45 waste shipments in October based upon figures from DOE’s public website for the disposal site.
That’s a drop from the 61 shipments the plant received a month prior in September and significantly more than the 29 shipments sent to WIPP in October 2024.
Of the 45 shipments sent last month, 24 came from the Idaho National Lab (INL). An additional 16 shipments came from the Los Alamos National Lab, about 350 miles north of Carlsbad, N.M. where WIPP is located. Three shipments came from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and two shipments from Argonne National Lab in Illinois, about 25 miles outside of Chicago.
The 16-square-mile Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 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.
The October shipments are the first for fiscal 2025, which will run from Oct. 1 of this year through Sept. 30, 2026. In fiscal 25, which ran from Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025, WIPP received 432 shipments, with 294 of them coming from Idaho. By comparison, the facility received 490 shipments in fiscal 2024.
WIPP is managed for DOE by Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors.
