The Energy Department is expected to announce Thursday whether the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is ready to reopen its doors for nuclear-waste disposal after a nearly three-year pause.
DOE finished its final operational readiness review of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) earlier this month. The two-week checkup was designed to gauge whether contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) is prepared to resume waste disposal operations at WIPP according to strict new safety protocols established earlier this year to prevent a repeat of the accidents that shuttered the mine.
WIPP has been closed since 2014 following an accidental underground radiation release and earlier, unrelated underground fire.
The Department of Energy was expected to brief the public on its findings last week but delayed the announcement one week to spend more time gauging how long it will take to address the 21 punch-list items the agency found for NWP during the operational readiness review.
The 21 loose ends must be tied up before WIPP reopens, DOE wrote in a statement last week, but neither the agency nor its contractor have said exactly what these final fixes entail. An individual familiar with the review said it would takes weeks rather than months to address the agency’s findings.
The WIPP town hall slated for Thursday will be webcast. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m., Eastern time.
