The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 12 shipments during May, according to the public website for the disposal site.
The dozen shipments in May 2022 are eight fewer than the 20 recorded in May 2021. So far during the calendar year 2022, the underground salt mine has received 67 shipments, slightly less than the 70 during the same period in 2021.
The current pace lags 2021 even though an annual multi week maintenance shutdown, which usually happens in January and February, won’t occur until fall. DOE delayed the outage to coordinate it with replacement of a 30-year-old electrical substation.
With four months left in the 2022 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, WIPP has received 128 shipments through May, which is eight more than the 120 received during the first eight months of fiscal 2021.
During May, there were seven shipments from Idaho National Laboratory, three from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and two from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to the DOE website.
The most recent shipment was May 26, according to the public website. Shipments usually show up on this web site about two weeks after they arrive at WIPP.
Mark Bollinger, DOE’s deputy manager of the Carlsbad Field Office, said last week he expects WIPP shipments to increase over the coming years, thanks to the impending start of disposal in Panel 8, which is free of the contamination from a February 2014 radiation leak, and completion of several infrastructure projects.
The Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System, expected to be operational in 2026 or so, should triple underground airflow to 540,000 cubic feet per minute and allow mining, maintenance and waste emplacement to take place simultaneously.
