The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., received 26 shipments of transuranic waste during June, according to its public website.
Eight were received from the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee but the rest traveled from the Idaho National Laboratory.
During the first half of 2021 the underground disposal site had at deadline received 96 shipments, a slight increase from the first six months of 2020 when there were only 86 shipments during the early months of staffing restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
By contrast two years ago WIPP took in 163 shipments from generator sites. Transuranic waste includes contaminated debris from old equipment, rags, soil and clothing used during defense-related work around the weapons complex. Going back to the first half of 2013, WIPP received and emplaced 324 shipments over six months – which is close to the facility’s best annual total between 2017 and the present.
In February 2014 an underground radiation leak forced the facility out of service for about three years.
The WIPP total for all of 2018 was 311. The DOE hopes to see shipments resume the pre-accident pace in 2025 after startup of the new Safety Significant Confined Ventilation System.
The disposal site is operated by Nuclear Waste Partnership, a joint venture of Amentum and BWX Technologies with Orano as a key subcontractor. Last month DOE released a final request for proposals for a new management contract potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years. Bids are due Aug. 3.
