The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., expects in 2019 to receive the first shipments from 6 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium being downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
That was the word Thursday from DOE Carlsbad Field Office Manager Todd Shrader during a “WIPP Town Hall” public meeting in Carlsbad. “I would anticipate probably late next year to start getting those shipments.”
Only 16 kilograms of the plutonium, or 0.016 metric tons, had been downblended at SRS by August 2017, when the work was paused for planned safety examinations of equipment. The Energy Department resumed processing in March and the downblending mission is expected to run until fiscal 2046.
Shrader stressed this is 6-metric-ton tranche is unrelated to the ongoing battle over terminating the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at Savannah River, which is intended to convert 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium into commercial nuclear reactor fuel. If DOE is allowed to halt construction – an outcome South Carolina is fighting on Capitol Hill and in federal court – the material would be processed by other facilities at Savannah River and shipped to WIPP. The outcome of that issue is not yet known, Shrader said.
WIPP was closed for nearly three years after a fire and later, unrelated radiation release in February 2014 in the underground salt mine. It resumed taking transuranic waste shipments from other DOE sites in April 2017. Since then, the site has received 328 waste shipments, according to Bruce Covert, president and project manager for site contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership.
The facility is expected to receive 330 shipments of waste from across the DOE complex between now and July 31, 2019, Shrader said. Of those, 165 would come from the Idaho National Laboratory. The rest of the breakdown lists the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee (80); the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (43); the Savannah River Project in South Carolina (37); and the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois (5).
“Idaho has by far the most waste to ship to us in the near term,” Shrader said.
A 1995 legal settlement requires 65,000 cubic meters of TRU waste stored at INL to be moved out of the state by the end of this year. About 55,000 cubic meters had been shipped out prior to the 2014 accidents at WIPP, but it’s uncertain if the 2018 deadline will be met, officials have said.
The disposal facility currently emplaces waste about 40 weeks per year, Shrader said. WIPP Panel 7 is expected to be filled in March 2021. Panel 8, now being mined out, could start receiving waste containers in January 2021. Waste operations will be suspended for about a month in 2021 to allow time for WIPP to switch to a new ventilation system, designed to provide 540,000 cubic feet of airflow underground. Site preparation has already started on the ventilation project.
When answering questions from online participants, Shrader said elevated radon levels have virtually been eliminated on drums shipped to WIPP from Oak Ridge since workers in Tennessee started “wiping down” the exterior of the containers.
The DOE official also said no breach or radiological release resulted from a misaligned drum from Idaho discovered in May in the underground. Waste emplacement was suspended on May 24, when the leaning drum was discovered, and resumed June 2. Workers took apart the canister of waste drums and then rebuilt it before disposing of the waste in Room 5 of Panel 7.
Looking ahead, Shrader said $47 million included in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act for repairs and infrastructure at WIPP is badly needed for work ranging from installation of electrical equipment to a roof replacement on an above-ground building. The disposal facility has been operating since 1999 and is expected to remain operational at least through 2050, so refurbishment is needed, Shrader said.
Finally, Shrader noted the recent retirement of longtime Carlsbad DOE Public Affairs Manager Bill Taylor. Taylor has served in various public affairs roles with DOE and its Office of Environmental Management since 1995, according to his LinkedIn account.