Operations were expected to resume today at the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico after more than a day of high winds that knocked out power and stranded some workers in an elevator for about three hours.
The Carlsbad Current-Argus reported Wednesday 36 miners were stuck in an elevator from roughly 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday due to a power outage caused by winds of up to 80 mph. Tornadoes were reported locally Tuesday, according to the article. The workers were being brought to the surface, due to the inclement weather, when the elevator’s power was lost.
Power was lost to the underground, however surface power was never interrupted, said a spokesperson for the WIPP contractor. There were no injuries. The workers were medically examined and given water when they reached the surface.
The waste disposal site suspended operations Wednesday due to the extreme weather, and was scheduled to open at 8 a.m. local time today, according to the WIPP Facebook page. The National Weather Service high winds around the Carlsbad area on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing the work suspension at both DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and WIPP prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership.
Underground workers at WIPP mine salt in order to clear out room for emplacement of defense-related transuranic waste from DOE sites.
No transuranic waste shipments had to pull off the road, “but we did reschedule a few shipments out of Idaho due to the large weather system going through the Rocky Mountain region,” a DOE spokesperson said early Thursday morning.
