Nuclear repository site near Carlsbad readies for waste from Washington after pause
Nuclear waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant repository near Carlsbad were suspended for about two months as workers completed numerous maintenance projects at the underground facility.
Transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste made of irradiated clothing materials, equipment and debris is sent to WIPP for disposal via burial in a 2,000-foot-deep salt deposit from federal nuclear facilities around the U.S.
The maintenance outage ran from Feb. 5 to March 31, and 162 projects were completed while WIPP’s waste disposal operations were paused, a combination of corrective and routine maintenance activities, read a Department of Energy news release.
The outage is held every year, pausing shipments from DOE facilities for the planned projects. The DOE said WIPP workers originally planned 150 projects this year but were able to add 12 including changing a 10,600-pound wire rope at the site’s waste hoist.
“The annual maintenance period showcased the skills of our employees and demonstrated how efficiently maintenance can be done when it is well planned,” said Ken Harrawood, president of Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO) – WIPP’s primary operations contractor.
During the outage, major projects were mining salt in the underground to create a dedicated exhaust air route for future waste disposal panels. At least two new panels will be mined to dispose of nuclear waste at WIPP after they were permitted in the DOE’s recently renewed hazardous waste permit with the New Mexico Environment Department.
More: $15M elevator repairs at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant nuclear repository starting in July
The panels were characterized by DOE officials as replacements for space lost to contamination during a 2014 accidental radiological release that led to a three-year shutdown of WIPP’s primary operations.
Other work at the site during the outage saw WIPP workers replacing the coating on the contact-handled waste bay where waste is processed for disposal, maintenance on cranes and ventilation fans in the bay. Steel framework was added to support the salt rock underneath the waste hoist that bring waste to the underground.
WIPP preparing for waste coming from Washington facility
The DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office recently sent equipment the agency said would double the capacity of its Hanford Site in Richland, Washington to certify TRU waste for shipment to WIPP.
Equipment sent included a large box counter that measures the type and amount of radioactive waste held in containers sent to the WIPP site.
“The large box counter greatly enhances Hanford’s capacity to safely and effectively certify transuranic waste as we prepare to resume shipments to WIPP,” said Kelly Ebert, acting director for Hanford projects and facilities at the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM).
Crews planned to start certifying waste at Hanford in 2026, read a DOE news release, with shipments beginning in 2028.
More: Nuclear waste permit being modified. How much will it cost?
Since WIPP opened in 1999, the repository received 572 shipments from Hanford, the fifth-most after 1,646 shipments from Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1,747 from Savannah River Site, 2,045 shipments from the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site and 7,244 shipments from Idaho National Laboratory.
Tim Southworth, TRU waste program manager for contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company said the Hanford Site had waste ready for processing using the box counter before shipment to WIPP.
“With thousands of containers of transuranic waste in storage at Hanford, the large box counter is a critical tool for increasing the speed and efficiency of certifying waste,” Southworth said.
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: WIPP readies for nuclear waste shipments from Washington site
