The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) recently announced that its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), under the management of EM, has successfully completed and disposed of 400 shipments of transuranic waste. This achievement underscores the concerted efforts to prevent any backlog of shipments from the cleanup operation at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) site, thereby accomplishing a key priority set for 2023.
WIPP is a facility committed to permanently isolating transuranic waste generated by defense activities, located 2,150 feet underground in an ancient salt formation. Operational since 1999 and situated 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, WIPP is presently managed by Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO). SIMCO took over the management in early 2023 and has efficiently overseen waste shipments with a workforce nearing 1,500. Collaborating closely with various generator sites such as LANL, Idaho National Laboratory, and the Savannah River Site, SIMCO ensures timely disposal of available waste without delays, according to a press release by EM.
"Exceeding 400 transuranic waste shipments to WIPP this year is a positive indication of the cleanup work we're enabling throughout the nation," said Mark Bollinger, EM's Carlsbad Field Office manager. He further added that "WIPP's mission to safely receive and dispose of waste shipments is instrumental to cleanup efforts at Los Alamos and other waste-generating sites, and we safely exceeded our goal at WIPP in 2023."
Tammy Hobbes, a SIMCO vice president and the WIPP Operations and National TRU Program manager expressed her pride in their team's commitment to safety, quality and productivity. She said: "I'm especially proud of everyone embodying the core values as we characterized, packed, shipped, received and emplaced each waste container this year."
The EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) is focused on addressing historical contamination at LANL in New Mexico, a legacy of the Manhattan Project and Cold War eras. The cleanup includes managing legacy waste, remediating soil and groundwater, and deactivating surplus buildings and facilities, according to the EM-LA webpage provided by EM.
