489 shipments of nuclear waste made its way to WIPP in 2023, breaking previous records
More nuclear waste was disposed of last year at a repository near Carlsbad than any other year since an incident in 2014 left parts of the facility contaminated and interrupted its disposal operations.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant disposes of transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste in an underground salt deposit about 30 miles east of Carlsbad, shipped in from Department of Energy sites around the country.
In 2014, a drum sent from Los Alamos National Laboratory ruptured in the underground, releasing radioactive material and causing a three-year shut down of underground operations until the site reopened in 2017.
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Since then, nuclear waste managers slowly ramped up shipments to the site, most recently targeting 17 per week.
The DOE’s current contractor operating WIPP Salado Isolation Mining Contractors reported Friday that 2023 had 489 shipments of waste sent to WIPP and disposed of, the highest annual total since 724 shipments in 2013.
This marked an increase of 217 shipments from 2022, records show, and surpassed the previous post-2014 shipment record of 311 shipments in 2018, followed by 292 shipments in 2019.
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A dip to 192 was reported in 2020 and 210 in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic which led to frequent operations pauses as workers were infected.
In 2017, the year WIPP reopened in April of that year, there were just 133 shipments of nuclear waste sent to the site.
The highest annual total ever was 1,142 shipments reported in 2006, records show, and the lowest was 44 shipments in 1999, the year the facility first opened.
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The DOE credited the growth in shipments with increased coordination with generator sites through the Central Characterization Program, along with the shift away from emplacement in the contaminated portions of the mine last year.
This meant workers did not need to wear personal protective equipment when working in the underground, and WIPP was able to have more personnel in the mine at a given time.
Most of the waste last year, and frequently in past years, came from Idaho National Laboratory under a settlement agreement between that state and the federal government.
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That meant 386 shipments, or about 79 percent of the total sent to WIPP in 2023, came from Idaho.
That’s more waste from Idaho than any other year in the history of the facility, read a report from the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, which announced the lab reduced the TRU waste inventory at Idaho’s Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project (AMWTP) by 22 percent over the last year.
“The Idaho Cleanup Project and the State of Idaho are grateful for the efforts of the WIPP team to enable this pace of shipments from Idaho,” said Idaho Cleanup Project Manager Connie Flohr. “This kind of success would not be possible without their committed support.”
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Since 2022, EM reported the facility disposed of 9,000 containers of TRU waste, leaving about 30,000 left for shipment to WIPP.
“Each TRU waste shipment that leaves Idaho represents meticulous planning, careful collaboration with our DOE and state partners and safe execution on the part of our workforce,” said AMWTP Operations Director Dave Martin.
Meanwhile advocates and government leaders in New Mexico demanded the DOE work to prioritize waste from New Mexico such as from Los Alamos National Laboratory instead of out-of-state sites like Idaho.
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DOE officials maintained that waste from Los Alamos was shipped immediately when it was ready, averaging about two per week.
The waste could face delays in shipping following a series of incidents at the northern New Mexico facility reported by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in its recent weekly reports on the lab.
The Board reported Jan. 12 that two workers got radioactive contamination on their skin while working in the plutonium facility, and another three similar incidents were identified in the Dec. 8, 2023 report.
“These events along with earlier lower magnitude contamination events are being looked at together to improve processes with the intent of reducing contamination events,” read the Jan. 12 report.
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: Shipments of nuclear waste to WIPP increased in 2023
