Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 2021, at a Glance

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‘RAD Inspection News’ features news and other stories pertaining to the North American Standard Level VI Inspection Program for transuranic waste and highway route controlled quantities (HRCQ) of radioactive material. This inspection is for select radiological shipments that include enhancements to the North American Standard Level I Inspection Program and the North American Standard Out-ofService Criteria with added radiological requirements for transuranic waste and HRCQ of radioactive material.

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Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 2021, at a Glance

By Bobby St. John, Deputy Manager, Communications, WIPP

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the only operating deep geologic repository for transuranic waste in the world and has been a key component of the cleanup of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management’s (EM) legacy sites throughout the U.S.

During 2021, WIPP continued to provide support for the EM mission, while at the same time making significant progress on major infrastructure and recapitalization projects onsite. WIPP averaged approximately five shipments per week during 2021, receiving 210 shipments throughout the calendar year. This included safely transporting transuranic (TRU) waste more than 230,000 miles from generator sites to the WIPP facility for disposal.

WIPP reached other transportation-related milestones during 2021, receiving the 13,000th shipment of TRU waste since beginning operations in 1999 and traveling more than 15.5 million loaded miles safely, since the beginning of the program (see page 37 for more information). WIPP plans to increase the number of shipments received in 2022, targeting an average of 10 shipments per week. WIPP continues to be the cornerstone of the DOE cleanup mission and WIPP workers managed several other significant accomplishments during 2021, one of the most important being the completion of mining in Panel 8. Panel 8 is expected to be fully outfitted and ready for waste emplacement approximately three months prior to Panel 7 being filled, ensuring no interruption in the flow of TRU waste shipments to WIPP.

In addition, contractors for the two major capital asset projects – the utility shaft and safety significant confinement ventilation system – continued to make significant progress on construction work. In late 2021, WIPP received approval from the New Mexico Environment Department for a Class 3 permit modification needed to complete the mining of the new utility shaft which, in conjunction with the safety significant confinement ventilation system, will provide a much-needed increase in airflow to the WIPP underground, allowing mining, maintenance and waste emplacement to occur simultaneously, which is not possible under the current airflow rates. n