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DOE works with transuranic waste while NM facility shut down

Posted at 2:13 pm December 27, 2014
By Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board Leave a Comment

TRU Waste Processing Center

The TRU Waste Processing Center southwest of Oak Ridge National Laboratory off State Route 95 is pictured above. (Photo courtesy TWPC/WAI)

 

Worker Handles Remote TRU Waste

A worker manipulates RH waste at the TRU Waste Processing Center. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board)

In February 2014, two incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, in New Mexico caused the shutdown of the only facility in the U.S. that permanently disposes of transuranic waste, or TRU waste. That waste is disposed in shafts, or drifts, about a half-mile below ground in an ancient salt bed. Some of that waste has come from Oak Ridge.

After months of investigations into the cause of a truck fire and a radiological release two weeks later, the U.S. Department of Energy released a recovery plan at the end of September that outlines the steps necessary to resume limited waste operations in the first quarter of 2016.

“Key elements of the recovery plan include strengthening safety programs, regulatory compliance, decontamination of the underground, increasing ventilation, mine stability and underground habitability, and additional workforce retraining,” according to a statement on WIPP’s website. [Read more…]

Filed Under: DOE EM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: CH waste, contact-handled, DOE, environmental management, Laura Wilkerson, Nevada National Security Site, New Mexico, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, recovery plan, remote-handled, RH waste, transuranic, transuranic waste, TRU, TRU waste, TRU Waste Processing Center, TWPC, U.S. Department of Energy, waste, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WIPP, WIPP shutdown

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