The Office of Environmental Management Los Alamos (EM-LA) Field Office and cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) concluded fiscal year 2022 by blowing past EM’s targets for shipping radioactive waste offsite to permanent disposal facilities.
The Office of Environmental Management describes the development as a key accomplishment in EM’s overall mission to protect human and ecological health by addressing environmental impacts from Manhattan Project and Cold War operations, according to an Oct. 4 Department of Energy news release.
“Stakeholder engagement is an important part of the EM-LA cleanup mission, and the feedback I receive is shipping more transuranic waste to WIPP should be a key priority,” EM-LA Manager Michael Mikolanis said in the release. “Additionally, our partnership with N3B, Triad National Security — the organization managing and operating Los Alamos National Laboratory — and WIPP has enabled us to implement efficiencies. We surpassed our FY22 transuranic waste shipment goal by over 70%, which is a testament to our focus to get legacy waste off the hill and to our commitment to the citizens of New Mexico.”
For the 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, EM-LA and N3B finished the period strong, completing 52 shipments of transuranic radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The shipments included more than 130 cubic meters of waste, or the equivalent of approximately 625 55-gallon drums, according to the release.
Going forward, the targeted annual goal for Los Alamos will be 40 transuranic waste shipments to WIPP, representing a 33% increase in the future shipping goal with the envisioned increase being attributed to increases in efficiencies, packaging and shipping along with enhanced coordination between EM-LA and WIPP, the release reported.
“Exceeding our FY22 goal means we’re successful at accelerating our movement of waste out of Technical Area 54, where we manage radioactive waste before it’s shipped offsite to a permanent disposal facility,” added Ellen Gammon, N3B’s director of Waste Management, according to the release. “The ability to use Triad’s indoor loading facility has allowed us to package waste for shipment in inclement weather.”
