The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Panel 7 is ready to be permanently sealed now that transuranic waste containers have filled the room.
The EM announced the last containers had been placed in Panel 7 in an Oct. 25 news release. The disposal room is located 2,150 feet underground.
"This important milestone has been a long time coming," Carlsbad Field Office Manager Reinhard Knerr said in the release. "Filling Panel 7 allows us to continue our important national mission of disposing transuranic waste, which ensures people living near sites where TRU waste is currently stored are safer today because of WIPP's role in EM's nuclear waste cleanup strategy. I'm very appreciative of our dedicated workforce and all that they do."
About 13,000 55-gallon drums are among the 20,056 containers inside Panel 7. According to a release, 100 feet of salt will be added to the room and two metal bulkheads will be stood up before it is sealed.
Moving forward, the EM's WIPP will continue prepping Panel 8 for waste disposal, which has already been mined and received official certification from the New Mexico Environment Department, the release stated.
Sean Dunagan, Nuclear Water Partnership's president and project manager, applauded the employees for their work and was grateful for the support of the Department of Energy and the communities of Carlsbad and Hobbs. In the release, he also thanked "all the waste generator sites around the country and the National Transuranic Program for ensuring the waste they send us is safe and compliant."
