Most NNSA transuranic waste at Los Alamos not yet ready for burial at WIPP

July 29, 2022

By Wayne Barber

The inventory of defense-related transuranic waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico amounts to more than 3,300 containers, but most are not “ready to ship” to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office manager said last week.

In Technical Area 55, Triad National Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) management and operations contractor, has an inventory of 1,035 transuranic waste containers and 242 are ready to ship, DOE Carlsbad manager Reinhard Knerr said during a presentation to the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board July 20.

Seventy-nine NNSA containers are certified but might require shipment under security plans or require special loading arrangements.

A large chunk of the containers not yet ready to hit the road lack “acceptable knowledge” paperwork to ensure the contents are not apt to ignite, according to the Carlsbad official. Others are on hold due to open non-conformance reports —and might require additional testing or repackaging.

During fiscal year 2021, WIPP disposed of 56 shipments of TRU waste from Los Alamos, according to the July 20 presentation. So far this fiscal year, 46 shipments have been received with another 24 possible by the time the current budget year ends Sept. 30.

Shipments from Los Alamos “should continue to increase as efficiencies in waste characterization and certification are realized,” according to the slide presentation. The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) and NNSA already “co-mingle” transuranic waste in many of the same containers for shipment to WIPP. EM manages cleanup of shuttered nuclear weapon sites.

EM, which owns Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, had 2,273 containers of transuranic waste within Technical Area 54 as of mid-July only 42 are characterized, certified and “ready to ship,” according to Knerr’s presentation.

The Carlsbad office oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a deep-underground salt mine, and heads up DOE’s national transuranic waste program, which disposes of transuranic waste from shuttered weapon sites at the mine.

Of the EM Los Alamos inventory, 141 containers are certified and presumably close to ready to ship by legacy waste cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B), according to the slide presentation.