DOE: Some waste disposal activities to resume in 2016

摘要

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is scheduled to resume limited waste disposal operations in early 2016, according to the Department of Energy's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Recovery Plan, released on September 30. The facility was closed in February following the detection of a radiation leak in WIPP s underground storage area that was later determined to have been caused by the rupturing of a waste drum from Los Alamos National Laboratory (NN, June 2014, p. 82). "The schedule to commence waste emplacement operations is the first quarter of calendar year 2016," the DOE states in the plan, "with the intent to incrementally increase waste emplacement operations over time." Initially, WIPP will dispose only of waste derived from its recovery actions and waste that is currently stored in the facility's Waste Handling Building.