The U.S.’s only nuclear waste disposal site equipped to handle transuranic materials is facing up to $14.2 million in maintenance and repair costs, with more than half of its core infrastructure in “substandard condition.”
Transuranic waste consists of soil, clothing, or other materials containing man-made elements heavier than uranium on the periodic table – such as plutonium – which have longer half-lives.
The New Mexico facility, an underground depository expected to operate until the 2080s, processes radioactive byproducts of weapons production, nuclear research, and power production by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Department of Energy hires contractors to run onsite operations and is supposed to annually evaluate contractor performance. But according to a new Government Accountability Office analysis, the DOE has not ensured that WIPP contractors establish timelines for long-term infrastructure planning or correct multiple data reliability issues.
More alarmingly, much of the plant’s decades-old critical infrastructure has needed repairs or replacements since 2016, when DOE found about $37 million in deferred maintenance, jeopardizing safety.
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Author: Faith Novak
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