CARLSBAD, N.M. – 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.
“The condition of site infrastructure at WIPP showed some improvements from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2023,” GAO reported. “However, over half of mission critical assets remained in substandard or inadequate condition as of fiscal year 2023.”
Mission critical assets refer to infrastructure necessary to carry out the facility’s core functions.
Some of the degradation directly impacts plant worker and emergency safety. A recent letter from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to DOE Secretary Chris Wright found that “all existing hoists relied on for underground worker evacuation at WIPP have been identified as obsolescent by site management.”
“Despite long-standing recognition of underlying problems, age-related degradation and technical obsolescence issues with the shafts and hoists used for emergency egress have not been addressed in a timely manner,” the authors added.
GAO called on the DOE to improve data collection and ensure site contractor accountability, noting at the end of its report that the agency has promised to do so.
