Last week, I posted about a dispute over a contract award for operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Now a second company has disputed the award of the three-billion-dollar contract to Bechtel subsidiary Tularosa Basin Range Services. Westinghouse subsidiary Carlsbad Operations Alliance filled a protest with the Government Accounting Office (GOA) on August 1st. The GAO has until November 9th to issue a ruling before work on the new contract can proceed. In the meantime, the current WIPP operator, Nuclear Waste Partnership, will continue to manage WIPP.
The WIPP was put into operation in 1999 to permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive materials and waste in an old salt mine two thousand feet below the surface near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The winning contractor will be charged with overseeing transportation of waste to the WIPP from Department of Energy sites around the U.S. The contactor must also provide constant maintenance of the WIPP and execute capital projects such as a continuing rebuild of the WIPP’s ventilation system expected to be completed in 2026 at a cost of almost five hundred million dollars.
The capital project is called the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS). It is meant to increase the airflow that was restricted in the salt mine because of an accidental radiological release in 2014. This release was caused by a mispackaged drum of waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory which is under the oversight of Los Alamos National Security of which Becthel was a partial owner. Los Alamos National Security was the primary contractor at the lab until 2018 when it was denied an extension due to the WIPP accident in 2014. The local community surrounding the WIPP hopes that the contract process will produce a company that focuses on safety.
John Heaton is the co-chair of the Carlsbad Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force. He said, “Number one, we want a company that is competent at the site. A company that values safety and respects the workers and the projects that are going on.” He went on to say that he did not expect significant job losses among the WIPP workers. However, there could be turnover at the top executive level. He added “They’ll bring in some executives that have presumably been well-vetted by the DOE. 99.9 percent of employees will stay the same. It will just be a new leadership group. We hope they continue to serve the country, bring safety to the facility and continue to provide good jobs to our community.”
In a press release announcing the initial award to Tularosa Basin Range Services, Bechtel touted its “44 years of experience managing DOE sites in New Mexico, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina.”
Dena Volovar is the Bechtel National executive vice president. “The mission to safely dispose of defense-related nuclear waste is vitally important for protecting people and the planet. We’re honored to be entrusted with this mission and look forward to joining the WIPP team and the Carlsbad community.”
The WIPP has suffered a number of problems and accidents over the years. Hopefully a change of contractors can improve its safety record.