Part 1 of 2 Parts
I have written before about the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. WIPP was constructed to store radioactive waste and irradiated materials from the development of nuclear warheads.
There has been a serious departure from the original intention of the designers of WIPP that has led to a threat to human health and the environment. The underground storage rooms at the WIPP were supposed to be sealed with foot thick concrete and steel doors when they were full. As the years passed, the operators decided that just a half inch steel door would be sufficient. Ultimately, they stopped sealing filled rooms with anything. As well as internal problems, there have been serious mistakes made by the laboratories sending waste to the WIPP that have also threatened human health and the environment. Los Alamos National Laboratory starting using a new absorbent in barrels of liquid waste which had not been sufficiently tested. This resulted in the generation of flammable gas and an explosion at the WIPP.
The management of the WIPP was going to be transferred to a new company recently after that company won the bid earlier this month. However, a company which bid on the contract but lost decided to challenge the choice of contractor. This will cause a delay of at three months in the actual transfer of the management of the site.
Tularosa Basin Range Services (TBRS) is a subsidiary of Virginia-based Bechtel National. It was awarded the management contract valued at $3 billion by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The initial contract is for a four-year term with six one-year extension options. If the contract with TBRS is finalized, the company will replace the Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP) which is a joint venture between Amentum and BWXT. NWP has been operating WIPP since 2012.
These activities involve transporting transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste from DoE sites around the U.S. and disposing of the waste in an underground salt mine. The contractor may also be tasked with mining new storage rooms for the waste, completing infrastructure projects and maintaining the repository underground and aboveground infrastructures.
Upon the award of the contract to TBRS, the DoE initiated a ten-day protest period to allow the losing bidders to contest the choice of TBRS. On July 26th, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) filed a notice that National Tru Solutions (NTS) had chosen to dispute the new contract award. This gave the GAO until November 3rd to issue a ruling before the finalization of any contract for WIPP management. The GAO has thirty days to file a report on the protest. The protestor has ten days after that to issue its comments on the GAO report. The GAO deadline for issuing its final decision on the dispute is sixty days after the protestor’s comments are due. As the contracts are being finalized and the dispute considered, NWP will continue to be the primary contractor at WIPP, overseeing day to day operation at the repository.
Please read Part 2 next