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Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
    Some TRU waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory is temporarily stored at the Waste Control Specialists facilities in Andrews, Texas. Lachman is planning on working with regulators in Texas for the permanent disposal of this waste at the WIPP. The new plan says, “In the near term, the goal will be to coordinate generator site waste packaging and transportation activities closely with site operations in order to maintain shipment rates that are consistent with WIPP site waste emplacement rates.”
    When the 2014 accident was analyzed, it was found that weaknesses in WIPP safety management program was the primary cause. In order to prevent future accidents of this kind and to ensure the safety of workers and the communities around the WIPP, Lachman said that safety guidelines would be updated and improved as well as oversight related to  radiological protection, hazardous waste management, surveillance, operational safety, training and emergency preparations. Over the next five years, the new plan is to follow the new guidelines which Lachman claims will adhere to federal law.
     One problem that was uncovered after the accident that shut down WIPP in 2014 had to do with a breakdown in the proper operation of the ventilation system for the WIPP. Recently, the WIPPs started a multimillion-dollar-project to rebuild the ventilation system. The airflow will be increases three times from one hundred and seventy cubic feet per minute (cfm) to five hundred and forty cfm. Construction began on the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System under a one hundred and thirty-five million dollar contract. An associated utility shaft will be constructed under a seventy-five million dollar contract. Both the new ventilation system and the associated shaft are scheduled to be completed in 2022.
     The new plan says that the system that supplies water from a one hundred and eighty thousand gallon reservoir  has serious problems but will continue to be used for the time being. The plan calls for the WIPP to for send out requests for designs and installation services so the water system structures as well as parts of the pipeline loop can be upgraded. The fire suppression system and fire alarms will also be improved.
    The airlock doors of the WIPP are opened and closed with a system that employs compressed air. Replacement parts for the air compressors are not available because the compressors are so old. The new plan calls for new air compressors to be designed, built and installed all through the WIPP site.
    Lachman intends to design and installed replacements for seven electrical substations that are now well past their expected lifespans. Some of the umbrella-shaped devices that ground lightening strikes were found to be in need of repair or upgrade.
     The hoists that bring salt up out of the repository and take the waste down into the repository are getting older and their control electronics and other parts need to be replaced. The WIPP IT system has a maximum capacity of one gigabyte per second over a distance of two thousand feet. Fiber optic cable is being added to the system which will speed up the capacity by a hundred times.
    Hopefully, the management of the WIPP will carry out the new five-year plan with efficiently and safety at a reasonable cost.