Why the Department of Energy wants $463 million for nuclear waste facility near Carlsbad

Adrian Hedden
Carlsbad Current-Argus

Federal nuclear waste managers are hoping for a $42.7 million bump for next year to fund continued operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s recently-published funding request for its Office of Environmental Management (EM) included $462.8 million for the DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office in Fiscal Year 2023 to fund its ongoing activities at the WIPP site, an increase of about 10 percent compared to last year’s total of about $420.1 million.

At the WIPP site about 26 miles east of Carlsbad, transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste, made up of mostly contaminated clothing materials and equipment, is disposed of via its burial in a salt deposit about 2,000 feet underground.

Sign up for our newsletter, the Daily Briefing, to get stories like this one delivered straight to your inbox every morning.

For Fiscal Year 2022, running from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, the DOE reported WIPP was accepting 14 shipments a week of waste from DOE sites across the country and the added funding would aid the facility in ramping up to 17 shipments a week in FY 2023.

Waste disposal operations made up the biggest chunk of the DOE’s funding request for the WIPP site, at about $363.3 million, marking an increase of $481,000 from last year, which the DOE argued was needed to increase shipments of waste brought to the site.

The DOE also asked Congress to increase funding for various infrastructure projects at the facility the agency said were needed to improve underground ventilation, and continued ground control operations.

More:South Carolina nuclear site sends final waste shipment to Carlsbad-area repository

An about $200 million rebuild of WIPP’s ventilation known as the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) was expected to be completed in 2025 to more than triple available airflow for underground workers and allow mining and emplacement to occur simultaneously.

In its FY 2023 request, the DOE asked for about $59 million for continued work on the SSCVS and $25 million for the shaft.

“Waste Isolation Pilot Plant operations are impacted by the capability of the current ventilation system to support waste emplacement and simultaneous mining activities,” read the budget request.

More:Nuclear waste shipments to Carlsbad blocked from Idaho after contamination discovered

Funding would also support the shift to emplacing waste in Panel 8, the final area at the WIPP site permitted for diposal. 

Through its upcoming permit renewal application, the DOE also hoped to add two more panels for disposal to make up for space lost during a 2014 accidental radiological release that contaminated parts of the underground.

“In FY 2023, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant will work to obtain regulatory approval for mining of replacement panels and evaluation of alternatives for additional disposal panels and drifts,” the request read.

More:Former nuclear scientist at Sandia National Labs sues after being fired in 'retaliation'

But before waste can be disposed of at WIPP, it must be properly inspected and characterized as waste authorized for emplacement.

For that work, the DOE requested about $26.2 million for FY 2023, an increase of about $4.4 million from last year.

Other smaller projects at the site included in the funding request were updates to the site’s fire suppression system, electrical substations, and replacing underground vehicles with low- or zero-emission equipment.

More:Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham shares concerns over plan to dispose of plutonium in Carlsbad

The DOE also funds the transportation of waste to WIPP from its sites across the country, and asked Congress to increase that funding as well to account for the increase in shipments.

The request more than doubled WIPP’s transportation budget from $16.6 million last year to $45.2 million in FY 2023.

The DOE said the increase in funds “reflects transportation activities from multiple locations required for sustained operations at a rate of up to 17 shipments per week.”

More:Workers evacuated from area of Carlsbad nuclear waste repository after 'abnormal event'

Sandia National Laboratories, whose main Albuquerque campus is shown here, went under management of a new government contractor that is a Honeywell subsidiary in May 2017.

Sandia National Laboratory

As clean up operations at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque neared completion, the DOE EM requested less funds for the facility than last year, declining by 18 percent from $4.7 million last year to about $4 million in FY 2023.

Sandia’s clean up missions saw the DOE address water contamination from the nuclear research lab, with three main remaining for the work near the lab which sits on Kirtland Air Force Base.

The areas were known, per the DOE’s budget request, to release radioactive or hazardous wastes.

More:New Mexicans demand reparations as Congress moves bill to support victims of nuke fallout

“Each of the three areas of groundwater contamination have unique hydro-geologic complexity, and all three have contamination levels that are above the maximum contaminant level drinking water standards,” read the request. “There are no near-term risks to public health.”

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Located in northern New Mexico, Los Alamos is one of two DOE sites along with the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, tasked with increasing the production of plutonium pits – the triggers for nuclear bombs – in the coming years.

The project was intended to modernize the U.S.’ nuclear stockpile.

That will mean more nuclear waste to be disposed of, and the DOE asked for a 47 percent increase in Los Alamos’ budget from $226 million last year to $331 million in FY 2023.

The money will also go to continue efforts to remediate groundwater contamination around the facility, read the request, along with the demolition of unused buildings at the facility.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.