The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's third
deep geological repository
A deep geological repository is a way of storing hazardous or radioactive waste within a stable geologic environment (typically 200–1000 m deep). It entails a combination of waste form, waste package, engineered seals and geology that is suited ...
(after Germany's
Repository for radioactive waste Morsleben
The Morsleben Radioactive Waste Repository (German: Endlager für radioaktive Abfälle Morsleben-ERAM) is a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in the Bartensleben rock salt mine in Morsleben, Börde District, in the federal state of ...
and the
Schacht Asse II
The Asse II mine (Schacht Asse II) is a former salt mine used as a deep geological repository for radioactive waste in the Asse Mountains of Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, Germany.
History
The Asse II mine was developed between 1906 and 1908 to a ...
salt mine) licensed to store
transuranic
The transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, which is the atomic number of uranium. All of these elements are unstable and decay radioactively into other elements. ...
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
for 10,000 years. The storage rooms at the WIPP are 2,150 feet (660 m) underground in a salt formation of the Delaware Basin. The waste is from the research and production of
United States nuclear weapons only.
The plant started operation in 1999, and the project is estimated to cost $19 billion in total.
It is located approximately east of
Carlsbad, New Mexico
Carlsbad ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Eddy County, New Mexico, Eddy County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city population was 32,238. Carlsbad is centered at the intersection of U.S. R ...
, in eastern
Eddy County, in an area known as the southeastern New Mexico nuclear corridor, which also includes the
National Enrichment Facility The National Enrichment Facility (NEF) is a nuclear facility for the enrichment of uranium associated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The plant uses a gas centrifuge technology known as Zippe-type centrifuges. It is located east of Eunic ...
near
Eunice, New Mexico
Eunice is a city in Lea County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,922 at the 2010 census.
Description
The mayor of Eunice, as of March 2018, was Billy Hobbs. A URENCO USA National Enrichment Facility, which uses Zippe-type centr ...
, the
Waste Control Specialists
Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) is a treatment, storage, & disposal company dealing in radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes. Developed and controlled by Texas billionaire investor Harold Simmons until his death at the end of 2013, the com ...
low-level waste disposal facility just over the state line near Andrews, Texas, and the International Isotopes, Inc. facility to be built near Eunice, New Mexico.
Various mishaps at the plant in 2014 brought focus to the problem of what to do with the growing backlog of waste and whether or not WIPP would be a safe repository.
The 2014 incidents involved a waste explosion and airborne release of radiological material that exposed 21 plant workers to small doses of radiation that were within safety limits.
History
Geology and site selection
In 1970 the
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President H ...
(later merged into the
Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-rel ...
) proposed a site in
Lyons
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
for the isolation and storage of radioactive waste. Ultimately the Lyons site was deemed unusable due to local and regional opposition, and in particular the discovery of unmapped oil and gas wells located in the area. These wells were believed to potentially compromise the ability of the planned facility to contain nuclear waste. In 1973, as a result of these concerns, and because of positive interest from the southern New Mexico community, the DOE relocated the site of the proposed nuclear waste repository, now called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), to the Delaware Basin salt beds located near
Carlsbad,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
.
The
Delaware Basin
The Delaware Basin is a geologic depositional and structural basin in West Texas and southern New Mexico, famous for holding large oil fields and for a fossilized reef exposed at the surface. Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Cave ...
is a sedimentary basin formed largely during the
Permian Period
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozo ...
approximately 250 million years ago. It is one of three sub-basins of the
Permian Basin in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. It contains a thick column of sedimentary rock that includes some of the most oil- and gas-rich rocks in the United States.
[Weeks, Jennifer. "Nuclear Waste Buried for the Ages in New Mexico Desert". ''CQ Researcher'' 21.4 (2011): 84–85. Print.] An ancient shallow sea repeatedly filled the basin and evaporated while the basin slowly subsided, leaving behind a nearly impermeable layer of
evaporite
An evaporite () is a water-soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocea ...
s, primarily salt, in the Salado and Castile Formations, geologically similar to other basins created by evaporitic
inland seas
An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland se ...
. Over time the salt beds were covered by an additional of soil and rock.
[Kerr, Richard A. "For Radioactive Waste from Weapons, a Home at Last". ''Science'' 283.5408 (1999): 1626. Print.] As drilling in the
Salado Formation
The Salado Formation is a geologic formation in west Texas and southeastern New Mexico. It was deposited in the Ochoan Stage of the Permian period.
Description
The formation consists of up to of halite with significant anhydrite, red beds, and p ...
salt beds began in 1975, scientists discovered that at the edge of the basin there had been geological disturbances that had moved interbed layers into a nearly vertical position.
In response, the site was moved toward the more stable center of the basin where the Salado Formation salt beds are the thickest and perfectly horizontal.
Some observers suggested, early in the investigations, that the geological complexity of the basin was problematic, causing the hollowed-out caverns to be unstable.
[Charles, Dan. "Will America's Nuclear Waste Be Laid To Rest?" ''New Scientist'' 132.1799 (1991): 16. Print.] However, what is considered by some to be instability is considered by others to be a positive aspect of salt as a host rock. As early as 1957 the National Academy of Sciences recommended salt for radioactive waste disposal because at depth it would plastically deform, a motion called "salt creep" in the salt-mining industry. This would gradually fill in and seal any openings created by the mining, and in and around the waste.
![WIPP-09](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/WIPP-09.jpeg)
Exact placement of the construction site in the Delaware Basin changed multiple times due to safety concerns.
Brine
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
deposits located below the salt deposits in the Delaware Basin posed a potential safety problem. The brine was first discovered when a 1975 drilling released a pressurized deposit of the liquid from below the repository level.
Constructing the plant near one of these deposits could, under specific circumstances, compromise the facility’s safety. The brine could leak into the repository and either dissolve radioactivity or entrain particulate matter with
radioactive waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...
to the surface. The contaminated brine would then need to be cleaned and properly disposed of. There is no drinking water near the site, so possible water pollution is not a concern. After multiple deep drilling, a final site was selected. The site is located approximately east of Carlsbad.
Waste is placed in rooms underground that have been excavated within a thick salt formation (
Salado and Castile Formations) where
salt tectonics
upright=1.7
Salt tectonics, or halokinesis, or halotectonics, is concerned with the geometries and processes associated with the presence of significant thicknesses of evaporites containing rock salt within a stratigraphic sequence of rocks. This ...
have been stable for more than 250 million years. Because of
plasticity effects, salt will flow to any cracks that develop, a major reason why the area was chosen as a host medium for the WIPP project.
[Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant]
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Ba ...
report SAND92-1382 / UC-721 (1993)
As of March 2022, the WIPP has received 40% of the authorized amount of waste set by the Land Withdrawal Act. More rooms and panels are to be added to accommodate for more waste.
Addressing public concerns via the EEG
In order to address growing public unrest concerning construction of the WIPP, the New Mexico Environmental Evaluation Group (EEG) was created in 1978.
This group, charged with overseeing the WIPP, verified statements, facts, and studies conducted and released by the DOE regarding the facility. The stewardship this group provided effectively lowered public fear and let the facility progress with little public opposition in comparison to similar facilities around the nation such as
Yucca Mountain
Yucca Mountain is a mountain in Nevada, near its border with California, approximately northwest of Las Vegas. Located in the Great Basin, Yucca Mountain is east of the Amargosa Desert, south of the Nevada Test and Training Range and in the Ne ...
in Nevada.
The EEG, in addition to acting as a check for the government agencies overseeing the project, acted as a valuable advisor. In a 1981 drilling, pressurized brine was again discovered. The site was set to be abandoned when the EEG stepped in and suggested a series of tests on the brine and the surrounding area. These tests were conducted and the results showed that the brine deposit was relatively small and was isolated from other deposits. Drilling in the area was deemed safe due to these results. This saved the project valuable money and time by preventing a drastic relocation.
Early construction and testing complications
In 1979 Congress authorized construction of the facility.
[Lorenzi, Neal. "DOE May Open Nuclear Waste Isolation Plant". ''Professional Safety'' 41.4 (1996): 54. Print.] In addition to formal authorization, Congress redefined the level of waste to be stored in the WIPP from
high temperature to
transuranic
The transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, which is the atomic number of uranium. All of these elements are unstable and decay radioactively into other elements. ...
, or low level, waste. Transuranic waste often consists of materials which have come in contact with radioactive substances such as
plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
and
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
. This often includes gloves, tools, rags, and assorted machinery often used in the production of
nuclear fuel
Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission.
Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing ...
and
weapons
A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, s ...
.
Although much less potent than nuclear reactor byproducts, this waste still remains radioactive for approximately 24,000 years.
This change in classification led to a decrease in safety parameters for the proposed facility, allowing construction to continue at a faster pace.
The first extensive testing of the facility was due to begin in 1988. The proposed testing procedures involved interring samples of low level waste in the newly constructed caverns. Various structural and environmental tests would then be performed on the facility to verify its integrity and to prove its ability to safely contain nuclear waste.
[Monastersky, Richard. "First nuclear waste dump finally ready". ''Science News'' 140.15 (1991): 228. Print.] Opposition from various external organizations delayed actual testing into the early 1990s. Attempts at testing were resumed in October 1991 with US Secretary of Energy
James Watkins announcing that he would begin transportation of waste to the WIPP.
Despite apparent progress on the facility, construction still remained costly and complicated. Originally conceptualized in the 1970s as a warehouse for waste, the repository now had regulations similar to those of
nuclear reactors
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
. As of December 1991, the plant had been under construction for 20 years and was estimated to have cost over one billion dollars (equivalent to $ in dollars).
At the time, WIPP officials reported over 28 different organizations claimed authority over operations of the facility.
Congressional approval
In November 1991, a federal judge ruled that Congress must approve WIPP before any waste, even for testing purposes, was sent to the facility. This indefinitely delayed testing until Congress gave its approval.
The
102nd United States Congress
The 102nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1991 ...
passed legislation allowing use of the WIPP. The
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
approved the facility on October 6, 1992 and the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
passed a bill allowing the opening of the facility on October 8 of the same year.
[Palmer, Elizabeth A. "Senate Clears Bill To Start Tests At New Mexico Nuclear Dump". ''Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report'' 50.40 (1992): 3156. Print.] The bill was met with much opposition in the Senate. Senator
Richard H. Bryan fought the bill based on safety issues that concerned a
similar facility located in
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, the state for which he was serving as senator. His efforts almost prevented the bill from passing. New Mexico senators
Pete V. Domenici
Pietro Vichi "Pete" Domenici (May 7, 1932 – September 13, 2017) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senate, United States Senator from New Mexico from 1973 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party (United ...
and
Jeff Bingaman
Jesse Francis "Jeff" Bingaman Jr. (born October 3, 1943) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from New Mexico from 1983 to 2013, for 5 terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Chairman of Committee Outreac ...
effectively reassured Senator Bryan that these issues would be addressed in the
103rd Congress. The final legislation provided safety standards requested by the House and an expedited timeline requested by the Senate.
The final legislation mandated that the
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
(EPA) issue revised safety standards for the facility. It also required the EPA to approve testing plans for the facility within ten months. The legislation stated that the security standards mandated in the bill were only applicable to the WIPP in New Mexico and not to other facilities in the United States. This clause caused Senator Bryan to oppose the bill, as he wanted safety standards mandated by the bill to apply to the facility in Nevada as well.
Testing and final certification
In 1994, Congress ordered
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Ba ...
to begin an extensive evaluation of the facility against the standards set forth by the EPA. Evaluation of the facility continued for four years, resulting in a cumulative total of 25 years of evaluation. In May 1998, the EPA concluded that there was "reasonable expectation" that the facility would contain the vast majority of the waste interred there.
The first nuclear waste arrived to the plant on March 26, 1999. This waste shipment was from
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
, a major nuclear weapons research and development facility located north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Another shipment followed on April 6 of the same year. These shipments marked the beginning of plant operations.
[Feder, Toni. "DOE Opens WIPP for Nuclear Waste Burial". ''Physics Today'' 52.5 (1999): 59. Print.] As of December 2010, the plant had received and stored 9,207 shipments () of waste. The majority of this waste was transported to the facility via railroad or truck.
The final facility contains a total of 56 storage rooms located approximately underground. Each room is in length.
The plant is estimated to continue accepting waste for 25 to 35 years and is estimated to cost a grand total of 19 billion dollars.
Incidents at the WIPP
![WIPP DoE 2014-05-15 5 15 Image lrg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/WIPP_DoE_2014-05-15_5_15_Image_lrg.jpg)
On February 5, 2014 at around 11:00 a.m., a salt haul truck caught fire, prompting an evacuation of the underground facility. Six workers were taken to a local hospital with smoke inhalation and were released by the next day. Lab tests after the fire confirmed that there was zero release of radiological material during, or as a result of, the fire. Underground air-monitoring equipment was out of commission after the truck fire.
On February 15, 2014, authorities ordered workers to shelter in place at the facility after air monitors had detected unusually high radiation levels at 11:30 p.m. the previous day. None of the facility's 139 workers were underground at the time of the incident.
Later, trace amounts of airborne radiation consisting of
americium
Americium is a synthetic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Am and atomic number 95. It is a transuranic member of the actinide series, in the periodic table located under the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was na ...
and plutonium particles were discovered above ground, from the facility.
In total, 22 workers were exposed to radioactive contaminants equaling that of a standard chest x-ray. The ''
Carlsbad Current-Argus
The ''Carlsbad Current-Argus'' is a newspaper in Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States.Jeff Sumner, ''Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media: New Jersey - Wyoming- Canada'', Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Group, 2001, p. 121/ref>Pear ...
'' wrote: "the radiation leak occurred on the evening of February 14, according to new information made public at a news conference
n February 20 Joe Franco, manager of the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, said an underground air monitor detected high levels of alpha and beta radiation activity consistent
'sic''the waste buried at WIPP."
Regarding the elevated levels of plutonium and americium detected outside the nuclear waste repository, Ryan Flynn, New Mexico Environment Secretary stated during a news conference: "Events like this simply should never occur. From the state's perspective, one event is far too many."
On February 26, 2014, the DOE announced that 13 WIPP above-ground workers had tested positive for exposure to radioactive material. Other employees were in the process of being tested. On Thursday, February 27, DOE announced that it sent out "a letter to tell people in two counties what they do know so far. Officials said it is too early to know what that means for the workers' health." Additional testing would be done on employees who were working at the site the day after the leak. Above ground, 182 employees continued to work. A February 27 update included comments on plans to discover what occurred below ground first by using unmanned probes and then people.
The Southwest Research and Information Center released a report on April 15, 2014 that one or more of 258 contact-handled radioactive waste containers located in room 7, panel 7 of the underground repository released radioactive and toxic chemicals. The location of the leak was estimated to be approximately from the air monitor that triggered the contaminants in the filtration system. The contaminants were spread through more than of tunnels, leading to the exhaust shaft into the surrounding above-ground environment. Air-monitoring station #107, located away, detected the radiotoxins. The filter from station #107 was analyzed by the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center (CEMRC) and found to contain 0.64
becquerel
The becquerel (; symbol: Bq) is the unit of radioactivity in the International System of Units (SI). One becquerel is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. For applications relatin ...
s (Bq) per cubic meter of air of americium-241 and 0.014 Bq of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 per cubic meter of air (equivalent to 0.64 and 0.014 radioactive decay events per second per cubic meter of air). The DOE agreed that there was a release of radioactivity from the repository and confirmed that "The event took place starting at 14 February 2014 at 23:14 and continued to 15 February 2014 14:45." The DOE also confirmed that "A large shift in wind direction can be seen to occur around 8:30 AM on 2/15/14." The
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
reported on the radiological release on their WIPP News page.
After analysis by CEMRC, the station A filter was found on February 15, 2014 to be contaminated with 4,335.71 Bq of Am-241 per every , and 671.61 Bq of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 per every . Bob Alvarez, former DOE official, stated that the long-term ramifications of the WIPP issue are grounded in the fact that the DOE has of transuranic waste that has not been disposed of due to the fact that there are no long-term disposition plans for transuranic waste, including 5 tons of plutonium that are in-situ at the Savannah River Site, as well as water from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. In an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Alvarez wrote that "Wastes containing plutonium blew through the WIPP ventilation system, traveling 2,150 feet to the surface, contaminating at least 17 workers, and spreading small amounts of radioactive material into the environment." The URS Corporation, who oversees WIPP, removed and demoted the contracted manager of the repository. Alvarez ponders the notion of "contract handling" of radioactive waste because it deploys conventional processing practices that do not take into consideration the tens of thousands of containers buried before 1970 at several Department of Energy sites. Alvarez states that the quantity of this pre-1970 plutonium waste is 1,300 times more than the amount permitted to "leak" into the environment at WIPP; however, much of this waste is simply buried a few feet underground at DOE sites.
The source of contamination was later found to be a barrel that exploded on February 14 because contractors at
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...
packed it with ''organic''
cat litter
A litter box, also known as a sandbox, cat box, litter tray, cat pan, potty, pot or litter pan, is an indoor feces and urine collection box for cats, as well as rabbits, ferrets, miniature pigs, small dogs, and other pets that instinctively or ...
instead of ''clay'' cat litter. Other barrels with the same problem were then sealed in larger containers. Anthropologist
Vincent Ialenti has examined the political, social, and financial triggers to this organic kitty litter error in detail, linking it to the accelerated pace of the Department of Energy's and State of New Mexico's 3706 nuclear waste cleanup campaign, which ran from 2011 to 2014. Ialenti's study was published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in July 2018.
The 2014 incidents raised the question of whether or not WIPP would be a safe replacement for the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioac ...
in Nevada, as a destination for all waste generated at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.
The cost of the 2014 accident was expected to exceed $2 billion and disrupted other programs in various nuclear-industry sites. On January 9, 2017, the plant was formally reopened after three years of cleanup costing $500 million, which is significantly less than forecasted. On April 10, the plant received its first shipment of waste since reopening.
In 2020, a subcontractor at the WIPP opened a $32 million lawsuit claiming that "the company that runs the facility breached its contract to rebuild the nuclear waste repository's air system." Due to the 2014 incident, a Texas-based company named Critical Application Alliance LLC was hired to build a new ventilation system. The project was going to fix the flawed design in roof panels, the foundation of the WIPP, and a highly defective control system design.
Climate
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is where the highest temperature ever recorded in New Mexico at occurred during the summer of 1994.
Future
![WIPP-05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/WIPP-05.jpeg)
Following the interment of waste in the facility, estimated to be sometime between 2025 and 2035 the storage caverns will be collapsed and sealed with 13 layers of concrete and soil. Salt will then seep into and fill the various fissures and cracks surrounding the casks of waste. After approximately 75 years, the waste will be completely isolated from the environment.
The
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioac ...
is an unfinished, currently defunct deep geological repository in
Nye County, Nevada
Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, behi ...
. In 1987, Congress selected Yucca Mountain to be researched as the potential first permanent repository of nuclear waste, and directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to disregard other proposed sites and study the Yucca Mountain exclusively. However, federal funding for the site was terminated in 2011 by amendment to the
Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, passed on April 14, 2011.
Criteria
Waste that is to be disposed of at WIPP must meet certain "waste acceptance criteria". It accepts
transuranic
The transuranium elements (also known as transuranic elements) are the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 92, which is the atomic number of uranium. All of these elements are unstable and decay radioactively into other elements. ...
waste generated from DOE activities. The waste must have radioactivity exceeding per gram from TRUs that produce
alpha radiation
Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle (helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or 'decays' into a different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and an atom ...
with a
half life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
greater than 20 years. This criterion includes
plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
,
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
,
americium
Americium is a synthetic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Am and atomic number 95. It is a transuranic member of the actinide series, in the periodic table located under the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was na ...
, and
neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactivity, radioactive actinide metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element. Its position in the periodic table just after uranium, named after ...
among others. The WIPP must not act as disposal site for any high-level radioactive waste or any nuclear fuel that has already been used.
Mixed waste contains both radioactive and hazardous constituents, and WIPP first received mixed waste on September 9, 2000. Mixed waste is joint-regulated by the EPA and the
New Mexico Environment Department
The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is a state government agency responsible for "protecting and restoring the environment of the state of New Mexico to foster a healthy and prosperous New Mexico for present and future generations," acco ...
.
The containers may also contain a limited amount of liquids. The energy released from radioactive materials will dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen (
radiolysis
Radiolysis is the dissociation of molecules by ionizing radiation. It is the cleavage of one or several chemical bonds resulting from exposure to high-energy flux. The radiation in this context is associated with ionizing radiation; radiolysis is ...
). This could then create a potentially explosive environment inside the container. The containers must be vented, as well, to prevent this from happening. All containers must pass a visual inspection that is documented to insure that all containers are in good condition. "Good condition" is described "[not having significant rusting, is of sound and structural integrity, and does not show signs of leakage."
Principle
Waste is placed in rooms underground that have been excavated within a thick salt formation (
Salado and Castile Formations) where
salt tectonics
upright=1.7
Salt tectonics, or halokinesis, or halotectonics, is concerned with the geometries and processes associated with the presence of significant thicknesses of evaporites containing rock salt within a stratigraphic sequence of rocks. This ...
have been stable for more than 250 million years. Because of
plasticity effects, salt and water will flow to any cracks that develop, a major reason why the area was chosen as a host medium for the WIPP project. Because drilling or excavation in the area will be hazardous long after the area is actively used, there are plans to construct markers to deter inadvertent human intrusion for the next ten thousand years.
The Salado Formation is a massive bedded salt deposit (>99% NaCl) that has a simple hydrogeology. Because massive NaCl is somewhat plastic, so holes close under pressure, the rock becomes non-porous by effectively closing pores and fractures. This has a significant effect on the overall hydraulic conductivities (water permeabilities) and molecular diffusion coefficients. These are on the order of ≤10−14 m/s and ≤10−15 m2/s respectively.
File:WIPP-04.jpeg, Storage of radioactive waste at WIPP
File:WIPP-07.jpeg, Labeled 100-gallon drums staged for downloading and emplacement in the repository
File:WIPP-08.jpeg, The DOSCO rotary head mining machine at WIPP
Awareness triggers
Since 1983, the DOE has been working with linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists, materials scientists, science fiction writers, and futurists to come up with a warning system. For the case of the WIPP, the markers, called "passive institutional controls", will include an outer perimeter of thirty-two granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
pillars built in a four-mile (6 km) square. These pillars will surround an earthen wall, tall and wide. Enclosed within this wall will be another 16 granite pillars. At the center, directly above the waste site, will sit a roofless, granite room providing more information. The team intends to etch warnings and informational messages into the granite slabs and pillars.
This information will be recorded in the six official languages of the United Nations
The Official Languages of the United Nations are the six languages that are used in UN meetings and in which all official UN documents are written. In the six languages, four are the official language or national language of permanent members in ...
(English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
) as well as the Native American Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho (; Navajo: or ) is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America. Navajo is spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States ...
native to the region, with additional space for translation into future languages. Pictogram
A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...
s are also being considered, such as stick figure
A stick figure, also known as a stickman, is a very simple drawing of a person or an animal, composed of a few lines, curves, and dots. On a stick figure, the head is most often represented by a circle, which can be either a solid color or som ...
images and the iconic ''The Scream
''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...
'' from Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images.
His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...
's painting. Complete details about the plant will not be stored on site; instead, they would be distributed to archives and libraries around the world. The team plans to submit their final plan to the U.S. Government by around 2028 and they will finalize the warning messages by 2033.
File:WIPP Information Center.png, Design for the WIPP information room
File:WIPP Large Surface Marker - Controlled Area Boundary.svg, A proposed notice for the markers outlining a exclusion area around the WIPP facility.
File:WIPP - Small Subsurface Markers.svg, Proposed design for small disks that will be randomly scattered and buried within the controlled zone, to warn people digging that it is dangerous and they should stop.
File:WIPP Large Surface Marker - Repository Footprint.svg, A proposed notice for the markers on the actual site of the repository.
File:Conceptual design of WIPP's permanent marker system with labels.png, The conceptual design of warning markers at the WIPP site.
Underground laboratory
A portion of the site is used to house underground physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
experiments which require shielding from cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
s. Although only moderately deep as such laboratories go (1585 meter water equivalent In physics, the meter water equivalent (often ''m.w.e.'' or ''mwe'') is a standard measure of cosmic ray attenuation in underground laboratories. A laboratory at a depth of 1000 m.w.e is shielded from cosmic rays equivalently to a lab below the sur ...
shielding), the site has several advantages. The salt is easy to excavate, dry (no water to pump out), and salt is much lower in naturally occurring radionuclide
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfer ...
s than rock.
The WIPP plant suffered an accident in February 2014 that forced all scientific activities to cease; for most experiments, it took one to two years to recover, and not all experiments recovered to continue their activities in WIPP. Especially it is unknown whether the Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber collaboration recovered their operations in WIPP after the February 2014 events.
Currently (2018) the WIPP houses the Enriched Xenon Observatory
The Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) is a particle physics experiment searching for neutrinoless double beta decay of xenon-136 at WIPP near Carlsbad, New Mexico, U.S.
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) detection would prove the Majorana ...
(EXO) searching for neutrinoless double beta decay. The dark matter experiment collaboration that operated in WIPP before 2014, Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber
In physics, a time projection chamber (TPC) is a type of particle detector that uses a combination of electric fields and magnetic fields together with a sensitive volume of gas or liquid to perform a three-dimensional reconstruction of a particl ...
(DMTPC), is continuing their work and aims to deploy their next detector at SNOLAB
SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in Vale's Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities con ...
. After the 2014 events at the WIPP the DMTPC experiments were put on hold, but are expected to resume after the building is finished and waste is done being placed in the facility. The detector that the DMTPC collaboration had at WIPP was the 10-L DMTPC prototype detector (with active volume of 10 litres, hence the name 10-L or 10L) which started operations at WIPP October 2010.
Also the EXO collaboration is continuing their activities. The planned end of the EXO operations in WIPP is December 2018, and the collaboration is planning to have the next-stage detector built in SNOLAB
SNOLAB is a Canadian underground science laboratory specializing in neutrino and dark matter physics. Located 2 km below the surface in Vale's Creighton nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, SNOLAB is an expansion of the existing facilities con ...
. This means that the two biggest experimental infrastructures (EXO and DMTPC) of WIPP intend to relocate to SNOLAB and cease their operations in WIPP before the end of 2019. This would leave WIPP underground laboratory without any major scientific experiment.
Previous experiments at WIPP include the neutrinoless double beta decay searching MAJORANA Project detectors called Segmented Enriched Germanium Assembly (SEGA) and Multiple Element Germanium Array (MEGA); these were prototype detectors used to develop the measurement apparatus of the collaboration that were deployed 2004 in WIPP. Since then (2014 onwards), the MAJORANA collaboration has constructed a detector, the MAJORANA Demonstrator, at Sanford Underground Research Facility
The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), or Sanford Lab, is an underground laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. The deepest underground laboratory in the United States, it houses multiple experiments in areas such as dark matter and neutrino ...
(SURF) at Lead, South Dakota
Lead ( ) is a city in Lawrence County, South Dakota, Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,982 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Lead is located in western South Dakota, in the Black Hills near the Wyomi ...
. The MAJORANA collaboration remains active (as of 2019) and aims to construct a large neutrinoless double beta decay experiment LEGEND
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
after the MAJORANA Demonstrator phase.
Some smaller neutrino and dark matter experiments that have been mostly technology development oriented have also taken place at WIPP. There have also been a number of biology experiments in WIPP; for example, these experiments have studied the biological conditions of the deep under ground salt deposit. In one experiment, researchers were able to cultivate bacteria from 250 million year old spores found in WIPP. The Low Background Radiation Experiment studies the effects of reduced radiation environment to biological systems. The Low Background Radiation Experiment was stopped along with all other experiments in February 2014, but continued after summer 2016 at WIPP and has been ongoing since.
The 2000 testing of actinide transport within the Culebra Dolomite from the surrounding area of Carlsbad, New Mexico, was one of many experiments at this location to address concerns for lab safety. Other geology/geophysics experiments have taken place at WIPP, as have some special experiments relating to the operations of the Plant as a repository of radioactive waste.
See also
*Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository
The Onkalo spent nuclear fuel repository is a deep geological repository for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. It is near the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in the municipality of Eurajoki, on the west coast of Finland. It is being const ...
*Human Interference Task Force
The Human Interference Task Force was a team of engineers, anthropologists, nuclear physicists, behavioral scientists and others convened on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy and Bechtel Corp. to find a way to reduce the likelihood of futu ...
* Stored Waste Examination Pilot Plant
*Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioac ...
*Project Gnome
Project Gnome was the first nuclear test of Project Plowshare and was the first continental nuclear weapon test since Trinity to be conducted outside of the Nevada Test Site, and the second test in the state of New Mexico after Trinity. It was t ...
*List of nuclear waste treatment technologies
The following are most of the different possible methods of treating and disposing of nuclear waste:
;Storage
*Deep geological repository
*Dry cask storage
*Ducrete
*Ocean floor disposal
*Saltcrete
*Spent fuel pool
*Spent nuclear fuel shipping ca ...
References
Further reading
*Weitzberg, Abraham, 1982, "Building on Existing Institutions to Perpetuate Knowledge of Waste Repositories", ONWI-379, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*Kaplan, Maureen F., 1982, "Archeological Data as a Basis for Repository Marker Design", ONWI-354, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*Berry, Warren E., 1983, "Durability of Marker Materials for Nuclear Waste Isolation Sites", ONWI-474, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*Human Interference Task Force, 1984, "Reducing the Likelihood of Future Human Activities that could Affect Geologic High-level Waste Repositories", BMI/ONWI-537, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*Sebeok, Thomas A., 1984, "Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia", BMI/ONWI-532, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*INTERA Technologies, 1985, "Preliminary Analyses of Scenarios for Potential Human Interference for Repositories in Three Salt Formations", BMI/ONWI-553, available through the National Technical Information Service.
*van Wyck, Peter C. ''Signs of Danger: Waste, Trauma, and Nuclear Threat.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.
External links
*
Annotated bibliography
for WIPP from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues The Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues is a searchable collection of vetted annotations and bibliographic information for resources including books, articles, films, CD-ROMs, and websites pertaining to nuclear topics. Part of the United States ...
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Buildings and structures in Eddy County, New Mexico
Radioactive waste repositories in the United States
Waste treatment technology
Underground laboratories
United States Department of Energy facilities
Laboratories in the United States
1999 establishments in New Mexico
Industrial accidents and incidents in the United States