NB3 workers load waste from LANL into a transport container bound for WIPP, marking the resumption of regular shipments from LANL to WIPP for the first time in four years.

N3B News:

Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) last week began shipments of transuranic waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad.

“This is the first of what will be regular shipments of waste from Area G, a LANL waste management area, in more than four years,” said Danny Nichols, manager of the N3B Contact-handled Transuranic Waste Program.

The shipments will contain radioactive waste from the legacy waste cleanup program at LANL and the Offsite Source Recovery Program.

In early 2018, DOE transferred responsibility for managing legacy waste at LANL to N3B from the management and operations contractor. N3B manages the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract for DOE’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office, and is responsible for disposing legacy waste offsite.

“We have taken a very deliberate and disciplined approach to planning this shipment campaign so we can do it safely and securely,” Nichols said. “We have worked closely with WIPP officials in the preceding months. They were instrumental participants in recent mock-ups we held to train staff in the safe and compliant preparation of waste for transport to WIPP.”

The shipment left LANL Thursday, Oct. 4, and arrived safely that evening at WIPP.