SRS stopped using TRUPACT-III shipping packages, which are designed to hold large-sized transuranic waste boxes, after the last package was sent to New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the spring of 2022. As the site no longer needed the equipment used to load the larger shipping casks, it offered it to the Idaho Cleanup Project for use there.
The equipment, which included hoists, support beams, lifting fixtures and a control board, is expected to enhance the INL Site’s capability to safely and efficiently ship oversized radioactive waste to WIPP.
TRUPACT-IIIs weigh approximately 50,000 pounds and are used to ship radioactive boxes. To load and transfer the containers to a truck for shipment, specialized loading equipment needed to be created, both for lifting the boxes and to maintain shielding for the workers.
Win-win: “This is a win-win for EM sites,” said Kerri Crawford, Solid Waste Programs manager with DOE-EM contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. “This transfer of equipment highlights how EM works to share resources and collaborate as an integrated organization. We are always looking for ways to be the best stewards we can with the resources we have.”
Crawford noted that most DOE sites use TRUPACT-IIs to ship their TRU waste to WIPP.
“Until this point, SRS was the only site utilizing TRUPACT-IIIs, which are bigger than TRUPACT-IIs and allow for a larger transuranic waste container to be shipped,” she said.
The progress that DOE-EM and SRNS have made in shipping TRU waste to WIPP resulted in the bigger casks no longer being required, Crawford said, adding that SRS completed 239 shipments using the equipment since initial startup in 2011.
“As the largest volume shipper of transuranic waste to WIPP, this equipment, once it is placed into service, will give us an additional capability to remove waste from Idaho,” said Mark Henderson, production planning manager for Idaho Environmental Coalition, ICP’s cleanup contractor.
