Initial Los Alamos comingled TRU waste delivered to WIPP

January 26, 2021, 12:09PMRadwaste Solutions

Workers at LANL's RANT facility load the first comingled TRU waste shipment from the DOE and the NNSA. Photo: DOE

The Los Alamos field offices of the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration have completed their first comingled shipment of transuranic (TRU) waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

"Comingling NNSA and EM waste allows for more efficient shipments to WIPP," Kirk Lachman, EM Los Alamos field office manager, said on January 14. "Reducing LANL’s above-ground waste inventory is an important issue to our local communities and is one of our mission priorities.”

The comingled shipment consisted of one Transuranic Package Transporter Model 3 container with a total of 28 drums and containers inside.

The loading: The comingled shipment was loaded at LANL’s Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing (RANT) facility by DOE workers and the agency's cleanup contractors Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos and Triad. The RANT facility provides space for crews to load drums, boxes, and 10-drum overpacks containing TRU waste into shipping containers.

The comingling: By comingling waste shipments, the DOE and the NNSA can ship legacy and new-generation radioactive waste together, maximizing resources while safely transporting waste for offsite disposal, according to the DOE.


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