A process is underway that could result in the construction of a massive new air shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near the city of Carlsbad.
The project, which would be built to the west of an existing disposal area at the site, has an estimated $197 million price tag and could take up to 4 years to fully build. WIPP officials have said that the shaft is needed to provide ventilation for underground workers at the site. In a public hearing conducted by the New Mexico Environment Department, consultant Robert Kehrman said salty particulates rising from the underground beds at the facility tend to get trapped in the current filtering system. Kehrman is a consultant for the Nuclear Waste Partnership, contractor for the plant. Launched in 1999, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is licensed to store radioactive waste in storage rooms more than 2,100 feet underground. The facility saw a series of mishaps in the winter of 2014 when a salt haul truck caught on fire and subsequent air monitors recorded unusually high radiation levels. The fire prompted WIPP to suspend operations, not re-opening until early 2017 when it once again began accepting shipments of nuclear waste. Opponents of the project say the construction of a new air shaft could allow the plant to exceed the 2024 closure date for the facility as prescribed in its permit with the Environment Department. In a column for the Carlsbad Current Argus, Dale Janway, the Mayor of Carlsbad, said the city’s residents “have high expectations that this project will be handled safely and hold the Department of Environment to its original promise that WIPP jobs remain in southeastern New Mexico.” According to WIPP statistics, there are roughly 1,000 people employed at the facility. It is not known when the Environment Department will make a final determination on the air shaft project. By Garry Boulard
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