WIPP

Transuranic Waste. Transuranic wastes (TRU) contain significant amounts (>3,700 Bq/g (100 nCi/g)) of plutonium. These wastes have accumulated from nuclear weapons production at sites such as Rocky Flats, Colorado. Experimental test of TRU disposal is planned for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The geologic medium is rock salt, which has the abiUty to flow under pressure around waste containers, thus sealing them from water. Studies center on the stabiUty of stmctures and effects of small amounts of water within the repository. 

Wippe,/. balancing balancer, equalizer counterpoise rocker clipping (from coins) seesaw tilting table Elec.) tumbler switch, wir, pron, we. 

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is in an excavated salt cavern in southern New Mexico, twenty-seven miles from Carlsbad. The WIPP site is 2,000 yards underground, and defense waste is being placed. There are plans to place there about 6 million cubic feet of material there containing fewer than five million curies of radio activity. 

There are a limited number of such "steady radiolysis" studies of Pu in neutral or basic solutions that have been reported. Here too, the results are not unambiguous. For example, in a series of studies ( 5) with 20 mM Pu and added 2l+ltCm (1.8 x 10 D/mM/ml) the Pu(III) decreased over periods of days in solutions containing Cl- (i.e., artificial sea water and WIPP Brine) as well as in triply distilled water. The most striking result was the growth and disappearance of Pu(VI) in distilled H2O over some 300 days. 

Am levels reflect resuspension of dust contamination at the WIPP site and not background 241Am levels. Present background levels result from past atmospheric nuclear testing and would be fairly uniform throughout the northern hemisphere. 

Waste heat recovery exchangers, 13 267 Waste ink disposal, 14 333 Waste interception network, 20 739-740 Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), 25 859 Waste lime products, disposal of, 15 77-78 Waste management, 9 443... 

It is clear that the disposal of HLNW requires a high level of effective isolation for geological time-scales. In this context deep geological disposal has arisen as the most accepted option and there are already operational repositories of this type (waste isolation pilot plant, WIPP) in the USA, and in Finland and Sweden the plans are well advanced for the siting and construction of such facilities. 

The other three major activities within the waste isolation program are specific to particular sites. We are currently evaluating the potential of deep basalt flows below the Hanford reservation in the State of Washington. This work is managed by the Richland Operations Office and is being conducted by the Rockwell Hanford Company. An evaluation of a potential site is underway in southeast New Mexico for the location of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) which is primarily a facility for the placement of transuranium contaminated wastes (TRU) from the defense program. 

WIPP A Bedded Salt Repository for Defense Radioactive Waste in Southeastern New Mexico... 

Figure 1. Artisfs concept of WIPP, The WIPP will be constructed at two different levels,...

Conceptual design studies for WIPP have been completed and architect engineering definition is now underway. A DOE Preliminary Environmental Impact Statement will be released by January, 1979. Present schedules call for construction to start in 1981 and for completion in 1985. First radioactive waste shipments could be accomodated in the spring of 1986. 

Contact-handled TRU waste disposal will occupy a horizon about 2,100 feet deep while experiments with HLW and all heat producing TRU will be emplaced in a purer salt horizon 2,600 feet below the surface. WIPP II would require a smaller surface and underground facility since the large volume of existing defense HLW need not be accommodated. The... 

The volumes of defense TRU waste which may become candidates for disposal in WIPP are summarized in Table I. Presently, only the retrievable and yearly production portions are planned for WIPP disposal. The WIPP will have a TRU through-put capacity of 1.2 x 10 ft per year on a three shift per day basis. During the pilot phase, it is anticipated that waste volume would initially be restricted, perhaps to 500,000 ft3 per year. This volume would require about 930 truck shipments and 1,040 railcar shipments. This assumes three-fourths of the waste comes by rail. 

Ftgure 2. Underground layout proposed for WIPP II concept. 

WIPP is located 26 mi east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Other features of interest to site selection shown on this map are the salt dissolution front and the 1976 location on the potash leasing area. 

Figure 5. Geologic cross section at the WIPP site,...

Natural resources within any major salt basin are an ever-present potential. In preliminary siting of WIPP, known hydrocarbon trends and potash deposits were avoided by the three-square mile repository area. Some potash and potentially some hydrocarbons exist within the buffer zones established for WIPP. The estimated amount of these resources, which may be denied by WIPP, are 13.1 million tons of potash product (K2O) 23.5 billion cubic feet of gas and 42.5 thousand barrels of oil. Many of these resources may not be... 

The large-scale bouyancy effects of an idealized heated repository have also been calculated (6). Expansion of the heated salt will result in a density differential with respect to the surrounding salt. This plus the reduced viscosity of the hot salt tends to form slow convective cells in the salt. Calculations of a repository in homogeneous salt loaded with 10-year old HLW at 100 kilowatts per acre show a peak upward velocity (approximately 1.5 cm/year) of the repository horizon would occur between 200 and 300 years and then slowly decrease. Displacement would be about 6.5 meters at 400 years. Incorporating a more viscous layer above the repository level to more closely simulate the actual WIPP site geology leads to maximum velocities about one-third those obtained in homogeneous salt. After 400 years the upward displacement for this latter case would be about 2.1 meters. More... 

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