The Washington Group-led Westinghouse TRU Solutions has received a five-year $500 million contract for the US Department of Energy (DoE) to manage and operate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The new contract, which will be administered by DoE’s Carlsbad Area Office, will begin on 1 December, and will run to 30 September, 2005. TRU Solutions is a joint venture between Westinghouse Government Environmental Services (88%) and Roy F Weston (12%).
The incumbent management and operations (M&O) contractor, Westinghouse Waste Isolation Division, has been part of the WIPP team since 1978, and has been the M&O contractor since 1985 under a previously awarded contract.
WIPP opened and received the first shipment of waste on 26 March, 1999. The WIPP is designed to dispose of transuranic nuclear waste in an underground repository that has been excavated in 250 million year old salt beds located half a mile beneath the surface.
