The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has completed commissioning of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) facility – a new, state-of-the-art, large-scale ventilation system at its Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
“This is a big step in getting the SSCVS fully operational and providing additional airflow to the WIPP underground,” EM Carlsbad Field Office Manager Mark Bollinger said. “This project is important in increasing our workers’ safety while allowing us to continue DOE’s critical environmental cleanup and national security mission.” The SSCVS includes two primary buildings, the Salt Reduction Building, which pre-filters salt-laden air coming from the WIPP underground, and the New Filter Building, which houses fans and HEPA filtration to further clean the air.
WIPP management and operations contractor Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO) began commissioning activities last fall after completing construction of the facility in June. Commissioning involved testing each system individually and then the SSCVS as a whole to demonstrate complete functionality. Following the commissioning phase, team members turned the SSCVS over to the operations team members so they can gain proficiency in running the highly efficient system. “This is a very big day for the WIPP project,” said Tammy Hobbes, SIMCO’s Vice President and Operations/National TRU Programme Manager.
Next steps involve conducting assessments to show the SSCVS is fully integrated into other WIPP site systems; that all primary and backup systems are functional and operating as expected; and that operators are proficient and fully understand the ventilation system. EM will conduct an assessment to authorise SSCVS startup operations. Following approval of that review, team members will connect the SSCVS to the underground ventilation system of the waste repository. SSCVS is expected to be fully operational and online this year.
The SSCVS facility will significantly increase airflow through the WIPP underground. Air exiting the underground will pass through a HEPA filtration system made up of 22 filtration units. The facility will work in tandem with WIPP’s new utility shaft, which provides a new entry point for air into the WIPP underground repository. The SSCVS will pull air through the repository, remove salt when required and send the air through the HEPA filtration units before it’s released to the environment. The new ventilation system will increase underground airflow from 170,000 cubic feet per minute up to a maximum of 540,000 cubic feet per minute.
WIPP is the only deep geological repository for nuclear waste in the US. It’s a system of disposal rooms mined out of an ancient salt bed 2,150 feet underground. It has operated since 1999, celebrating its 25th anniversary of accepting transuranic waste from DOE clean-up sites across the US. The waste consists of items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other human-made radioactive elements. The waste has been accumulating since the 1940s as part of the nation’s nuclear defence programme dating back to the Manhattan Project.
Two new panels were constructed at the west end of WIPP. These were needed to replace space lost after a 2014 incident contaminated parts of the underground facility. The incident occurred when an incorrectly packaged drum of waste shipped from Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico ruptured due to a chemical reaction. The resulting radiation release contaminated parts of the WIPP underground and led to a three-year shutdown of the facility’s primary operations.
