WASHINGTON,   DC – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it has decided to exercise the five year option in the Washington TRU Solutions LLC (“WTS”) contract to continue managing and operating the Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located in New Mexico. 

The option DOE exercised is a part of the WIPP contract that was competitively procured in 2000.   The WTS contract will now run through September 30, 2010 with an estimated value over the five year timeframe of approximately $704 million. 

"We are very pleased to take this step,” said Kyle McSlarrow, Deputy Secretary of Energy. “Continuing this contract is very important to the ongoing cleanup of transuranic (TRU) waste at our nation’s defense facilities.   WTS has a sustained track record of excellent performance and has signed up to new, aggressive performance goals that will accelerate the disposal of TRU waste in a safe and timely manner.”   

These new performance goals are designed to achieve the following during fiscal years 2006-2010 when compared to prior planning for that period:

• Dispose 20,000 additional cubic meters of TRU waste in the WIPP underground repository
• Complete the TRU waste cleanup at some storage sites 5 to 10 years early
• Cleanup 70% of all legacy TRU waste by the end of 2010, compared with 53% targeted during prior planning

WIPP is the world's first underground repository certified to safely and permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste left from the research and production of nuclear weapons and is a cornerstone of DOE’s environmental cleanup program.  

Based in Carlsbad, New Mexico, WTS is jointly owned by Washington Group International of Boise, Idaho and Weston Solutions of West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Media contact:  Joe Davis, 202/586-4940