Sparks fly as Ismael Duarte welds in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground. WIPP has several maintenance and fabrication shops carved out of an ancient salt layer.
Sparks fly as Ismael Duarte welds in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground. WIPP has several maintenance and fabrication shops carved out of an ancient salt layer.

CARLSBAD, N.M. – There’s so much infrastructure work happening at EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the view literally changes daily.

Dominating the landscape are the buildings and infrastructure for the $288 million Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS). Key pieces of SSCVS show progress.

 

Workers install dandelion-shaped arrays atop light poles as part of upgrades to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s lightning protection system. The arrays fill gaps in the existing system.
Workers install dandelion-shaped arrays atop light poles as part of upgrades to Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s lightning protection system. The arrays fill gaps in the existing system.

The SSCVS is critical to EM’s plans to increase shipments of transuranic waste to WIPP from cleanup sites across the DOE complex.

The SSCVS will significantly increase the airflow of the underground portion of the WIPP facility from 160,000 cubic feet per minute to 540,000 cubic feet per minute. As a result, DOE will be able to perform transuranic waste emplacement activities simultaneously with facility mining and maintenance operations.

The filtered system includes two buildings — a salt reduction building and filter building — powered by six 1,000-horsepower fans.

Crews have been busy at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), creating trenches for power, water, and sewer to multiple projects.
Crews have been busy at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), creating trenches for power, water, and sewer to multiple projects.

Other major projects at the site and around its perimeter are at full throttle heading into the summer, including the:

  • Fabrication assembly building. Components of the SSCVS will be assembled in this pre-engineered building, which has been delivered to the site. Crews have begun excavating for its foundation.
  • Salt reduction building, which is the first stop for air coming from the WIPP underground. This facility will use filtering machines and other equipment to knock salt dust and other matter from the air. Underground piping is complete, and subsurface excavation includes an area for a basin to collect a water and salt mixture resulting from the operations.
  • Filter building, where air from the salt reduction building goes through progressively finer filters to trap contaminants before exhausting to the outside via a stack. Subsurface excavation for this building is underway.
  • Utility shaft, which is the site’s fifth to descend to the 2,150-foot level of WIPP’s underground. Land has been cleared for the project’s work area. The 30-foot diameter shaft, the largest at WIPP, will provide air intake plus a possible third point of access for workers and materials into the WIPP mine. Completion target is August 2022.
  • Bypass road, which relocates non-WIPP traffic away from the site and the utility shaft construction zone.
  • Lightning protection system. This system, which has prevented a direct strike inside the site’s fence line for the past 30 years, is being upgraded and repaired.
  • Fire protection loop. Workers are excavating soil to replace failed valves in advance of adding a new fire water line. The loop will eventually include new tanks for firefighting water, a pump house and pumps, and hydrants.