First waste shipment arrives at reopened New Mexico plant, “positive” step for Hanford

New Mexico's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant took on its first shipment of radioactive waste Monday after shutting down for nearly three years.

Mark Heeter with the Department of Energy says the milestone impacts Hanford because at current count there will be a need for approximately 4,000 shipments sent to WIPP. Although he says they are currently working to reduce that number.

"We look at this as an important and positive development, because we look forward to being able to move our transuranic (TRU) waste off site and down to New Mexico," says Heeter.

Hanford has been storing its waste on-site for nearly three years after the WIPP shut down in Febuary of 2014 because of two separate incidents only days apart. The site says a firetruck went up in flames and an airborne radioactivity alarm went off. The site was able to reopen this January and accepted the first shipment of TRU waste Monday.

Heeter says Hanford has over 21,000 boxes possibly contaminated with plutonium are waiting to be treated and disposed of either here in Richland or New Mexico. At this point, Hanford is on the "waiting list" to ship its contaminants. The first shipments are expected from Idaho, Savannah River Site and Waste Control Specialists. Then both Oak Ridge and Los Alamos National Laboratory are expected to start shipping materials next year.

The Department of Energy describes solid transuranic waste on its website as "debris contaminated with plutonium or other materials that may remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years."