The US Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Management Consolidated Business Centre on 1 June, announced it had awarded a five-year contract to Colorado-based CAST Specialty Transportation for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) transportation services.
The Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity contract will use firm-fixed-price task orders, with some cost reimbursement (no fee) items, with an estimated value up to $112m.
CAST is to provide facilities, personnel, and equipment to operate a local terminal within 10 miles of the Greater Carlsbad, New Mexico area, as well as transportation and maintenance services necessary to support WIPP and shipments of transuranic waste. Transuranic waste, also known as TRU, was generated during the research and production of nuclear weapons at national laboratories and weapons production facilities.
The transportation services include carrier services for the safe transport of contact-handled and remote-handled TRU waste and mixed hazardous constituents including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and asbestos. Shipments are to be made between various DOE sites across the USA and other defence-related TRU waste generator sites to the WIPP site. TRU waste must be transported in Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved, Type-B packaging and truck drivers must meet and maintain stringent safety and hazardous materials hauling qualification.
WIPP is only US deep-geologic repository to isolate defence-related TRU mixed waste from the environment. WIPP recently began accepting shipments following a nearly three-year closure that resulted from a radiation release in one of the underground disposal rooms.
