Later this year, URS Energy and Construction, Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group and Areva Federal Services will take over management of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) under a $1.3 billion contract announced Friday.
The companies make up Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC, with Areva serving as a subcontractor, according to a DOE release. Starting Oct. 1, the organization will take over management and operation of the plant from URS subsidiary Washington TRU Solutions. The new contract covers five years, with an additional five-year option available.
Opened near Carlsbad, N.M., in 1999, WIPP buries transuranic waste from nuclear weapons programs in a repository carved from a salt formation 2,150 feet underground. The waste includes material like clothing, tools, debris and soil.