Carlsbad, NM --The Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office today awarded a $1.7 million, five-year cooperative agreement to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA). The purpose of this agreement is to coordinate and implement activities to train Motor Vehicle Safety Officials and ensure the safe transportation of transuranic waste between generator sites and to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This includes general management of the plan, inspector training, inspection program data for quality validation, and insure its overall relationship to highway safety. The first cooperative agreement was entered into in 1997.

CVSA has developed the North American Standard VI Inspection Program which has been used for the inspection of select radiological shipments. This program includes the inspection procedure, radiological requirement and the Enhanced North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria for transuranic waste and highway route controlled quantities of radioactive material. As of January 1, 2005, all vehicles and carriers transporting highway route controlled quantities of radioactive materials are regulated by the U. S. Department of Transportation and required to pass the Enhanced North American Standard Level VI Inspection. DOE decided to include its transuranic waste shipment in the Enhanced North American Standard Level VI Inspection program.

WIPP is the nation’s only deep-geologic repository to isolate defense-related TRU waste from the environment. Waste temporarily stored at sites around the county is shipped to WIPP and permanently disposed in rooms mined out of an ancient salt formation 2,150 feet below the surface. WIPP is currently not accepting waste shipments. Shipments are expected to resume during 2017.