WIPP News:

Entry teams established access to the north experimental area of the WIPP underground facility this week. Geotechnical engineers, accompanied by radiological control technicians (RCT), first conducted visual inspections of the north area of the mine to ensure stability and safety.

As expected, no radiological contamination was detected during the entry; however, soot from the Feb. 5 underground truck fire was visibly present.

Additional entries will be needed to further evaluate the condition of the equipment and experimental apparatus used for basic scientific research in the underground facility at WIPP. The north area of the WIPP underground facility has been used for decades by researchers across the country to conduct various experiments that can only be performed under conditions of extremely low background radiation.

Scientists working with the largest of the experiments from Stanford University accompanied the entry team to get a first-hand view of the condition of their detector system, which was remotely placed in cold standby in March.

A replay of the Aug. 21 WIPP Town Hall meeting, sponsored by the City of Carlsbad and DOE, is available at https:////new.livestream.com/rrv/. The next Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Sept. 4 at the Carlsbad City Hall.