WIPP was a DOE disaster from the start
THE WIPP FACILITY has insufficient air flow in the underground mine. This problem has its origin in an unconscionable decision by Department of Energy managers several decades ago.
During the WIPP construction, DOE headquarters proposed eliminating the air supply shaft as a supposed cost-saving measure. Managers in the DOE Albuquerque field office mindlessly concurred, despite strong objections raised by an internal engineering review.
The DOE executives then awarded themselves cash bonuses for this bogus cost savings.
After WIPP was built, the underground airflow — not surprisingly — was found to be inadequate. An air supply shaft was then constructed at significantly higher cost than the original concept.
But the underground configuration was such that the resulting air flow rate was necessarily lower than it would have been with the original design.
The WIPP ventilation debacle is but one of an endless series of costly fiascoes demonstrating that DOE is intellectually and morally bankrupt.
The solution to the congenitally deficient WIPP underground air flow appears to be complicated, time-consuming and expensive.
The solution to the congenitally deficient DOE bureaucracy is uncomplicated, swift and inexpensive — the Department of Energy should be summarily abolished.
JOHN J. SCHINKLE
Los Lunas