Shipping resumes to only US underground nuclear waste dump
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The nation’s only underground nuclear repository has received its first shipment of waste, more than three years after shipping was halted in response to a radiation release that contaminated part of the facility and sidetracked the federal government’s multibillion-dollar cleanup program.
The U.S. Energy Department said Monday that the shipment from a federal facility in Idaho marked a milestone for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the government sites where tons of waste left over from decades of nuclear weapons research and development have been stacking up.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was forced to close in February 2014 after an improperly packed drum of waste ruptured.
Some operations at the repository resumed in December 2016 after an expensive recovery effort, but federal officials have acknowledged the resulting backlog.
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