March, 1999The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the first permanent radioactive waste repository in the United States, received its first shipment of transuranic waste on March 26. The WIPP is located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
For many years, environmentalists and New Mexico residents protested against having a permanent waste site. In addition to political protests, lawyers
challenged the legality of the site.Eventually, the project overcame these protests and went into action. In total, it cost $2 billion to get started. The Los Alamos National Laboratory, located near the capital city of Santa Fe, supplied the first shipment of radioactive waste. Protestors lined the road that the trucks took with signs saying "Stop Nuke Trucks." However, the trucks continued and brought the waste to the WIPP.
In the next thirty years, the Department of Energy plans to send about 38,000 shipments of radioactive waste to the WIPP. Much of the transuranic waste came from designing and producing nuclear weapons. Research for the NASA space program also creates a large amount of waste. The waste shipments will be stored in underground salt caverns at the WIPP.
Information about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant | 
