Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

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Under New Mexico Desert, Nuclear Dump Is Back at It

After a 3-year hiatus

(Newser) - Employees at the federal government's only underground nuclear waste repository resumed disposal work Wednesday after a nearly three-year hiatus prompted by a radiation release that contaminated a significant portion of the facility, the AP reports. Two pallets of low-level radioactive waste were placed in one of the underground disposal...

Radiation Leak Blamed on 'Kitty Litter'

'It was a dumb idea,' scientist says

(Newser) - A scientist who used to work at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, New Mexico, thinks he knows what caused the mysterious radiation leak that has shuttered the plant: kitty litter. Authorities revealed Monday that the evidence indicated that nuclear waste barrels had melted thanks to a chemical reaction...

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