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KUMMSC is the largest storage facility for nuclear weapons in the world. [ 1 ] The complex, which opened in 1992, is located on a 54-acre site at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque , New Mexico , United States, under the control of the Air Force Global Strike Command [ 1 ] It is operated by the 898th Munitions Squadron (898 MUNS) and the ...
Highly toxic waste that cannot be further recycled must be stored in isolation, to avoid contamination of air, ground and underground water. Deep geological repository is a type of long-term storage that isolates waste in geological structures that are expected to be stable for millions of years, with a number of natural and engineered barriers.
The storage rooms at the WIPP are 2,150 feet (660 m) underground in a salt formation of the Delaware Basin. The waste is from the research and production of United States nuclear weapons only. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The plant started operation in 1999, and the project is estimated to cost $19 billion in total.
Scientists at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant began using aerial drones to scope out areas of the underground nuclear waste repository to ensure they are safe before sending workers in.
The containers that are being used for the first waste to be treated, which is the least radioactive waste held in underground tanks, are about 4 feet wide by 7.5 feet wide.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 established a timetable and procedure for constructing a permanent, underground repository for high-level radioactive waste by the mid-1990s, and provided for some temporary storage of waste, including spent fuel from 104 civilian nuclear reactors that produce about 19.4% of electricity there. [38]
Transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste made of irradiated clothing materials, equipment and debris is sent to WIPP for disposal via burial in a 2,000-foot-deep salt deposit from federal nuclear ...
The nuclear waste was planned to be shipped to the site by rail and/or truck in robust containers known as spent nuclear fuel shipping casks, approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. While the routes in Nevada would have been public, in the other states the planned routes, dates and times of transport would have been secret for ...