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DOE
shuts down WIPP watch group Hanford has been involved in meetings with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) over DOE's attempts to reclassify some of the waste in the tanks at Hanford as transuranic (TRU) waste rather than as high level waste which is the current classification. WIPP is near Carlsbad, New Mexico. All TRU waste is stored at WIPP in underground salt caverns which is supposed to protect the waste from the environment. High level waste is supposed to be buried at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Yucca Mountain is not close to opening, and if it does open 90% of the space in it is designated for commercial nuclear irradiated fuel rods from our country's commercial reactors. As I mentioned in a recent article, the Department of Energy Headquarters (D.C.) is playing hardball, making sweeping decisions based on whether the states do what they are told to do. If DOE is willing to shut down one oversight group, does that mean others will meet an early demise as well? Hanford has a big stake in the decisions that are being made around the complex. http://www.currentargus.com/artman/publish/article_5922.shtml |