January 23, 2007
The Department's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, receives (pdf) its first shipment of remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste. The waste, which consisted of three 30-gallon drums of radioactive debris waste and originated at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory, was transported inside a shielded RH-72B shipping cask, providing the same low radiation levels as the contact-handled (CH) TRU wastes that have been shipped to WIPP since 1999. "This first shipment of RH-TRU waste is particularly significant to DOE," notes DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management James Rispoli. "WIPP is now positioned to complete its entire mission. The safe, efficient disposal of all transuranic waste, including remote-handled material, is vital to our national clean-up strategy."