New Mexico Town Hall Discusses Future of Nuclear Waste Production, Storage

This week, Pojoaque, New Mexico held a town hall where leading officials from the Department of Energy spoke with residents to shed some light on plans for nuclear waste production and storage in the state.

"These top DOE officials will be coming back and be able to talk about this intersection of what waste we have, what waste the Department of Energy wants to produce from new weapons production, and what does that mean for New Mexico, not only for Los Alamos [National Laboratory], but for WIPP [Waste Isolation Pilot Plant]," said Don Hancock, director of the nuclear waste safety program with the Southwest Research and Information system.

The WIPP first opened 25 years ago and is the only underground geologic repository in the world for nuclear waste. Last year, the New Mexico Environment Department renewed WIPP’s permit with conditions, such as prioritizing legacy waste from the Cold War.

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