ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The U.S. government’s efforts to clean up Cold War-era waste from nuclear research and bomb making at federal sites around the country has lumbered along for decades, often at a pace that watchdogs and other critics say threatens public health and the environment.
Now, fallout from the global coronavirus pandemic is resulting in more challenges as the nation’s only underground repository for nuclear waste finished ramping down operations Wednesday to keep workers safe.
Over more than 20 years, tons of waste have been stashed deep in the salt caverns that make up the southern New Mexico site.
Until recently, several shipments a week of special boxes and barrels packed with lab coats, rubber gloves, tools and debris