U.S. acknowledges shipping Idaho radioactive waste to Nevada

The federal government acknowledged it has been shipping mixed radioactive waste from a nuclear cleanup site in Idaho to Nevada and New Mexico for disposal.

In a statement Tuesday that followed a protest letter from U.S. Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada, the U.S. Department of Energy said 13,625 cubic meters of material has been sent from a former dump at the Idaho National Laboratory to the Nevada National Security Site.

The material was characterized as “low level waste/mixed low level waste,” the department said. The amount would fill more than five Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Shipments began in 2009 and are ongoing, the department said, while noting that most of the Idaho waste was being sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

Read more: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2022/jan/12/us-acknowledges-shipping-idaho-radioactive-waste-t/