CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — The contractor that manages the federal government's nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico has assembled a panel of experts to review the effectiveness of ground control and mine design at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Officials with Nuclear Waste Partnership say the experts' recommendations will help ensure worker safety and that the repository is compliant with state and federal regulations.
The experts have experience in geotechnical engineering, geophysics, rock mechanics and imaging and sensing technologies.
The repository is licensed to take Cold War-era waste generated by decades of bomb-making and defense-related nuclear research. The waste includes gloves, clothing, tools and other materials contaminated with radioactive elements.
The waste is entombed in disposal rooms carved out of an ancient salt formation about half a mile (0.8 kilometers) down.
