Landscape Entrusted

Depositing Nuclear Waste in Geologic Time

Constructed about 53 kilometers southeast and 655 meters below Carlsbad in New Mexico in the United States, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a permanent deep geological repository for a special kind of radioactive waste. There are several categories of radioactive waste, depending on many factors including types of radionuclides, levels of toxicity, and purposes of a project (whether the activities from which the waste derives are civil or defense-related). These classifications are specific to each regulatory body and thus often differ from nation to nation. The WIPP houses nuclear waste categorized as defense-generated transuranic (TRU) waste…