By Jennifer Pittman

    In the high desert of southeastern New Mexico where wind sweeps through low brush in a stark terrain, specially equipped trucks arrive at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to unload radioactive cargo at the world’s first underground repository of its kind. The facility, known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), celebrated five years of operation in March.
    WIPP handles the permanent disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste, a man-made byproduct of the research and production of nuclear weapons that began accumulating in the 1940s with the beginning of the nation’s nuclear weapons program. WIPP presently receives waste from seven major TRU waste generator/storage facilities in addition to numerous smaller facilities with defense-related nuclear waste.
    Most waste brought to WIPP consists of clothing, tools, rags, residues and debris contaminated with In small amounts of plutonium. The materials are primarily contained in 55-gallon drums that can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. For transport, drums are shipped inside larger sealed  containerscalled  TRUPACT-IIs.  These rugged shipping packages, certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, are  esigned to maintain their integrity in various accident scenarios.......

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