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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) Land Withdrawal Act withdrew public lands
for WIPP, a test repository for transuranic nuclear waste disposal in a salt
deposit deep under the desert. Transuranic wastes are contaminated with
radioactive elements heavier than uranium--such as plutonium--and take a very
long time to decay. Most transuranic waste is contaminated rags, protective
clothing, laboratory equipment, and tools. Numerous DOE sites generate
transuranic waste, which is temporarily stored on site in metal drums or boxes
in shallow trenches covered with soil or on above ground asphalt pads. WIPP,
located in the desert near Carlsbad, New Mexico, will contain the transuranic
waste 2,150 feet deep in a salt bed. Salt deposits have been proposed for this
waste because they occur in areas where there's little earthquake activity and
little to no groundwater.
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