Idaho nuclear waste cleanup effort nearly complete

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho – Work to clear radioactive waste from the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project is nearly complete.

The Post Register reported that according to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are only 28 nuclear waste boxes left to retrieve at the facility’s airplane hangar-like building. Officials expect to finish the job later this month.

Though retrieval is nearly complete, there is still waste treatment work to finish at the facility. The site is unlikely to meet a deadline to have all the waste be removed from Idaho by the end of 2018.

The waste must be treated and placed in new containers for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The New Mexico facility only recently reopened and a backlog of more than 900 shipments are stored in Idaho waiting to be removed.