Workers Locate Site of Contamination Inside WIPP Repository via Nuclear Power Industry News

The Department of Energy is a step closer to identifying the source of a February radiation alarm that has kept the New Mexico nuclear waste repository closed to shipments.

A team that went underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Wednesday detected elevated contamination in one of the compartments storing waste. Among eight panels dug into a salt formation for storage, panel number seven showed signs of a leak, the Albuquerque Journal quoted a DOE official as saying Thursday.

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The panel was unfilled and still accepting waste. Several days after a truck fire initially shut the repository down, safety systems detected a leak Feb. 14 that released a small amount of radioactive material into the air and exposed 21 workers to low doses of radiation. The Associated Press reported that possible sources of the leak include transuranic waste containers damaged by a roof collapse or the prongs of a forklift.

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Related article: TESTS SHOW RADIATION CONTAMINATION ON FOUR MORE WORKERS AT NEW MEXICO SITEvia Nextgov

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