Overview of the National Transuranic Waste System

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) became a reality with the first receipt of waste in March 1999. The years of planning, certification, and permitting milestones were met and the facility began its' mission of safe disposal of the nations transuranic (TRU) waste. Today, more than 12,000 drum equivalents of TRU waste, are resting safely in bedded salt 2,150 feet (nearly one-half mile) beneath the surface of the New Mexico desert-a rock formation that has not moved since it fonned some 250 million years ago. It took more than 20 years to build, license and open the WIPP as the nation's first deep geologic repository for the permanent disposal of defense-generated TRU waste now stored above ground at 23 sites across the country. As it was throughout those 20 years, safety is the number one priority and most significant achievement as the project moves into its third year of disposal operations.