Nuclear waste disposal site in New Mexico

PHOTO FEATURE: NEW MEXICO NUCLEAR WASTE: (NINE OF FOURTEEN ): WIPP, the controversial nuclear waste dump site in New Mexico will open, pending approval from the state of New Mexico. In the background is the main building of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a U.S. Department of Energy facility designed to demonstrate the safe disposal of transuranic waste left from the production of nuclear weapons in deep geologic salt beds. WIPP is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Carlsbad Area Office, located in southeastern New Mexico near Carlsbad. Project facilities include excavated rooms 2,150 feet underground in an ancient, stable salt formation. Transuranic waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, and other such items contaminated with small amounts of radioactive elements -- mostly plutonium. These elements are radioactive, man-made, and have an atomic number greater than uranium -- thus transuranic (beyond uranium).(Photo by Joe Raedle)