Waste shipments resume to WIPP in southeastern NM

| The Associated Press

5/13/2008 - 5/13/08

CARLSBAD — Shipments have resumed to the federal government's underground waste dump in southeastern New Mexico.

The shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant were halted April 23 because of a leak in a 6-inch diameter water line outside WIPP's waste handling building.

The line provides water for the building's fire suppression system.

Officials say a bypass was set up to provide an alternate source of water to the building.

The U.S. Department of Energy approved a request to resume shipments May 7.

WIPP, 26 miles east of Carlsbad, holds plutonium-contaminated waste from the nation's defense work in vast underground rooms excavated in ancient salt beds.