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Carlsbad area,...continued
The Waste Isolation Pilot Project doesn't have a long history, but it is an eventful one. The US Congress issued a mandate over twenty years ago to identify and develop sites for disposing transuranic waste, (it's not the dregs of Europe as I originally thought). Nuclear weapons research and production from the Cold War years has created a lot of waste that can't be flushed down the drain or added to the local landfill. The deep, dry, stable
? salt beds near Carlsbad seemed an ideal choice at the time. However, there were substantial technological problems in delivering the material safely, and providing a permanent environment for the containers. In March 1999 the first shipment arrived and was delivered 2,100 feet down to the air-conditioned basement of the site. The next five years will be the acid test (among others), for the decomposing waste. Eventually, the goal is to find a viable method to balance the equation weighted by a growing mass of radioactive waste.Whether you support or oppose the program, the facility is well worth the tour. It brings home the unanticipated cost of living the 20th century, the American Way.
In February, I had the opportunity to visit the site and took a comprehensive tour of the facility. It began with a video step-by-step introduction to transportation and waste handling. Our small group was led by two veterans at the plant, who answered questions with consideration and patience. We suited up with identification tags and safety equipment, then headed across the compound to the entrance where shipments are examined, opened and prepared for interment 2,100 feet down.
We pass through the airlock into a vast enclosed field.
In the middle distance a stack of TRUPACTs is corralled in scaffolding,
drills, cutters. impending probes and gauges. The scene could
be the 2001 version of the Star Trek transporter room, or the
nightmare vision of a visit to the dentist. We move on quickly
to more familiar ground: the waste hoist, ( elevator ). The cage is large
enough to
hold a crowd, but our small group has an unobstructed view of the layers
of strata passing rapidly by as we descend.
The pressure that squeezes mud into oil and natural gas, is applying 20,000 psi to the tunnels incised at the WIPP. The walls creep in, the floors rise and overhead the salt beds are toe nailed with spikes for support. For now though the atmosphere is pleasant for humans, and eternal youth for machines. No rust, no weather. Daytime and light slipping away into dusk.
Lulled into a pleasant enjoyment of the tram car ride, it's easy to overlook the monumental amount of work and expense required to create and maintain this space.
The project is hopelessly inadequate as a solution to man-made environmental hazards. In its capacity as a feasibility study, the WIPP handles only level waste, and accepts shipments exclusively from ten military sites. By volume, perhaps one half of one percent of the low level waste from these sites has been handled to date. Most of it accumulated during the time when radium dials on wrist watches glowed in the dark.
As a fraction of the total radioactive byproduct in the U.S., the shipments buried at the WIPP are infinitesimally small. This is not a solution, but it is a first step. The elephant is in the living room, and it's worth taking a look.
Another visitor's story:
http://www.mmmfiles.com/alsu301a.htm
Take a tour:
http://www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/general/tours.htmThe controversy
: http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues95/may95/nuclear.html Abstract of an article by Jeff Wheelwright, originally published in May 1995 Smithsonian Magazine.Go radioactive: 
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