Waste Insulation Pile Seedling
The Waste Isolation Pile Seedling (WIPP) is a center of storage of radioactive waste military and resulting from research installed in the commune of Carlsbad in the south-east of New Mexico and exploited since the March 26th 1999 by the Département of the Energy of the United States.
It acts in 2007 of the only site to the the United States of final storage of the radioactive waste with long life.
Its geographical coordinates are.
Characteristics
Installed in salt plugs to 600 meters of depth, it can contain 173.600 cubic meters of waste, that is to say the equivalent of 156.000 Baril S of 200 liters.
At the end of five years of activity, it was fills around 20% of these capacities.
This site of evacuation is hold to transuranic waste, i.e. with the waste contaminated by radioactive elements of atomic number higher than that of uranium. That relates to mainly waste containing of plutonium. This waste is as well gloves used for the manufacture of Nuclear weapon, surchaussures and the soaked rags soaked in Solvant S that machine tools, and even the walls of the parts or they officiated.
It is supposed active being until in 2070.
Precautions for the next millenia
It at summer requested by legal channel to dissuade the public to approach too much close to the site during the ten thousand years to come.
One decided to write opinions in seven languages which will be engraved on monuments in Granit of twenty tons and exceeding the 7,5 meters as on discs 22 centimetres in refractory diameter of Argile and of Oxide aluminum hidden randomly in all the site.
More detailed information concerning the " ensevelis" risks; will be posted with the identical walls of three rooms, also buried for two of enter they. The whole will be bordered of a ground verge ten height meters, will be encrusted with Aimant S and reflectors Radar in order to indicated by all the possible signals to the future generations that something the dangerous one is under ground.
Internal bonds
- Storage of the radioactive waste in deep geological layer
- Yucca Mountain
- underground Research laboratory of Meuse/Haute-Marne in France
External bonds
- Site official of the WIPP
- Seen satellite of the site on Yahoo! Maps