New Mexico nuclear waste repository closed for maintenance

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — The nation's only underground nuclear waste repository is undergoing its first maintenance outage since it resumed operations a year ago. Before then, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant had been shut down for three years because radiation contaminated part of the facility. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports that maintenance crews will be updating power supplies, relocating fiber-optic cables and replacing other parts in the underground mine. The work is expecting to last until Jan. 26. Waste shipments will be on hold until the following week. The facility disposes of waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research.