February 20, 2014
Photo courtesy businessinsider.com
The highest ever levels of radiation have been detected at a New Mexico nuclear waste repository. The latest readings come hot on the heels of a radiation leak that triggered a lockdown of the entire facility at the beginning of the week.
Scientists monitoring the area around the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, picked up trace elements of radioactive materials in the air. Russell Hardy, director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center said quoted by AP the readings of americium and plutonium were the highest ever detected at the disposal site.
However, radiation levels are still a long way from breaching Environmental Protection Agency safety guidelines.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is one of the world’s three deep repositories for nuclear waste left over from the production and testing of atomic weapons. It buries the waste over 600 meters underground in tunnels hewn out of salt beds.
Just four days ago an out-of-the-ordinary radiation spike was recorded at the facility which caused plant managers to suspend all operations. Personnel at the facility discovered the source of the radiation was a leak inside one of the salt tunnels where radioactive material is buried.