New Mexico signs final order to renew permit at US nuclear waste repository

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico environmental regulators have finalized a 10-year permit extension at the nation’s only underground nuclear waste repository. They say it will increase oversight and safeguards while prioritizing the cleanup of Cold War-era waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The state Environment Department on Thursday said the permit goes into effect on Nov. 3. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico plays a key role in the nation’s multibillion-dollar effort to clean up radioactive waste left behind by decades of nuclear research and bomb-making. It has been licensed previously to take waste generated by the nation’s nuclear weapons program that is contaminated with radioactive elements heavier than uranium.