LANL ships last of radioactive waste

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory has shipped its final canister of a special type of radioactive waste to southern New Mexico.

Sixteen canisters of robotic handled radioactive waste had been stored at the laboratory in vertical, concrete shafts since 1995.

The canisters each contain three 55-gallon drums filled with rags, tools, plastics, glassware, and other equipment used in enclosures known as "hot cells" during the 1970s and 1980s.

The waste was transported from Los Alamos to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.

The laboratory began shipping radioactive canisters exactly one month ago and averaged four shipments per week. The shipment is part of an agreement to close a lab disposal area by 2015.

Lab officials say the WIPP facility will dispose of the canisters in rooms mined from a salt formation deep underground.