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Nuclear weapons waste compacted, shipped out of Idaho

The Energy Department has been cleaning up the site near the Idaho National Laboratory following legal battles in the 1990s.
Credit: Keith Ridler
FILE - In this May 11, 2015, file photo, nuclear waste is stored in underground containers at the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Radioactive waste shipped to Idaho from a Midwestern nuclear weapons facility during the Cold War has been compacted and sent out of state for permanent disposal. A U.S. Department of Energy contractor on Wednesday, July 17, 2019, said nearly 26,000 cubic yards (20,000 cubic meters) of waste contaminated with plutonium-238 has been sent to a storage facility in New Mexico. (AP Photo/Keith Ridler, File)

BOISE, Idaho — Radioactive waste shipped to Idaho from a Midwestern nuclear weapons facility during the Cold War has been compacted and sent out of state for permanent disposal.

A U.S. Department of Energy contractor on Wednesday said nearly 26,000 cubic yards of waste contaminated with plutonium-238 has been sent to a storage facility in New Mexico.

The waste was produced at a Department of Energy facility in Miamisburg, Ohio, and sent to the Energy Department's 890-square-mile site west of the city of Idaho Falls that includes the Idaho National Laboratory.

Workers in Idaho placed the waste in barrels that were compacted into the size of hockey pucks.

The Energy Department has been cleaning up the Idaho site following legal battles that led to a settlement agreement with state officials in the 1990s.

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