The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has temporarily stopped accepting waste but remained secure following a fire underground.
At about 11 a.m., Wednesday, a truck hauling salt from a new sector of the facility caught fire. There was no waste stored nearby, according to a Department of Energy release, and all personnel working in the repository were evacuated to the surface. That evening, the DOE reported a mine rescue team had confirmed the fire was out and the air was safe to breathe.
WIPP stores transuranic defense waste in a salt formation 2,150 feet below the surface of the New Mexico desert. It is managed by Nuclear Waste Partnership, a consortium of URS Corp. and Babcock & Wilcox, with Areva as a major subcontractor.
DOE officials said shipments to the site had been stopped, according to the Carlsbad Current-Argus. Six workers who were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation have been released. The newspaper quoted a DOE spokesman as describing the incident as the most serious fire the site has experienced below ground.