Albuquerque, March 24 -- It wasn't long after the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan and World War II ended that the United States began to realize it had to do something with the waste that was being generated by defense-related nuclear research and bomb-making that would continue through the Cold War - and indefinitely.

Tainted with plutonium and other elements, the waste - gloves, clothing, tools and other materials - couldn't be left just anywhere, so it was decided that a repository would be dug deep into the desert in southeastern New Mexico.

What is the waste isolation pilot plant?

WIPP is the United States' only permanent underground repository licensed to take what is known as transuranic waste, or waste generated by the nation'...