Los Alamos National Laboratory has only a narrow time frame before it runs out of room to store its nuclear waste.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the waste should go to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, but that remains shut down after the underground site was contaminated last year.
A recent report from the Defense Nuclear facilities Safety board said the Los Alamos lab will reach its maximum capacity for storing the waste sometime in the federal fiscal year that begins in fall 2016.
The WIPP was initially slated to reopen in March 2016, but over the summer the U.S. Department of Energy indefinitely delayed the opening.
Recently, however, energy secretary Ernest Moniz recently said the facility is on track to open by late 2016.
___
Information from: Albuquerque Journal.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.