KRWG News – CARLSBAD, N.M. (KRWG) The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking bids to continue hauling nuclear waste to a federal nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico.
Trucks carry the waste in specially designed trailers to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad from Energy Department sites around the nation.
The contract is estimated at $80 million to $100 million over five years.
Contractors must turn in their proposals by May 17.
The two current carrier contracts expire next year, in March 2012 and September 2012.
The repository receives 20 to 35 contact-handled waste and five remote-handled waste shipments a week.
It buries defense-related radioactive waste in rooms mined from an ancient salt formation 2,150 feet below the desert floor.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. KRWG