Nuclear weapons waste compacted, shipped out of Idaho

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - 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 (20,000 cubic meters) 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 Mound, Ohio, and sent to the Energy Department's 890-square-mile (2,305-square-kilometer) 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.