"A top U.S. Energy Department official in southern New Mexico says the agency plans to close off part of the federal government's underground nuclear waste repository due to contamination and stability concerns.

Carlsbad Field Office manager Todd Shrader said during a public meeting Thursday that officials are considering plans to close the south end of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in phases.

He says barriers would be built to seal off the area from other parts of the underground complex, eliminating about 60 percent of the areas that were contaminated by a February 2014 radiation release."

The Associated Press had the story October 13, 2016. [2]