Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today announced that the Waste Isolation Pilot Project will receive $172 million to accelerate the completion of legacy transuranic waste shipments from a variety of sites.

“For the last decade, WIPP has served an extremely important role for the country.  This funding from the recovery package will ensure that legacy waste from various locations is properly stored,” Bingaman said.

“I applaud the Obama Administration for recognizing the great need for this funding to help accelerate cleanup efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory,” said Udall. “These funds will go a long way towards putting people to work improving the environmental and safety conditions at the lab.”

Congressman Harry Teague applauded the announcement.  “The Recovery funding that will go to WIPP will create hundreds of jobs in southeastern New Mexico and help jumpstart the economy in a responsible way,” said Teague.  “The work that WIPP does to prepare and store nuclear waste is a unique and vital asset to our nation.”

Bingaman and Udall had pressed for the inclusion of $6 billion in the recovery package for DOE’s environmental cleanup program.  The senators also announced $212 million from the cleanup program for Los Alamos National Laboratory.