The closure derailed cleanup at federal sites around the nation and recovery is costing the Energy Department hundreds of millions of dollars. He thinks it could take several million dollars more and a few more years to fully reopen WIPP. The U.S. Department of Energy says it is 80 percent confident that the federal government's only underground nuclear waste repository will partly reopen in December. Don Hancock, a nuclear waste expert with the nonprofit Southwest Research and Information Center, is skeptical officials will make the December 2016 deadline. The report says the Energy Department also admitted in May 2015 that the pressure to meet the March 2016 deadline "contributed to poor safety practices in WIPP recovery efforts."

Source: ABC News August 06, 2016 18:11 UTC