An Albuquerque, N.M.-based watchdog group is dismissing a plan to move some 3 million gallons of radioactive waste from Washington state to New Mexico as a "bad, old idea that's been uniformly rejected on a bipartisan basis" in the past.
Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information says the transfer to the massive repository — called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant — near Carlsbad, N.M., is illegal.
The Department of Energy revealed the plan on Wednesday as part of an effort to deal with leaking tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The New Mexico environmental group said the state permit allowing the government to bury waste at the plant would not allow for shipments from Hanford, the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.
The Energy Department says the transfer wouldn't impact the safe operations of the New Mexico facility.