Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is a repository facility operated by US Department of Energy in United States. Its capacity is not publicly disclosed.
The only operating deep geological repository in the world, 650 metres down in a salt bed that creeps closed and self-seals around the waste. It matters here as proof that deep disposal is engineerable, but it holds defence transuranic waste, not the commercial spent fuel that the rest of this page is about, and the distinction is often lost in argument.
| Stage | Geological disposal |
|---|---|
| Operator | US Department of Energy |
| Country | United States |
| Capacity | not disclosed |
| Figure applies to | - |
| Note on the figure | Over 90,000 m³ of transuranic waste emplaced. Not spent fuel: WIPP takes defence transuranic waste only, and is legally barred from accepting commercial spent fuel or high-level waste. |
| Status | operating |
| Commissioned | 1999 |
| Coordinates | 32.3720, -103.7940 |
No disclosed capacity, so its share of world repository capacity cannot be stated.
US Department of Energy also operates:
- Savannah River Site HEU downblending (haleu)
- Idaho National Laboratory EBR-II downblending (haleu)
- Yucca Mountain (repository)
Other repository facilities
| Facility | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Wolsong LILW Disposal Center, Gyeongju | 800,000drums | operating |
| Konrad | 303,000m³ | construction |
| Yucca Mountain | 70,000tHM total | closed |
| Asse II | 47,000m³ | closed |
| Morsleben (ERAM) | 37,000m³ | closed |
| Onkalo | not disclosed | construction |
| Forsmark spent fuel repository (KBS-3) | not disclosed | construction |
| Cigéo | not disclosed | planned |
| Canadian deep geological repository | not disclosed | planned |
| Nördlich Lägern | not disclosed | planned |
| SFR, Forsmark | not disclosed | operating |
| Olkiluoto VLJ repository | not disclosed | operating |
| Loviisa VLJ repository | not disclosed | operating |
| Centre de l'Aube (CSA) | not disclosed | operating |
| El Cabril | not disclosed | operating |
| Low Level Waste Repository, Drigg | not disclosed | operating |
| Rokkasho LLW Disposal Center | not disclosed | operating |
| Bátaapáti National Radioactive Waste Repository | not disclosed | operating |
| Yeniseisky underground research laboratory, Krasnoyarsk | not disclosed | construction |
| Beishan underground research laboratory | not disclosed | construction |
Sources
- World Nuclear Association, Storage and Disposal of Radioactive Waste · retrieved 2026-09-06
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data