The federal government has awarded a $3 billion contract to a management group led by Bechtel National Inc. to oversee the only underground nuclear waste repository in the U.S.
Watchdog groups have been pushing for years for a change at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico.
They cited a 2014 fire and radiation release that forced a nearly three-year closure and an overhaul of the policies and procedures that govern cleaning up of Cold War-era waste from nuclear weapons research and bomb making.
The current contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, is scheduled to turn over operations to Virginia-based Tularosa Basin Range Services LLC by the end of September.