J5. WIPP Underground Vault. This waste-disposal room, excavated in 1986, was the first of 56 chambers to be excavated at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) site. It is 300 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 13 feet tall and can hold six thousand 55-gallon drums of transuranic waste. It lies 2,150 feet below the surface of the earth. Room 1 of Panel 1, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, New Mexico. 25 February 1994.
These photographs by Robert Del Tredici are protected by copyright and are available for purchase as high-quality digital prints on archival paper or as silver gelatin prints from bdeltredici@hotmail.com.