Alva Review-Courier -

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy has commissioned a national group of scientists to study the viability of diluting surplus weapons-grade plutonium and storing it permanently at the federal government's underground repository in New Mexico.

The panel of about 15 scientists from universities, corporations and laboratories around the nation will evaluate the storage potential at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation's only facility for permanently disposing of tons of Cold War-era waste contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other man-made radioactive elements....