Watchdogs push New Mexico to limit US nuclear waste dump

  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — State environmental regulators are reviewing an application from the federal government to renew its permit to operate the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico. It will be next year before a final decision made, but watchdog groups raised concerns with state lawmakers during a meeting Wednesday. They say the U.S. Energy Department wants to make operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant open-ended, removing any reference in the permit to 2024 as the date when closure and decommissioning were supposed to start. They say allowing the change will mark another step toward solidifying New Mexico as the nation's dumping ground for nuclear waste.