LAS VEGAS (AP) — Records show that a closed commercial radioactive waste dump that caught fire last weekend in southern Nevada had trouble over the years with leaky shipments and that oversight that was so lax that employees took contaminated tools and building materials home in the 1970s.
According to records obtained by The Associated Press, the facility had its license suspended for mishandling shipments about the same time that officials now say the material that exploded and burned was accepted and buried about 110 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Nevada now owns and oversees the 40-acre property.
State officials said they don't know yet what blew up.
The company that operated the facility said it was run under "different name and different ownership" at the time, and referred questions to the state.