GENOA, WI (WTAQ) - An electric cooperative in western Wisconsin is wrapping up a five-year project to remove nuclear waste from its old reactor building to a storage pad with stronger cask holders.

The Dairyland Power Cooperative was planning to close Highway 35 at Genoa for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning, to move the last of five casks that were relocated this summer.

All told, about 120,000 pounds of waste from the cooperative’s former nuclear plant was moved from a storage pool in the reactor facility, where it’s been held for 25 years. The spent fuel is now in a steel and concrete casks at their own storage pad, where the waste can be held indefinitely at a much lower cost.

Dairyland said the project cost over $40 million.

Officials say the storage costs will be cut in half, and it will speed up the plant’s decommissioning process. The facility has been closed since 1987.