LANL cleanup report called unrealistic
Nuke Watch claims cost estimates are understated
SANTA FE — Nuclear Watch New Mexico says a highly touted new cost estimate for completing cleanup of decades’ worth of radioactive and hazardous waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory is based more on the likely stream of federal funding rather than the actual cost of dealing with the toxic materials.
Nuke Watch also said the report understates the amount of problem material on the lab campus by failing to note a huge quantity at LANL’s Area G waste dump that is likely to be “capped and covered” rather than removed.
The DOE’s Environmental Management Office in Los Alamos released a report last week that said it could take more than 20 years and nearly from $2.9 billion to $3.8 billion to finish cleanup of materials left over from nuclear weapons production in Los Alamos. It was the most detailed plan for remediating the lab’s so-called “legacy” waste.
But Nuke Watch, in a news release Wednesday, noted that the report itself says the cost of completing cleanup by between 2035 and 2040 is “based on realistic expectations of annual funding for the remaining work.” Federal cleanup appropriations have ranged from $225 million to $189 million in recent years. Nuke Watch director Jay Coghlan said the “realistic expectations” language is “code that this won’t be a comprehensive cleanup that would be far more expensive.”
“I think they’re trying to cap and cover the funding,” he said.
Nuke Watch also said the report is “far from honest” in saying that only 5,000 cubic meters of legacy waste remains. “It intentionally omits any mention of approximately 150,000 cubic meters of poorly characterized radioactive and toxic wastes just at Area G,” Nuke Watch said.
The report says Area G wastes are expected to be dealt with using an “engineered cover” which Nuke Watch says would leave wastes permanently buried above the regional aquifer and uphill from the Rio Grande.
The report became public via a Santa Fe city government news release in which Mayor Javier Gonzales called it “the first and most comprehensive release of specific plans to complete the cleanup of legacy waste at LANL, and is a big step forward for the people in these communities who want to see a concrete commitment to making progress.” Santa Fe is part of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, which pushes for more cleanup funding and resulting contracts for local firms.
Wednesday, City Hall provided a statement from the mayor saying, “I believe this has to be a public process, and obtaining and publishing this report was the first step. For the first time, a thorough public vetting is possible. So I look forward to continued input and participation from Nuke Watch, other interested groups, and the public at large.” Journal efforts to get comment from DOE and its local Environmental Management Office were unsuccessful.