February 02, 2016

DNFSB Member Disputes Need for Public Hearing Over LANL Area G

By ExchangeMonitor

One member of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board thinks the group should not waste its time with a public hearing over the highly contaminated waste dump at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Area G, according to a voting record released Feb. 2.

The five-member DNFSB voted Friday to hold a public hearing about waste-handling at Area G, which was catapulted into the public consciousness after improperly sealed waste originating from the site caused a radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant some 300 miles south of the lab in Carlsbad, N.M.

The hearing will happen around March, a Department of Energy official said Jan. 27 at a meeting of the agency-chartered Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board.

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Sean Sullivan said he does not see the point of the hearing and bucked his four DNSFB colleagues in the Friday vote, disapproving of the hearing “because the proposed agenda focuses solely on the issue of waste management at LANL’s Area G. That issue, while important, is not the most significant issue at Los Alamos threatening the public health and safety.”

Sullivan’s brief comment, written on the voting record posted on DNFSB’s website, did not specify what the former naval officer considered the No. 1 public health hazard at the 73-year-old laboratory.

"I do not understand why after two years of improvements in the situation the Area G issue has suddently eclipsed all others of concern to DNFSB," Sullivan stated.

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