Radioactive contamination is more widespread than first thought along a road outside the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED).
The area is part of a tract of land, which includes the site of a planned housing development, transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County a few years ago after it was deemed fully remediated.
In a June 17 letter, NMED called for the Energy Department to expedite its response to the problem, and draft a preliminary screening plan (PSP) for further contamination within 30 days. Even though the land has been transferred to Los Alamos County, the local government says DOE and its contractors still bear responsibility for remediating any lingering contamination.
The Energy Department should deliver a plan that shows it “understands the seriousness of this matter,” NMED Hazardous Waste Bureau Chief Kevin Pierard said in the letter to the top DOE Office of Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration officials at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
During a June 8 meeting of federal and state managers, DOE agreed to produce a screening plan, which would include soil sampling around a 28-acre site transferred from LANL to Los Alamos County in 2016. The Energy Department said the plan would be ready “as soon as practicable,” but that probably won’t be until 2021, Pierard wrote.
“The widespread waste at the Site represents a substantial risk to human health and the environment,” Pierard said. The state agency should know the reason for any delays and “why this important risk to public health is not being addressed in a more timely manner,” he added.
Debris contaminated by uranium and plutonium was unearthed in February by a contractor for the county digging up an old sewer line for a planned low-income housing development. The contamination was discovered in the vicinity of a former material disposal area and was placed into two drums and taken to another location for study, officials said this spring.
Since February, additional waste was discovered during two additional excavations, Los Alamos County Manager Harry Burgess said in a Wednesday email.
