June 29, 2014

New Mexico Denies Extension of Los Alamos Cleanup Deadlines

By ExchangeMonitor

The New Mexico Environment Department is denying requests to extend 21 legally enforceable cleanup deadlines at Los Alamos National Laboratory after it failed to meet its high-profile transuranic waste removal target. LANL late last week posted 14 NMED notifications here that state that New Mexico has denied the lab’s requests to extend cleanup deadlines, while NMED says it has denied 21 extensions so far. “NMED has granted extensions based on the Permittees’ need to divert resources to remove transuranic waste in accordance with the Framework Agreement. Based on the Permittees’ statement that they will not be able to meet the deadlines that they committed to in the Framework Agreement the request is hereby denied,” according to the notifications, which are dated between June 6 and June 18.

The Department of Energy had agreed with the state to remove all 3,706 cubic meters of aboveground transuranic waste at LANL by the end of June. The deal is part of a framework agreement meant to open up renegotiations of numerous LANL cleanup milestones under a 2005 consent order with New Mexico, which DOE has long said it will not be able to meet. However, the shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant following the February radiation release and the discovery of numerous suspect waste drums at LANL has put the transuranic waste campaign on hold indefinitely. Many of the extension requests involve work that was tied to milestones due this June. That includes groundwater remediation work and plans for cleanup of various areas of the Lab. It is unclear how the Department, NMED and LANL will proceed moving forward. NMED and LANL declined to comment over the weekend, while DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The group Nuclear Watch New Mexico on Friday called attention to NMED’s denial of the requests. “After granting more than one hundred extension requests to delay cleanup, we salute the New Mexico Environment Department for denying further requests. We encourage NMED to enforce what it already has, and make LANL comply with its legally mandated cleanup order. This in turn will drive increased federal funding for genuine cleanup at the Lab, creating hundreds of jobs while permanently protecting our precious water and environment,” Jay Coghlan, the group’s president, said in a statement.

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