Move Comes After Lab Misses ‘3,706 Campaign’ Deadline

Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
7/3/2014

The New Mexico Environment Department is denying requests to extend 21 legally enforceable cleanup deadlines at Los Alamos National Laboratory after the Department of Energy failed to meet a high-profile transuranic waste disposition target. “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,” NMED said in its notifications to Los Alamos, dated between June 6 and June 25.

The notifications were required as the lab had linked the extension requests to the now-suspended transuranic waste campaign. Violations of New Mexico’s consent order with Los Alamos could potentially trigger penalties of $1,000 per day for the first month and $3,000 per day if the violations continue beyond 30 days. However, the state is waiting to see the results of the investigation into the incidents earlier this year that led to the ongoing shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and the role Los Alamos may have played in the events. “Actions and or potential actions have yet to be determined,” said NMED spokesman Jim Winchester.

DOE and LANL had agreed with the state to remove all 3,706 cubic meters of aboveground transuranic waste at Los Alamos by the end of June. That 2012 deal was 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 had long said it will not be able to meet. The 3,706 campaign effort was proceeding largely ahead of schedule until it hit major roadblocks this year when shipments to WIPP were suspended indefinitely following a radiation release there in February.

WIPP Shutdown Stymied Los Alamos Campaign

After the WIPP shutdown, state officials and DOE remained adamant that they would do everything possible to remove the waste from Los Alamos by the end of June. As a result, shipments started in April for temporary storage of the LANL waste at Waste Control Specialists’ disposal site in Texas. But those were halted in early May after a Los Alamos drum was suspected of being the source of the WIPP release, and the investigation continues into how the incident occurred. In early June the Department officially notified NMED that it would not be able to meet the highly touted June 30 date. Soon after, NMED began notifying the lab that it will not continue extending some cleanup deadlines.

Many of the extension requests involve work that was linked to milestones up for renewal June 30, meaning that LANL may have missed those milestones already. The numerous extensions cover general remediation work and groundwater remediation work and plans due for cleanup of various areas of the Lab. LANL declined to comment this week, while DOE did not respond to a request for comment.

NMED has the option to asses financial penalties if it chooses through a compliance order seeking civil penalties, and could also choose to file an action seeking criminal penalties. In late May, NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn emphasized last that “there will be consequences” for not meeting the 2015 deadline for LANL cleanup. “I’m not prepared to say what the consequences will be at the moment, but I will say very clearly that when the Department of Energy agrees to clean up an area in our state by a certain date and they fail and create expectations in the citizens of our state who believed that they were going to successfully remediate the site in 10 years and they fail to achieve that goal I think there must consequences for failing,” he told WC Monitor.  

Activist Group: We Salute NMED

The group Nuclear Watch New Mexico has 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.