November 15, 2015

NMED Calls Out DOE?s Cost Estimate for LANL Cleanup

By ExchangeMonitor

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on Thursday knocked the Energy Department’s recent $1.2 billion cost estimate for remaining cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as “too low," “NMED and DOE need to develop a new schedule to secure the increased funding necessary for remediation,” according to a briefing slide from the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board meeting in Pojoaque.

According to a story by The Associated Press, state Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn “called on everyone involved to ‘have an honest conversation about the extent of the problem’ as the State of New Mexico and DOE work on revising a 2005 agreement that said the cleanup should be finished by” 2015.

EM in September awarded Los Alamos National Laboratory management and operations contractor Los Alamos National Security a one-year cost-plus-award-fee “bridge” contract with a maximum value of $309.8 million and two additional six-month options. Whenever the bridge ends, DOE will have separate contracts for management and operation and legacy nuclear cleanup at Los Alamos. DOE has not officially announced the expected length of the LANL cleanup contract.

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