The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) will hold a meeting on Jan. 9 to explore continuing cleanup issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, under the 2016 Compliance Order on Consent governing remediation of Cold War weapons production at the Department of Energy site.
The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. MT at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos campus on University Drive, NMED said in a Dec. 23 press release. This session on environmental monitoring and oversight at LANL is one in a series of quarterly meetings organized by the state agency.
“The Los Alamos community asked for this discussion on the Los Alamos Laboratory Consent Order and we listened,” NMED Secretary James Kenney said in the release.
Stephanie Stringer, director of the state agency’s Resource Protection Division, said NMED wants to know what is working, what is perceived to not be working, what isn’t working for stakeholders.
Speaking at a Dec. 16 meeting in Los Alamos on consent order milestones for legacy waste cleanup at the lab, Stringer said the information gathered will help NMED make an informed decision for the next step, whether it’s continue with the Consent Order or think about other options that might be on the table.
“Rather than just hearing that the 2016 consent order has issues, we want to fully grasp and understand what those issues are to make that informed decision for the path forward under this administration,” she said.
The 2016 consent decree revamped a prior 2005 agreement between DOE and the state covering environmental remediation at the nearly 35-square mile property. It reduced emphasis on hard cleanup deadlines in favor of remediation “campaigns,” which include some ancillary remediation. The prior system’s hard deadlines were frequently missed anyway due to funding limits, supporters of the updated agreement say. Various public interest groups and some elected officials in New Mexico criticized the new order as too weak.
At the outset of last month’s meeting, Stringer noted that the consent order allows for revisions to the cleanup milestones, targets, and campaigns. Those revisions are based on factors such as the progress made in the remediation program as a result of changing conditions, risk, and funding.
Cleanup milestones and targets for each federal fiscal year are finalized after the Energy Department receives its annual appropriation. That allows the federal agency and its state regulator, NMED, to determine what is possible based on the available funding. A public meeting is held at that point to discuss progress in cleanup, the facilities change conditions, and funding levels, Stringer said.
“During each planning process the DOE is required to provide us with an estimated date as to when all work in the consent order will be completed. It is my understanding that the date did not change with this year’s update and will remain 2036 for the final completion date,” she said.
As of 2016, the total cost of cleanup at the storied nuclear-weapon lab was $2.9 billion to $3.8 billion.
For federal fiscal 2019, 17 remediation milestones were completed as planned, including ongoing interim measures to contain a chromium plume below the lab site and reconfigurations for a number of wells. Well reconfiguration usually refers to updates such as changing the depth from which water samples are being drawn for contaminant analysis, or changing the equipment set-up in the drill pipe.
Stringer said NMED granted extensions for two milestones. If appropriate, they will become new milestones for the current fiscal 2020.
In one case, the Westbay Wells Reconfiguration Completion Report for seven wells was not completed but NMED agreed to a well completion report covering five wells and placing the reports for the other two wells on the fiscal 2020 list of milestones. The state agency fined DOE $58,000 for missing the deadline on this milestone.
“We’re trying to be very thoughtful and fair in our regulatory oversight and hold LANL accountable for their responsibilities,” Stringer said.
Seventeen milestones were selected for fiscal 2020, which began Oct. 1. Eight of these were based on fiscal 2019 targets, along with two modified milestones and seven new milestones.
The Chromium Interim Measure and Characterization Campaign takes up six of those milestones and the RDX Characterization Campaign has two milestones.
Energy Department Environmental Management Los Alamos (EM-LA) Field Office Manager Doug Hintze, speaking after Stringer, noted several accomplishments during fiscal 2019.Those included 16 shipments of transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad. Ultimately, DOE needs to send 700 shipments from LANL to the disposal site.
Hintze addressed the milestone for the Westbay Wells Reconfiguration Report, saying EM-LA learned a lot from that process. He said there were seven old wells to reconfigure and they were all put in one milestone. Two of them were in such bad condition that they were effectively put aside. Refurbishment of the other five wells was not finished until 30 days after the due date, leading to the $2,000 daily fine from NMED. The five wells were finished within the additional 30 days and the reports provided to NMED, Hintze said.
Cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) is paying the fine, Hintze said in response to a question from Scott Kovac, operations and research director for the advocacy group Nuclear Watch New Mexico.
The two remaining wells will be dealt with in the current fiscal year. Hintze said EM-LA is still trying to figure out their reconfiguration.
Hintze noted that two shipments of waste a week are being sent from the lab to WIPP. He said EM-LA wants to increase that to three to four shipments per week, covering legacy material and waste generated after 1999 by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) operations at Los Alamos.
“We to make sure we have optimum loads going down to WIPP. A shipment is three Tru-Pacs, which can hold 42 drums. You are limited by weight and by how much fissile material is in there,” he said. “Right now we’re shipping drums that have been grouted so they are very heavy and a shipment is limited to 25.8 drums. Combining with the NNSA to get the full 42 drums sent with each shipment.”
During public comments, Nuclear Watch New Mexico Executive Director Jay Coghlan said DOE claims cleanup is more than half complete at Los Alamos. He asked Stringer what NMED’s position is on DOE’s claim. Stringer said she could not answer that question as far as percentage goes but that the regulatory components are being met.
Hintze responded that 950 contaminated sites on the lab property remain, down from 2,100 locations at the outset of cleanup. He stressed, thought, that this covers the number of sites rather than the volume of work remaining.
“We’re not trying to hide anything but that’s exactly the statement and you’re exactly right. There’s some harder stuff that we have to clean up and sometimes you want to start with cleaning up the easier stuff so that you can learn and then apply it to some of the more difficult stuff,” he said.
In conversation with Coghlan, Hintze said EM-LA is working on a new life-cycle cost estimate for remediation at Los Alamos. He expects that document to be submitted to DOE headquarters for approval in March.
The New Mexico Environment Department in fiscal 2019 cited both Los Alamos lab operator Triad National Security and N3B for violation of state permit regulations, For example, Triad in September incorrectly listed about 250 waste drums as still being at LANL after they had been shipped to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
