With LANL Transition Plan On the Way, NMED Urging DOE to Release All Non-Classified Material

Though Department of Energy officials say they may not publicly release the final plan for the management transition for cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico Environment Department is urging DOE to release all non-classified documents related to the transition. Following incidents earlier this year at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that were linked to waste processed at Los Alamos, DOE is currently finalizing plans for the transition of cleanup scope from the National Nuclear Security Administration to the Office of Environmental Management. “NMED will continue to push for all non-classified documents to be made available to the public related to the WIPP/LANL changes. The details of the transition plan have not yet been made available to NMED,” NMED spokesman Jim Winchester said this week in a written response.

 

Last week EM Assistant Secretary Mark Whitney said he didn’t know yet whether the plan would be publicly released. DOE may not release the full plan if it contains procurement-related information—a draft version of the plan obtained by WC Monitor was marked pre-decisional and not for public release, and it was stated to contain “source selection information.”