New Mexico rebukes federal department over Los Alamos legacy waste clean-up
The US state of New Mexico has issued a number of actions to formally rebuke the federal US Department of Energy for "failing to prioritise the cleanup of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s 'legacy waste'".
In a statement released on Wednesday 11 February, the New Mexico Environment Department argued that the continued presence of a large amount of "unremedied hazardous and radioactive waste" dating back to 20th-century nuclear weapons development programmes "demonstrates a longstanding lack of urgency by the US Department of Energy and elevates the risk of waste storage failures at Los Alamos National Laboratory".
The statement noted that legacy waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory and other such sites around the US is slated for disposal in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which has a capacity of 6.2 million cubic feet - approximately 175,600 cubic metres - of transuranic waste.
The facility is nearly half full, and yet the US Department of Energy says that as much as 500,000 cubic metres of legacy hazardous and radioactive waste remain at Los Alamos.
Aquifer pollution concerns
Today, Los Alamos is still producing plutonium bomb cores as part of a $1.7 trillion federal effort to modernise the nation’s nuclear weapons. However, this is being undertaken before all the legacy waste byproducts from the 20th century programmes have been properly mitigated, despite years of missed deadlines.
New Mexico environment secretary James Kenney said: "The US Department of Energy has failed to meet the Environment Department’s requirements to clean up legacy waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory and prioritise the disposal of such waste in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant."
"New Mexicans have stepped up to help solve the nation’s cleanup problem in a way that residents of no other state have. The US Department of Energy must prioritise their health and welfare by expediting cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory and ensuring there’s space for New Mexico’s legacy waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant."
In particular, the New Mexico Environment Department highlighted the US Department of Energy's proposal to leave an 11.8-acre landfill containing legacy waste buried in unlined pits at Los Alamos, located above the regional drinking water aquifer. This is rather than excavating the legacy waste and shipping it to the Water Isolation Pilot Plant, as per the New Mexico Environment Department’s recommendation.
In doing so, New Mexico argued that the US Department of Energy "is pursuing a cheaper and less effective solution that doesn’t address long-term safety concerns".
Enforcement actions against Department of Energy
The state subsequently issued three enforcement actions and one permit modification against the US Department of Energy. These included requiring them to submit documentation to support its request to defer the cleanup of the 11-acre landfill, almost $16m in fines for exceeding safe groundwater standards, and requiring explicit standards and metrics for the disposal of waste from Los Alamos.
Responding to the actions, a representative for the US Department of Energy said the agency was "committed to public safety, efficiency and transparency", and was reviewing the actions by the state regulators.
