BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

The Department of Energy’s Office of Enterprise Assessments’ Office of Enforcement’s has announced its decision to conduct an investigation into the facts and circumstances associated with a series of events between February and July of this year occurring in the Plutonium (PF-4)  Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A letter to LANL Director Thom Mason dated September 23 indicates that the investigation will focus on flooding of rooms that occurred within PF-4 on July 19 “and errors in conduct of operations and implementation of processes, procedures, and actions to protect workers and the public from recognized hazards associated with criticality and radiation”.

The Los Alamos Reporter reported on the July 19 spill – https://losalamosreporter.com/2021/08/06/lanl-conducts-fact-finding-on-july-19-200-gallon-water-spill-at-plutonium-facility-4/

Triad National Security, LLC reported potential noncompliances associated with these events into the DOE’s Noncompliance Tracking System and the Los Alamos Reporter has requested copies of the documents listed in the letter from DOE. The investigation will be conducted under the Code of Federal Regulations and will include on onsite visit and interviews with contractor personnel, the letter said.

The Reporter has requested a comment from Triad. Watch for updates to this story.