BY ELLEN WALTON
White Rock
LANL has not disclosed full information to the public on the venting of tritium from waste containers at Tech Area G that is slated to start this weeked. The scheduled release at Tech Area G is due to LANL storage practices used in 2007 for Cold War Era waste which allowed gases to build pressure inside the waste containers. The problem has worsened to the point that the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has been forced to choose between two terrible choices: do nothing or vent in place, upwind of nearby White Rock residences.
On September 4, NMED sent Theodore Wyka of the NNSA and Steven Coleman of Triad National Security a letter found at this link on the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety website:
The letter was posted by LANL to the electronice reading room on Monday, September 8. The letter notes that the NMED is choosing what they believe to be the least dangerous solution, but it also states: “NMED reasserts its claim that the primary reason the Permittees requested a temporary authorization stems from the Permittees failure to properly manage hazardous waste at the time of generation followed by almost a 20-year disregard of compliance obligations under state laws and rules.”
The NMED scolds LANL in the letter, saying that the “Permittees failure to meaningfully engage with concerned individuals continues to erode the social license to operate by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Safety Administration, and Triad National Security, LLC. Moreover, the failed environmental management efforts by U.S. Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Safety Administration, and its contractors continue to detract from the advances in science and technology that is developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory.” The letter to concludes with the following statement: “Given the Permittees failure to comply with New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act and its regulations codified at 20.4.1 of the New Mexico Administrative Code, NMED reserves its right to commence a civil enforcement action pursuant to this matter.”
LANL sent limited information September 8 on this to the Santa Fe New Mexican, who published it on September 9 and to the Los Alamos Daily Post and the Los Alamos Reporter, who published it on September 8. LANL and NNSA have lately been avoiding true engagement with the public on huge issues like this that will be directly affecting the health and daily lives of nearby residents. I am grateful the NMED exists and has acted as a buffer to control environmentally dangerous practices at LANL. Without that agency, concerned citizens would have no where to turn.