LANL Faulted for not Cleaning Up
by Diana Heil, August 20, 2004
Two Los Alamos National Laboratory workers were exposed to plutonium last year while handling a deteriorated package of rags during an inventory.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy inspector general cited this case in saying the health of other lab workers is at stake, because the lab is far behind schedule in stabilizing radioactive materials. Further, the lab's repeated delays are costing taxpayers $78 million more than planned, according to the audit report, with the total project escalating to $183 million.
Under the original plan, LANL was supposed to stabilize radioactive materials by 2002. Now, the deadline has been pushed to 2010.
Plutonium metals, oxides and residues at Technical Area 55 -- the lab's main plutonium vault -- are kept in containers the report says are not acceptable for long-term storage. "As such, there is the possibility that the containers could leak and workers could be exposed to radiation, resulting in serious health consequences," the inspector general's report said.
But it's possible employees haven't accomplished all the tasks because Los Alamos lab didn't have enough money for the scope of the project. The inspector general blamed the problem in part on inadequate DOE funding.
"The (Energy) Department had not made the effort a priority," the inspector general's report said, noting that Los Alamos received only 58 percent of the funding it requested between 1997 and 2002, and only 78 percent of what it requested in 2001 and 2002.
The Energy Department has since increased funding to Los Alamos for stabilizing materials, and the project should be funded fully through 2010.
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., long instrumental in getting funding for the lab, was in Albuquerque on Thursday to have a U.S. federal courthouse named after him and couldn't review the audit until today, according to a spokesman for the senator.
In 1994, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board told numerous DOE sites to stabilize their dangerous materials. The safety board is an agency Congress established in 1988 to provide oversight of the nuclear-weapons complex.
Like Los Alamos, Rocky Flats in Colorado and Savannah River Site in South Carolina missed the 2002 deadline, but only by one to four years. LANL stands out, according to the report.
Twice, DOE extended LANL's completion date. However, the safety board disagreed with the revised schedules, because the work was not accelerated. "It should be noted that Los Alamos is the only (DOE) site that has not reached agreement with the board on an acceptable plan," according to the inspector-general report.
Even the new goal of 2010 might not be realistic. The inventory count was short by 155 containers, according to the report.
LANL management failed to set milestones or define the project clearly, according to the report. On the other hand, DOE put performance measures and incentives in its contract with Savannah River Site, but didn't do the same for Los Alamos, according to the report.
Michael Kane, an associate administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration, didn't argue with the findings, but in July, he wrote a letter to the inspector general that said: "While the auditors are correct the laboratory is behind schedule is some areas, they have exceeded scheduled expectations in other areas."
Of 5,718 items slated for repackaging or disposal, 1,403 had been handled as of last Sept. 30.
"Basically, the information there stands," LANL spokeswoman Nancy Ambrosiano said of the report Thursday.
Some of the material is waste, some has experimental uses, and some can be tapped as fuel for nuclear reactors, she said. "It's not that this is a repository of useless material," Ambrosiano said.
As for the health of the two workers exposed to plutonium last year, the Energy Department fined the lab $770,000, according to the Associated Press.
Originally published in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Learn more :: Article Archives :: LANL faulted for not cleaning up |
