Los Alamos National Lab has suspended indefinitely its periodic release of information about radioactive waste dump Area G.---
At the LANL Forum for Environmental Education and Dialog last night, Sarah Wolters, coordinator for the online environmental database for LANL with the New Mexico Community Foundation, announced that NMCF got a discouraging call last Friday from the lab. LANL reps were scheduled to speak at the meeting last night about possible plans for remediating Area G, the hazardous waste dump at LANL where radioactive waste continues to be deposited. Area G contains about 10.8 million cubic feet of radioactive waste.
"We got a call from the lab saying they couldn't present on that topic at this meeting, or at future meetings for the time being," Wolter told the assembled members of the public last night. "Not just Area G, but any Consent Order-related topic."
The Consent Order is the agreement between the state and LANL finalized in 2005 that sets deadlines for cleanup of the lab's waste sites.
Wolter said the state Environment Department is saying the Consent Order needs to updated.
National Nuclear Security Agency spokeswoman Tony Chiri did attend the meeting, and said the holdup relates to updating the Consent Order based on Gov. Susana Martinez' "environmental priorities."
To learn more about the current state of LANL remediation efforts, check out SFR's cover story on Nov. 2.
