DECADE LATER, LOS ALAMOS NUKES STILL UNSTABLE

It’s ten years later, and Los Alamos still hasn’t sta­blizied its most dan­ger­ous nuclear mate­ri­als. That’s the word today from the Energy Department’s Inspector General, Gregory Friedman. Here are some of the “high­lights” of his report:

* In 1994, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board rec­om­mended that the Department of Energy sta­bi­lize fis­sion­able and radioac­tive mate­ri­als at Los Alamos National Laboratory and at numer­ous other Department sites. The pur­pose of the Board’s rec­om­men­da­tion was to reduce safety and health risks to Department employ­ees and the pub­lic.
* Citing lit­tle progress at Los Alamos, in 2000, the Board reem­pha­sized the impor­tance of the sta­bi­liza­tion pro­gram and rec­om­mended that the Department accel­er­ate its sched­ule.
* Although the Department has made some progress in sta­bi­liz­ing the most haz­ardous fis­sion­able mate­ri­als, sta­bi­liza­tion has not been accel­er­ated to the level antic­i­pated.
* According to Los Alamos’ most recent Project Execution Plan, the mate­ri­als will not be com­pletely sta­bi­lized until 2010; a date well beyond the orig­i­nal pro­jected com­ple­tion date. The Department has also missed interim mile­stones and project tasks, which may delay the sta­bi­liza­tion effort beyond 2010.
* Unless the Department and Los Alamos place a higher pri­or­ity on sta­bi­liz­ing these mate­ri­als, radioac­tive mate­ri­als at the Laboratory may con­tinue to dete­ri­o­rate and neg­a­tively impact the safety and health of work­ers. Further, by extend­ing the sched­ule until 2010, the Department will incur an esti­mated $78 mil­lion in addi­tional costs to sta­bi­lize these dan­ger­ous mate­ri­als. Any delay beyond 2010 would exac­er­bate the situation.

August 19th, 2004 | Los Alamos and Labs | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.