EM Senior Advisor Ike White, third from right, finishes his tour of the EM-Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) legacy cleanup sites with, from left, EM Acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs Jay Mullis; EM Headquarters EM-LA Site Liaison Beth Lisann; EM-LA Office of Completion Project Delivery Director Dave Nickless; EM-LA Field Manager Michael Mikolanis; Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) President Kim Lebak; and N3B Vice President and Executive Officer Joe Legare. Courtesy/EM
EM Senior Advisor Ike White, left, observes preparations underway to implement a processing line that allows the removal of liquids from drums containing transuranic (TRU) waste. Removal of liquids will enable the acceptable shipment of these TRU waste drums to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for permanent disposal. Completing 30 shipments of TRU waste from Los Alamos to WIPP is an EM 2022 priority. Also pictured from left are EM Los Alamos Field Office Field Manager Michael Mikolanis and Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos Waste Processing Operators Nico Randall and Dale Salazar. Courtesy/EM
EM News:
EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White visited the EM Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) Feb. 8-9 to tour key projects underway to address the cleanup from Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) legacy operations.
White and EM Acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs Jay Mullis toured with staff members from EM-LA and its cleanup contractor, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos.
They received briefings on work to ship legacy waste offsite, protect water quality, remediate contaminated soil and debris, and decontaminate and demolish historical LANL buildings.
EM Senior Advisor William “Ike” White, far left, receives a briefing on a campaign to retrieve 158 metal pipes — similar in appearance to culverts — filled with cemented radiologically contaminated wastewater treatment sludge. Buried underground, the pipes are 20 feet long, 30 inches in diameter and weigh about 14,000 pounds each. Crews will use a hydraulic shear to cut the pipes into segments suitable for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where they will be permanently disposed. Also pictured are, from left, EM Acting Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory and Policy Affairs Jay Mullis, Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) TA-54 Facility Operations Director Gail Helm and N3B TA-54 Maintenance and Work Control Director John Martinez. Courtesy/EM
EM Senior Advisor Ike White receives a briefing from Ellen Gammon, the Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos (N3B) transuranic waste management director, on legacy waste stored at Technical Area 54 and slated for offsite shipment. Since N3B’s contract inception in April 2018, 418 cubic yards of transuranic waste have been shipped offsite for permanent disposal — the equivalent of about 1,690 55-gallon drums of waste. Courtesy/EM
EM Senior Advisor Ike White, right, is briefed on progress to control migration of a plume contaminated with hexavalent chromium in groundwater beneath the LANL site. The EM-Los Alamos Field Office is conducting interim remediation measures to control plume migration until a final remedy is agreed upon with the New Mexico Environment Department. As part of that measure, the plume has been pushed back 500 feet from LANL’s boundary with Pueblo de San Ildefonso, and Los Alamos County water supply wells have been protected. At left is Danny Katzman, groundwater remediation program manager for Tech2 Solutions, a subcontractor to the Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos Water Program. Courtesy/EM