HAZARDOUS WASTE; Los Alamos has trouble containing all its waste
239 words
2 November 2009
Greenwire
GRWR
English
© 2009 E&E Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the homes of the nation's nuclear weapons industry, has had trouble containing all of its waste, some of which has percolated through the region's fractured geology toward some drinking water sources.
This waste is not a health threat, officials say, though monitoring of water runoff in canyons that feed into the Rio Grande has found, at times, elevated concentrations of a rocket fuel ingredient and various radioactive byproducts of nuclear fission.
"We are seeing no human or ecological risk," said Danny Katzman, director of the lab's water stewardship program. "We won't be surprised on occasion to see a higher-than-normal reading. But those higher values last for 40 minutes during a flood, and maybe two hours out of a year."
CRESP Newstories and Links related to risk-based cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons production facility waste sites and cost-effective, risk-based management of potential future nuclear sites and wastes. CRESP seeks to improve the scientific and technical basis for environmental management decisions by the Department of Energy (DOE) and by fostering public participation in that search.
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Showing posts with label Los Alamos. Show all posts
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