LOS ALAMOS — Amid concerns from regulators over hazardous waste and contamination, a new report says the Los Alamos National Laboratory will stop disposing low-level radioactive waste at its largest waste disposal area by October 2017.
A recently released annual environmental report said the lab will end on-site radioactive waste disposal at the storage compound known as “Area G.” The Los Alamos Monitor reports that Area G is the lab’s largest disposal area.
“The strategy for both low-level radiological waste and mixed low-level waste is to minimize its generation and to dispose of all newly generated waste off-site. No new, on-site disposal capacity will be developed,” the report said.
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The project began in early June 2016 and focused on completing sampling and cleanup of contaminated soil associated with former outfalls and surface disposal sites from the Manhattan Project, the 1940s project that developed the first atomic bomb.
About 133 cubic yards of soil was excavated, bagged, screened, and transferred to a waste staging area, according to a news release. The resulting waste was then transported off-site for final disposition at a disposal facility in Utah.
Read more at Report: Los Alamos to end radioactive on-site waste disposal
