Concerns persist about pace of cleanup at US nuclear lab

Officials at one of the nation’s top nuclear weapons laboratories are reiterating their promise to focus on cleaning up Cold War-era contamination left behind by decades of research and bomb-making.

But New Mexico environment officials and watchdog groups remain concerned about the pace and the likelihood that the federal government has significantly understated its environmental liability at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The U.S. Department of Energy has been estimating that it will be 2036 before cleanup at the lab — which played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II — is complete. Federal officials acknowledged during a meeting Thursday night that the date hasn’t changed but they are reviewing whether new risks will boost the need for more funding and more time.

Michael Mikolanis, head of the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management at Los Alamos, addressed questions about a 2021 independent audit that found the agency’s liability for environmental cleanup topped more than a half trillion dollars for the last fiscal year and is growing. That includes understated liability at Los Alamos by more than $880 million.

Mikolanis confirmed that a recent review turned up new information that increased the liabilities for cleanup beyond what officials previously understood.

“Certainly can’t say yes or tell you no that the date is being changed but obviously with increased scope ... either we would need additional funding to do that or stretch out the dates,” he said. “We are currently evaluating that. We have made no decision.”

The DOE is facing a legal challenge by the state of New Mexico over setting and meeting the milestones of its current cleanup agreement with the state, which was signed in 2016. State officials found the federal government’s plan for the previous fiscal year to be deficient.