Report cites serious violations that could each cost LANL fines of $10,000 per day
Posted Thursday, August 10, 2017 3:33 pm
By Rebecca Moss
The New Mexican
“Due to the nature of the violations listed above and LANL’s history of noncompliance with 20.4.1 NMAC [the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act], NMED will propose a civil penalty for these violations,” the state’s letter says, adding that the lab could incur fines of up to $10,000 per day for each violation that goes unremedied.
The violations are among a continuing stream of issues that have called into question the lab’s ability to operate safely. In recent months, the lab improperly labeled shipments of hazardous waste sent to Colorado and sent a drum of plutonium to laboratories in California and South Carolina by airplane rather than ground cargo, a violation of federal regulations that launched a U.S. Department of Energy investigation into the incident.
The problems also have called into question the lab’s ability to handle increasing quantities of plutonium to build the softball-sized atomic cores of nuclear weapons as part of a growing demand to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
http://www.taosnews.com/stories/lab-might-have-known-dangerous-waste-was-unmarked,42320
Posted Thursday, August 10, 2017 3:33 pm
By Rebecca Moss
The New Mexican
“Due to the nature of the violations listed above and LANL’s history of noncompliance with 20.4.1 NMAC [the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act], NMED will propose a civil penalty for these violations,” the state’s letter says, adding that the lab could incur fines of up to $10,000 per day for each violation that goes unremedied.
The violations are among a continuing stream of issues that have called into question the lab’s ability to operate safely. In recent months, the lab improperly labeled shipments of hazardous waste sent to Colorado and sent a drum of plutonium to laboratories in California and South Carolina by airplane rather than ground cargo, a violation of federal regulations that launched a U.S. Department of Energy investigation into the incident.
The problems also have called into question the lab’s ability to handle increasing quantities of plutonium to build the softball-sized atomic cores of nuclear weapons as part of a growing demand to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
http://www.taosnews.com/stories/lab-might-have-known-dangerous-waste-was-unmarked,42320
Comments
Charlie "GQ" McMillan
Does the NNSA absorb contractor fines just occasionally or most of the time?
Does the NNSA absorb contractor fines just occasionally or most of the time?
August 12, 2017 at 6:54 AM
NNSA set the precedent by paying the the State of New Mexico (for LANL) $54M fines as a result of the kitty litter/nitrate salt drums that were sent to WIPP. This incident is costing taxpayers a cool $2B to re-open WIPP as result of this. And the Laboratory Director behind this: KEPT HIS JOB! NNSA is protecting the LANL Laboratory Director, how can they justify this any longer?
Please provide a link that confirms the $2B re-open figure is directly attributable to the LANS mistake(s).
I was of the impression the figure was (still high) $500M.