DOE’s resumes suspended chromium plume work

The Department of Energy’s cleanup office has resumed its efforts to control a longstanding hexavalent chromium plume at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, local managers said last week.

Partial resumption of what DOE calls its “interim measure” started Sept. 30 with up to to 3 injection wells and 3 extraction wells, Jessica Kunkle, DOE Office of Environmental Management field boss for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, during an Oct. 24 public meeting on cleanup.

Under agreement with the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) chromium plume operations should be ramping up to an around-the-clock operation in coming weeks, Kunkle said.

In early 2023, NMED told DOE to stop injecting clean groundwater underground as a means to stabilize the plume.

Kunkle and Brad Smith, the president and general manager of cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear BWXT Los Alamos (N3B) both called the resumption a major development. There has been some increase in chromium levels since the work was suspended, the DOE and N3B managers said, adding they did not have exact numbers on hand.

Additionally, a joint state-federal task force led by former DOE nuclear cleanup manager Inés Triay, has finished its early draft of a report on addressing the hexavalent chromium plume, which should be finalized for public release by year’s end, Kunkle said.

The plume resulted from chemicals used to remove corrosion from cooling towers at a Los Alamos power plant between 1956 and 1972.

A video replay of the meeting is available online.