EDITORIAL: It’s Time to Separate Out Cleanup Work from Los Alamos, Other NNSA Sites

By Mike Nartker

This is an idea whose time has come at last: The Department of Energy needs to break out cleanup work at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other National Nuclear Security Administration sites under separate contracts managed by the Office of Environmental Management.

The Department’s national transuranic waste program has been brought to its knees in the wake of two incidents at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant that have forced the closure of the repository, stranded TRU waste at sites across the country, and sent ripples through repository planning efforts worldwide. The investigation has thus far focused on the role of a drum of TRU waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory, though the drum’s exact involvement in the WIPP release—and ultimately, the trigger for the overall event itself—remains unclear.

Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, it is clear that the new policies and procedures put in place in the wake of the WIPP incidents need to involve the Office of Environmental Management having a direct role in managing work at NNSA sites so critical to its overall mission. No longer should EM have to navigate the complex organizational and procedural web that surrounds interaction between the semi-autonomous NNSA and other DOE programs to oversee cleanup work. It remains to be seen how much the difficulties of overseeing the TRU waste work at Los Alamos contributed to the event itself, but as investigators untangle the root causes and chart a recovery path, an emphasis needs to be placed on removing artificial barriers to sound management.

It’s important that going forward—with the remaining cleanup work at Los Alamos, the upcoming rebid of the Nevada National Security Site and whatever cleanup work may emerge from Y-12—there is a clear line of accountability through EM for this work. Cleanup work needs to be managed by the cleanup program. It’s just that simple.

This is not a new concept. DOE has tried—or at least considered—breaking out cleanup work at Los Alamos at least three times since 2000, most recently in 2010. A Sources Sought notice for such a contract was issued in December 2002, but the Request for Proposals was never issued as cleanup work at the lab was slowed by disagreements between DOE and state regulators and a decision by DOE to make the National Nuclear Security Administration responsible for cleanup work at Los Alamos. NNSA tried again in 2004, pledging in the draft RFP for the LANL management contract that in Fiscal Year 2007, “cleanup will be de-scoped from this Statement of Work and will be performed by a NNSA Cleanup Contractor.” A separate cleanup contract never materialized, as cleanup work at the site under the new management contractor has been primarily performed by a series of task order contracts. The Department also examined such a move as part of a review of LANL cleanup work in 2010, but ultimately no change was made.

Yes, there are integration concerns. Yes, it will be difficult for the Department of Energy to manage another direct contractor at NNSA sites like Los Alamos. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. The performance of the cleanup mission is too critical to sites across the country. The time has come to make the change.