N.M. REP. LUJAN PRESSES DOE OFFICIALS ON INCREASED CLEANUP FUNDING

New Mexico Rep. Ben Lujan (D) took advantage of a hearing the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held yesterday on last summer’s security breach at Y-12 to press senior Department of Energy officials on the need for increased cleanup funding for sites in his state. Lujan called on DOE to ensure that proposals to ship tank waste from Hanford deemed to be transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, now under consideration, do not adversely impact efforts to complete transuranic waste cleanup activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “I don’t want to see a slowing down or decrease in funding in environmental management funding. If anything it should be increased to allow more rapid cleanup, especially in Los Alamos,” Lujan told Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman and acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller.