Los Alamos National Laboratory

Discussion about the LANL Consent Order has been rare in a public forum.

But this morning in Santa Fe, New Mexico Environment Department Secretary David Martin gave a presentation to the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities and he made one thing perfectly clear.

“NMED is not renegotiating the Consent Order,” Martin said.

So what is the Consent Order?

An Order of Consent between the New Mexico Environment Department and Los Alamos National Laboratory was signed on March 1, 2005. The Order provides the timetable and requirements for environmental cleanup of hazardous constituents for the laboratory. Following the schedule of the Order, the clean-up program will be completed by 2015.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will be in Santa Fe Thursday to conduct a public meeting and discuss seismic safety of the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The sessions will be from 1-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at the Santa Fe Convention Center, 201 Marcy Street.

The DNFSB is an independent agency in the executive branch of the U.S. government that oversees health and safety issues at defense nuclear facilities at LANL.

During the first session, the board will receive testimony on National Nuclear Security Administration actions to address Plutonium Facility seismic issues that lead to severe accident scenarios.

Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS) the prime contractor operating Los Alamos National Laboratory awarded three subcontracts to perform Formality of Operations Technical Services at the laboratory last week. 

These subcontracts will continue important ongoing work to insure operational readiness, and compliance with Department of Energy (DOE) directives and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Board (DNFSB) initiatives and recommendations.  

The Formality of Operations Program includes processes to maintain and improve best-practices in areas such as Conduct of Operations, Conduct of Engineering, Conduct of Maintenance, Conduct of Training, and implementation of the Safety Basis and Readiness Programs across LANL.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative announced today the signing of a cooperative agreement with NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC, to further the development of accelerator-based technology to produce molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) in the United States.
The cooperative agreement between NNSA and NorthStar, which totals $4.6 million and is funded under a 50 percent/50 percent cost-share arrangement, will accelerate the development of the NorthStar technology to produce Mo-99 without proliferation-sensitive highly enriched uranium (HEU). The agreement would also support the goal of ensuring a reliable domestic supply of this critical medical isotope for U.S. patients.