The Department of Energy has changed the agency responsible for waste cleanup at Los Alamos National Laboratory and will hire a different contractor to handle the work.
The decision comes after a February leak inside New Mexico's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant blamed on a chemical reaction in material packed at LANL. In a statement reported by the Albuquerque Journal, the Department of Energy confirmed an earlier report in a trade publication that the DOE's Office of Environmental Management will take over LANL waste cleanup from the National Nuclear Security Administration. Additionally, the lab's director reassigned at least four managers with positions related to the packaging of waste.
Los Alamos National Security – a consortium of Bechtel National, Babcock & Wilcox, URS Corp. and the University of California – holds the contract to operate LANL. Weapons Complex Monitor reported that the DOE is soon expected to announce another contract specifically to handle the waste.