Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
NNSA, an agency within DOE, proposes to replace the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Building at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The CMRR EIS examines the potential environmental impacts associated with the Proposed Action of consolidating and relocating the mission-critical CMR capabilities from a degraded building to a new modern building(s). The existing CMR Building, constructed in the early 1950s, houses most of LANL's analytical chemistry and materials characterization AC and MC capabilities. Other capabilities at the CMR Building include actinide processing, waste characterization, and nondestructive analysis that support a variety of NNSA and DOE nuclear materials management programs. In 1992, DOE initiated planning and implementation of CMR Building upgrades to address specific safety, reliability, consolidation, and security and safeguards issues. Later, in 1997 and 1998, a series of operational, safety, and seismic issues surfaced regarding the long-term viability of the CMR Building. Because of these issues, DOE determined that the extensive upgrades originally planned would be much more expensive and time consuming and of only marginal effectiveness. As a result, DOE decided to perform only the upgrades necessary to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the CMR Building through 2010 and to seek an alternative path for long-term reliability. The CMRR EIS evaluates the potential direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impacts associated with the Proposed Action. The Proposed Action is to replace the CMR Building. The Preferred Alternative is to construct a new CMRR Facility at Technical Area (TA) 55, consisting of two or three buildings. One of the new buildings would provide space for administrative offices and support functions. The other building(s) would provide secure laboratory spaces for research and analytical support activities. The buildings would be expected to operate for a minimum of 50 years. Tunnels could be constructed to connect the buildings. Alternative 2 would be to construct the new CMRR Facility within an undeveloped ''greenfield'' area near TA-55 at TA-6. Alternatives 3 and 4 would be to continue using the existing CMR Building for administrative offices and support functions with the implementation of minimal necessary structural and system upgrades and repairs, together with the construction of new nuclear laboratory building(s) at either TA-55 or TA-6. The EIS also presents an analysis of impacts associated with the dispositioning of all or portions of the existing CMR Building.
- Research Organization:
- U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of NEPA Policy and Assistance (EH-42) (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 823235
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/EIS-0350; TRN: US0401995
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 21 Nov 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ACTINIDES
CHEMISTRY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
IMPLEMENTATION
METALLURGY
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PROCESSING
RELIABILITY
SAFEGUARDS
SAFETY
SECURITY
VIABILITY
WASTES
EIS
LOS ALAMOS
NM
CMRR