Los Alamos National Laboratory Waste Management Program
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM (United States)
Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) waste management program is responsible for disposition of waste generated by many of the LANL programs and operations. LANL generates liquid and solid waste that can include radioactive, hazardous, and other constituents. Where practical, LANL hazardous and mixed wastes are disposed through commercial vendors; low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and radioactive asbestos-contaminated waste are disposed on site at LANL's Area G disposal cells, transuranic (TRU) waste is disposed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and high-activity mixed wastes are disposed at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) after treatment by commercial vendors. An on-site radioactive liquid waste treatment facility (RLWTF) removes the radioactive constituents from liquid wastes and treated water is released through an NPDES permitted outfall. LANL has a very successful waste minimization program. Routine hazardous waste generation has been reduced over 90% since 1993. LANL has a DOE Order 450.1-compliant environmental management system (EMS) that is ISO 14001 certified; waste minimization is integral to setting annual EMS improvement objectives. Looking forward, under the new LANL management and operating contractor, Los Alamos National Security (LANS) LLC, a Zero Liquid Discharge initiative is being planned that should eliminate flow to the RLWTF NPDES-permitted outfall. The new contractor is also taking action to reduce the number of permitted waste storage areas, to charge generating programs directly for the cost to disposition waste, and to simplify/streamline the waste system. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21294790
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-07497; TRN: US10V0324040980
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'07: 2007 Waste Management Symposium - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 25 Feb - 1 Mar 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France; 2 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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