LANL Director Charlie McMillan

LANL News:

In a memo to employees Friday, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan announced that the Lab is implementing a number of measures aimed at supporting the Department of Energy’s objectives to reopen the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) repository near Carlsbad.

Among the actions are changes in its leadership responsible for managing the Lab’s environmental clean-up and transuranic waste operations. McMillan has asked Deputy Associate Director Enrique (Kiki) Torres to serve as acting lead for LANL’s Environmental Programs while the Lab works with DOE to develop a path forward. Four managers have been reassigned including Dan Cox, LANL deputy associate director of environmental programs; Jeff Mousseau, associate director of environmental programs; Kathy Johns-Hughes, director of the LANL TRU (transuranic waste) Program and Tori George, program director for regulatory management.

These actions come after a number of internal investigations and reviews since the February discovery of a leak underground at WIPP from a waste drum that originated at Los Alamos. Although the exact causes of the leak are still under investigation, have determined that these changes are necessary now as part of LANL’s continued recovery actions.

In addition, DOE has announced its intent to transition oversight of legacy environmental cleanup work from NNSA to DOE-EM.

“I have very few details on how this action will proceed, but I will continue to keep you updated. I will ensure that Los Alamos will do whatever is needed to ensure a smooth transition, and that includes maintaining safe and secure environmental program operations until the transition is complete. We are fully committed to working with the State of New Mexico and DOE throughout this process,” McMillan said in his memo. “It is time for us to be introspective and self-critical to ensure we fully learn from this event. In the coming days and weeks, we will be taking additional actions to ensure we address the underlying causes and strengthen our processes to prevent future upsets or events.“

Understanding the breached drum at WIPP continues to be a significant challenge to the Laboratory, he said. adding that he believes the Lan has its best people working on these issues.

“I ask for your continued support as we work through this recovery together,” McMillan said. “This is our obligation to the community, the state, and to our national security mission.“