* Officials of San Ildefonso Pueblo are
afraid that LANL will run out of money before their scheduled
cleanup program for nuclear waste from early projects is
complete.
Frank Brewer, San Ildefonso Pueblo council member was not
impressed by talk of ongoing studies of radiation pollution
containment. "Study all you want. But don't just study," he told
lab officials. "Pick it up, clean it up."
Scientists only recently acknowledged that plutonium and
other radioactive materials are traveling with rainstorm runoff
and snowmelt off Laboratory property , down the canyons of Los
Alamos toward San Ildefonso.
In October, the lab assigned a new manager to take charge of
the lab's $600 million-a-year program to deal with more than 700
remaining sites that are potential sources of pollution. LANL is
just starting to deal with the 256 worst dump sites that are
expected to use the most cleanup time and money.
Lab officials claim some sites are too large to excavate, and
propose to cap them with clay to prevent runoff, instead of
completing a full cleanup. Council member Frank Brewer
commented,
"Covering it up isn't getting rid of it... This contamination
wasn't here when Oppenheimer and his friends came here...it is
here today, and I'd like to see it gone,"
* CCNS would like to encourage the public
to attend the final EPA Public WIPP Hearings. The hearings will
be held in Santa Fe at the Harold Runnels Auditorium, 1190 St.
Francis Drive, at 3:00 p.m. --9:00p.m., January 8, and 9:00--
5:00p.m., January 9.
For more information, Call CCNS.
![](../graphix/rad.gif)
Back to News
Index