March 16, 2001

On January 8, 2001, a leak of 6700 gallons of mineral oil was detected at the Atlas Facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The leak, caused by a failed gasket on a tank, seeped into the basement of the building and resulted in $1,800,000 of damage to experimental equipment in two collocated laboratories. The Accident Investigation Board concluded that LANL had not effectively implemented the Quality Assurance Program developed for the construction of the facility, nor had they adequately conducted a hazard analysis process that could have identified controls for the mitigation of such an occurrence.