The Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office’s (EM-LA) Solid Waste Stabilization and Disposition Project Team is dedicated to packaging, shipping and disposing legacy waste – low-level, mixed low-level, and transuranic (TRU) waste – from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The most challenging legacy waste at LANL is TRU, which is currently stored at Area G, located on a mesa 1.3 miles north of the residential community of White Rock and about 600 feet west of the Pueblo de San Ildefonso boundary with LANL. Opened in the late 1950s, Area G is the primary facility at LANL that characterizes and remediates TRU waste.

Image of Waste Containers in Area G.

TRU waste is stored in various containers (primarily in 55-gallon drums) above-ground in fabric-sprung structures. A top environmental priority of the Department of Energy and the state of New Mexico is the safe and efficient removal of the remaining TRU waste stored above-ground at Area G. EM-LA is dedicated to achieving this goal while ensuring the protection of the public, workers and the environment.

Additionally, legacy TRU waste will be retrieved from below-ground at Area G and will require processing, re-packaging, and certification for shipment.

 

Image of Workers at the Glove Box in WCRRF.

The entire waste disposition program is considered a campaign, while the retrievals and above-ground TRU waste processing and shipping are considered activities.

Please read the TRU Waste Management at Area G fact sheet for more information on legacy waste management at Area G, including the current status of efforts to remediate and ship waste offsite.

You can also learn more about EM-LA’s legacy waste management activities by downloading related presentations EM-LA has provided to the public on our Presentations page.

Fact Sheets