What we do
Working to protect the environment for the future
Environmental Remediation
We identify, characterize, monitor and remediate contaminated groundwater, surface water, and waste sites.
Waste Management
We manage, characterize, package and ship waste offsite for permanent disposal.
Fiscal Year 2020 End of Year Report
We met all Consent Order milestones and accomplished several project performance goals in support of cleaning up legacy waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Environmental Remediation
A major part of the Los Alamos Legacy Cleanup Contract is cleaning up areas of contamination, which includes the demolition of facilities and remediation of sites associated with past LANL operations.
The sites may be small, one-time spill areas or large Material Disposal Areas, where contaminated materials were disposed during the Manhattan Project and Cold War years. N3B also monitors groundwater beneath LANL and controls the potential offsite migration of storm water.
The Chromium and Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX) projects are examples of efforts to monitor and, in some cases, remove contaminated materials from groundwater, while preventing offsite migration.
More information on many of the remediation projects managed by N3B is provided below. Additional material will be posted as it is available.
Chromium Project
Control migration of the chromium plume and reduce the plume footprint, while investigating the final remedy
Material Disposal Areas
Continue to protect the Northern New Mexico environment and water quality by managing and cleaning up Material Disposal Areas, where contaminated material from past LANL operations was disposed
Royal Demolition Explosive Project
Ensure RDX groundwater contamination from past LANL operations does not threaten human and environmental health
Technical Area 21
Clean up of TA-21, next to Los Alamos’ industrial area, to environmental standards while making the land available for other beneficial uses
Middle DP Road
N3B is investigating two Los Alamos County-owned land parcels to help ensure radioactively contaminated debris from former LANL activities will not be encountered during future development.
Waste Management Project
Most of the waste managed by N3B is contact-handled transuranic (TRU) waste generated during past laboratory operations and stored at Technical Area 54. N3B is responsible for retrieving, characterizing, packaging and shipping this waste for permanent disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the national TRU repository in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
N3B is also responsible for disposing of the waste it retrieves during the cleanup and remediation of waste sites or generates during sampling and monitoring or other remediation activities. Some of this waste may be TRU, and it will be shipped to WIPP for disposal. Hazardous or mixed waste will be shipped to licensed facilities for permanent disposal.
Descriptions of some of N3B’s waste management activities are provided below. Others will be posted as they are available.
TA-54 & Area G
Store, remediate and ship LANL legacy transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
N3BOutreach@em-la.doe.gov
Address
N3B Los Alamos
1200 Trinity Drive
Suite 150
Los Alamos, NM 87544
Phone
(505) 257-7690
Contact N3B
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