News
News Releases Another dome down and one step closer to TA-54 closure
Dome 281 is the latest to fall
Heavy equipment removes the front section of Dome 281 at TA-54. Photos by Patricia Leyba.
September 28, 2010—Last Thursday, the Laboratory began demolishing Dome 281, a 4,100 sq. ft. metal and fabric dome at Technical Area 54.
It’s the next step in LANL's multi-year closure plan for TA-54, which must be complete by 2015 under the Consent Order cleanup agreement with the state of New Mexico. Removing the domes at TA-54 is also important to the San Ildefonso pueblo, whose sacred lands are just to the north of that mesa.
Easier access to buried waste
After weeks of preparation, demolition should be complete in just a few days. It’s the second dome LANL has taken down this year and the third in the last two years.
Removal of Dome 281 also will allow easier access to nearly 4,000 drums and boxes of buried, retrievable transuranic waste that must be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. Dome 281 formerly housed a compactor for low-level waste.
Removing the fabric reveals the metal skeleton.
Dome 281 formerly housed a low-level waste compactor.
Fast Facts
People
11,127 total employees
Los Alamos National Security, LLC 8,683
SOC Los Alamos (Guard Force) 419
Contractors 606
Students 1,101
Place
Located 35 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 36 square miles of DOE-owned property.
More than 2,000 individual facilities, including 47 technical areas with 8 million square feet under roof.
Replacement value of $5.9 billion
Budget FY 2012: Approx. $2.2 billion
57% Weapons programs
9% Nonproliferation programs
7% Safeguards and Security
8% Environmental Management
4% DOE Office of Science
4% Energy and other programs
11% Work for Others
Workforce Demographics (LANS and students only)
34% of employees live in Los Alamos, the remainder commute from Santa Fe,
Española, Taos, and Albuquerque.
Average Age: 46
70% male, 30% female
43% minorities
63% university degrees
· 23% hold undergraduate degrees
· 16% hold graduate degrees
· 24% have earned a Ph.D.
Major Awards
121 R&D100 awards since 1978
31 E.O. Lawrence Awards
The Seaborg Medal
The Edward Teller Medal
The Nobel Prize in Physics, Frederick Reines