News
News Releases Employees, community leaders line up to testify at LANL waste hearing
Commenters include county councilors, Lab retirees, current employees
Charlie McMillan, Principal Associate Director for the Weapons Program, makes a comment at LANL's hazardous waste permit hearing Friday.
Apr. 26, 2010—Dozens of commenters, from Los Alamos County Councilors and a state representative to Lab retirees and a LANL principal associate director, spoke out at the New Mexico Environment Department's hearing for the Lab's hazardous waste permit Friday.
Friday's session was held at UNM-Los Alamos.
The hearing closed its third week of testimony, focusing again Friday on restoring the provisions of the permit that allow the Lab to safely burn high explosive residues from national security research and training.
Prinicipal Associate Director of the Weapons Program Charlie McMillan told the hearing officer that open burning is the most environmentally safe method of dealing with the waste, and said it supports missions critical to national security and troops overseas.
The hearing is expected to end on May 6th.
Commenter Carl Thornton holds a framed picture of New Mexico soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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