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RESOURCES
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WEB SITE MAP

In 1989, the US Department of Energy (DOE) created the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (ER/WM). The goal of this office is to implement the department's policy of ensuring that its past, present, and future operations do not threaten human or environmental health and safety. The Environmental Management (EM) Office was reorganized in 1999 to implement procedures to meet these goals through five underlying offices:

Office of Policy, Planning and Budget
Office of Integration and Disposition
Office of Site Closure
Office of Project Completion
Office of Science and Technology

The Office of Site Closure is responsible for achieving closure of sites in a manner which is safe, cost-effective and coordinated with stakeholders. This office has consolidated management of all cleanup for seven of DOE's EM field offices. As a facility operated for the DOE under the Albuquerque Operations Office, Sandia National Laboratory (SNL/NM) is part of this program.

SNL is managed and operated for the DOE by Sandia Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp. Prior to October 1993, Sandia Corporation was wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T Corporation. Sandia Corporation operates government-owned facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Livermore, California; Tonopah, Nevada; and Kauai, Hawaii.

SNL's primary mission is national security, with an emphasis on nuclear weapon development and engineering. In the process of carrying out this mission, SNL has evolved into multiprogram laboratories pursuing a broad range of national security issues. It undertakes multidisciplinary fundamental and applied research and development (R&D) activities necessary to maintain a lead position in the broad range of scientific and technical fields required for its mission. To fulfill its mission, SNL applies its capabilities to the following activities:

R&D associated with weapons engineering for all levels and phases of the nuclear weapons life cycle.

Other national security-related tasks of nuclear materials safeguards and security, treaty verification and control, intelligence on foreign technologies and weapon systems, defense waste management (WM), and programs in support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

R&D on (a) fossil fuels including coal, oil, and gas; (b) conservation and renewable energy, focusing largely on solar energy; (c) nuclear energy, principally in WM and reactor safety, and reliability in support of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); (d) magnetic-confinement fusion energy, mainly on plasma/material interactions; and (e) fundamental energy research related to combustion, geosciences and material sciences.

SNL became an entity in 1946 as a result of the Manhattan Project efforts. Historically, the principal mission of SNL has been to provide technical expertise in the design, development, and testing of weapons for the nation's nuclear arsenal. Many of the processes used in carrying out SNL's mission involve the use of hazardous and radioactive materials.

The ER project is chartered with the assessment and, if necessary, the remediation of inactive waste sites. This assessment began formally in 1984 for SNL/NM, when DOE's Albuquerque Operations Office (DOE/AL) initiated the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment and Response Program (CEARP) to identify, assess, and remediate potentially hazardous waste sites. The project was designed to comply with Section 120 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Phase I of the CEARP, "The Installation Assessment," which identified 117 sites at SNL/NM, was submitted to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by SNL/NM in September 1987. A similar investigation was conducted by the EPA Region VI in April 1987 during the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Assessment (RFA). These programs ultimately defined a working inventory of Solid Waste Management Units (SWMUs) to be investigated during the course of the ER program at SNL/NM. A detailed list of SNL/NM SWMUs requiring investigation under the HSWA module of SNL's RCRA permit is included in the ER site summary sheets. A summary of the SNL ER sites and their status is included in Table 1.

In 1987, SNL/NM sites were evaluated by the EPA under the EPA's CERCLA Hazard Ranking System (HRS), a risk­based system for prioritizing site cleanups. Based on the HRS ranking, no SNL/NM sites qualified for cleanup under the CERCLA National Priority List (NPL). For federal facilities that are not listed on the NPL, CERCLA requires compliance with state laws concerning removal and remedial actions.

The current investigation being conducted at SNL/NM under the ER project is intended to determine the nature and extent of hazardous and radioactive contamination and to restore any sites where such materials pose a threat to human health or the environment. The ER project at SNL/NM is committed to carrying out its responsibilities for investigating and remediating hazardous waste disposal sites.

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