New Mexico rolls out cleanup proposal for federal lab

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico regulators on Wednesday unveiled a draft proposal aimed at getting the federal government to clean up tons of hazardous waste and contamination left behind by decades of nuclear research and development at one of the nation's premier laboratories.

The proposal comes after missteps by Los Alamos National Laboratory resulted in a radiation leak in February 2014 that derailed the federal government's multibillion-dollar cleanup effort at the northern New Mexico lab and other defense-related sites across the country.

[...] the proposed order sets milestones and targets over the next three years for addressing old dumps on lab property, contaminated sites within the town and a plume of chromium contamination that's headed toward a Native American community and the Rio Grande.

Watchdog groups have been critical of cleanup efforts at the lab, suggesting officials aren't going far enough to address the waste that was placed in drums, plastic bags and cardboard boxes and buried years ago in unlined pits and shafts on lab property.