Siting study for a consolidated waste capability at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Decision analysis was used to rank alternative sites for a potential Consolidated Waste Capability (CWC) to replace current hazardous solid waste operations (hazardous/chemical, mixed low-level, transuranic, and low-level waste) at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Technical Area (TA)-54. An original list of 21 site alternatives was pre-screened to seven sites that were assessed using the analytical hierarchy process with five top-level criteria and fifteen sub-criteria. The top site choice is TA-63/52/46; the second choice is TA-18/36. The seven sites are as follows. TA-18/36 (62 acres) is located on Potrillo Drive that intersects Pajarito Road at the bottom of a steep grade. It has some blast zone issues on its southwest side and some important archeological sites on the southeast section. TA-60 (50 acres) is located at the end of Eniwetok Road off Diamond Drive, east of TA-3. Most of the site is within a fifty foot-deep ravine (that may have contamination in the drainage), with a small section on the mesa above. TA-63/52/46 (110 acres) lies to the north of Pajarito Road along Puye Road. It is centrally located in a brown field industrial area, with good access to generators on a controlled road. TA-46 (22 acres) is a narrow site on the south side of Pajarito Road across from TA-46 office buildings. TA-48 (14 acres) is also narrow, and is located on the north side of Pajarito Road near the west vehicle access portal (VAP). TA-51 (19 acres) is located on the south side of Pajarito Road at the top of the hill above TA-18 near the current entrance to the TA-54. TA-54 West (16 acres) is just north of the entrance to TA-54 at Pajarito Road and is close to Zone 4. Although it is near the San Ildefonso Pueblo property line, there may be adequate set-back for sight screening.