SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!     SHAFTED! 

DUMPING NUCLEAR WASTE ON NEW MEXICANS
WITHOUT OUR CONSENT OR INPUT 

DOE has claimed that there is a great emergency

and that the NEW WIPP SHAFT must be built now

Before the public has been able to provide comment or input

Before DOE has disclosed its plans for future WIPP expansion or

disclosed that the new shaft is essential to expand disposal capacity.

Before DOE has proven it can seal such a large, multipurpose

shaft in WIPP’s complex karst geology.

Before DOE has shown what effects the NEW SHAFT would have

on nearby communities—including exposure effects after closure

Building the Shaft without public input

Makes public comment meaningless

Problems with the required public process are many

Just a few of these include:

Nowhere in the Fact Sheet, Public Notice or the Public Involvement

Plan (PIP) is the public told that DOE is building the shaft now.

Very little information is provided in Spanish even though

there  are many people in the impacted area who need language

services. The Spanish speaking public isn’t even told that translation

and interpretation services are available.

Virtually no information is provided in the Fact Sheet on the  

geology or hydrology at WIPP.

The impacted communities’ needs and concerns are not

addressed or considered in this permit process, nor are community

leaders or stakeholders  consulted even though it was agreed to do

exactly this.

The only justification given for the draft permit modification

focuses on “increased control of ventilation airflow…under-

ground and performing “underground operations.” But this has

already been shown to be taken care of by the New Filter Building.

Because of the virus, the Administrative Record and other docu-

ments can’t be viewed in person. The public isn’t told that the Record

is online, but if they request document copies, they are expected to

pay for them.

(Click on the links below to read more about the PIP, Public Notice & Fact Sheet.)

DOE must stop digging the shaft

So that the many problems in the public process can be corrected

Through the public process it must be determined:

• If DOE can seal the shaft
• What effects an expanded WIPP would have
• If WIPP needs a NEW SHAFT at all

Anything else is an End Run around the Public Process

To build an expanded 

FOREVER WIPP

Submit your comments to

NMED

BY 5:00 PM AUGUST 11, 2020

Tell NMED

WITHDRAW THE

TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION

TO DRILL THE SHAFT

CORRECT THE PUBLIC PROCESS PROBLEMS

DENY THE SHAFT PERMIT MODIFICATION

 Click this link

to submit your comment 

 Ricardo.Maestas@state.nm.us

Add your name & address

to the pre-typed email and click send

or change the text and write your own comment

STOP FOREVER WIPP!

For more information, click this link:

WIPP History & Timeline

For a general sample comment, click this link:

Sample Comment

For a sample comment about the public process, click this link:

Public Process Sample Comment

For more information on problems with the public process,

click this link:

Problems with the Public Process

For copies of the Public Notice PIP & Fact Sheet,

click on each document:

 PIP

Public Notice

Fact Sheet

This post is sponsored by STOP FOREVER WIPP!

Tuesday, August 11^th is the deadline for comments to the New Mexico Environment Department to oppose the new shaft to expand the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  Sample public comments are available here WIPPShaftPublicCommentLetter_072720

The New Mexico Environment Department allowed the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin digging the new shaft in April, seven weeks before releasing a draft permit for the required public comment and hearing process.  https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/  The new shaft would allow new underground rooms that could more than double the disposal area, because the existing permitted panels will be filled in a few years.

The shaft and new rooms would provide capacity for more waste than legally allowed and for new types of waste, including high-level radioactive waste from Hanford, Washington and other sites; commercial waste from West Valley, New York; weapons grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; and 50 years of waste from building new nuclear weapons.

The WIPP expansion would allow the facility to continue disposal operations indefinitely, essential forever, even though the existing permit states that waste disposal ends in 2024.  https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp-permit-page/  The DOE wants to eliminate any date to end WIPP operations because it has no plans to have any other disposal site.  As in its name, WIPP was supposed to be a pilot plant, the first of multiple geologic repositories.  But there is no other disposal site.

The Environment Department ignored the comments of almost 300 people and organizations that opposed the new shaft last year and stated that the request should be denied.  But the Environment Department must consider and respond to public comments it receives.  At the public hearing, witnesses must testify under oath and be cross-examined about the new shaft and WIPP expansion.

The decision to allow construction of the shaft has been appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court by Southwest Research and Information Center.  The litigation claims that the Temporary Authorization to allow construction is prohibited by regulations and prejudices the public comment process.  In fact, the draft permit makes no substantive changes to the provisions that DOE proposed in 2017 and again last year.

“This disregard for the law and regulations that govern WIPP translates to a gag order on the People of New Mexico,” said Laura Watchempino of the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment.  “Our homelands and home state have become a national sacrifice area again, where regulations and laws that protect us are flouted.  Allowing shaft construction to begin without public input, shows that DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department think they can continue these unlawful practices.”  https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

We’ve sent the Weekly Update out early to keep you informed about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75th commemoration events and encourage you to submit your comments to oppose WIPP expansion.

CCNS brought three citizen lawsuits. That’s why we are writing this today. You have supported our work in the past. And we feel confident that when you read about what we’re up against now, you’ll want to do what you can to see our lawsuits through to success.  https://www.gofundme.com/f/concerned-citizens-for-nuclear-safety-legal-aid

An events list for Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75^th Commemoration Events, print, audio and virtual media, and opportunities to provide public comments about a variety of nuclear issues is available here.  CCNS 75th Commemoration Events & Upcoming Deadlines 8-5-20

1. Thursday, August 6^th at 6 pm MDT – Nuclear Issues Study Group – “We Are Not A Wasteland: Empowering Grassroots Resistance,” Episode 5:  No More Hiroshimas!  No More Churchrocks!  Making Links to Break the Chain. https://www.facebook.com/NuclearIssuesStudyGroup/

2.  Thursday, August 6^th at 6 pm MDT – Pace e Bene 75^th Anniversary Hiroshima Day One-Hour Online Commemoration, hosted by the New Mexico 75^th Commemoration of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene. The webinar is free, but registration required. https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020

3. Tuesday, August 11^th at 5 pm.  Deadline to submit comments to the NM Environment Department about the DOE’s plans for FOREVER WIPP!  http://nuclearactive.org/stop-forever-wipp/  and http://nuclearactive.org/public-comments-needed-to-stop-wipp-expansion/

SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!      SHAFTED!     SHAFTED!

DOE is building the NEW WIPP SHAFT 

 Right Now—as you’re reading this

WITHOUT A PUBLIC HEARING

WITHOUT A FULL PUBLIC PROCESS

WITHOUT VITAL INFORMATION IN SPANISH

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Fact Sheet doesn’t say that DOE is digging the shaft before the public process has been completed and a permit issued

It also claims the NEW SHAFT is needed to get air to

workers in the WIPP underground

MORE LIES

     The NEW FILTER BUILDING  

  will provide all the air that current workers need 

about 2 years before the shaft is finished

It’s an End Run around the Public Process

To build an EXPANDED

 FOREVER WIPP

 DUMPING NUCLEAR WASTE ON NEW MEXICANS

 WITHOUT OUR CONSENT OR INPUT 

Submit your comments to

NMED

BY 5:00 PM AUGUST 11, 2020

Tell NMED

WITHDRAW THE TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION TO DRILL THE SHAFT

DENY THE SHAFT PERMIT MODIFICATION

STOP THE FOREVER WIPP EXPANSION

 Click this link

to submit your comment

 Ricardo.Maestas@state.nm.us

Add your name & address

to the pre-typed email and click send

or change the text and write your own comment

Protect the People and Environment of New Mexico from

Nuclear dumping that will never end

STOP FOREVER WIPP!

For more information, click this link:

WIPP History & Timeline

For a sample comment, click this link:

 Sample Comment  

It is an excellent time to learn about the harm done 75 years ago when the U.S. government tested the first plutonium bomb in south-central New Mexico and then dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.  New Mexico activists are presenting in a number of these virtual events.  For those who would like to get involved, CCNS has posted a detailed list of the events, media articles and upcoming public comment opportunities at http://nuclearactive.org/ .  We highlight a few of those events here.

As background of the current nuclear weapons posture, 40 nation-states have signed and ratified the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Fifty nation-states must sign and ratify the treaty before it goes into effect.  It will apply only to those 50 nation-states.  https://www.icanw.org/

On Sunday, August 2^nd, Veterans for Peace begins their eight-day virtual 2020 Convention.  At noon Mountain Daylight Time, the Opening Plenary will tell the story in “The Nuclear Weapons Industry – Creating Victims – More Than 75 Years and Counting.”  The scheduled speakers are:  the Chief of Council of the Western Shoshone Nation and Spiritual Person, Chief Johnnie Bobb; the social practice artist and educator Yasuyo Tanaka; journalist and author in Kyoto, Japan, Toshiya Morita; and peace activist, Joni Arends, of CCNS.

For more information, visit https://vfp2020.attendease.com/

On Thursday, August 6th, at 6 pm Mountain Daylight Time, a program organized by New Mexico activists, faith leaders, and veterans, the “75^th Anniversary Hiroshima Day One-Hour Online Commemoration” will be available at https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020 .  The scheduled speakers are:  Roshi Joan Halifax, Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care; Dr. Ira Helfand, of the International Steering Committee of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico; and Archbishop of Santa Fe, John Wester.  The host will be the Reverend John Dear, priest, activist, and author of 35 books.  The program is organized by New Mexico 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene.  The event will also be available at https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/

A two-day virtual event commemorating the 75th year since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is scheduled for August 6th and August 9th. The organizers intend the event to be “a creative, intersectional way to shine a spotlight on local events nationwide, to highlight the stories of survivors, to look toward the future of a world free from nuclear threats, and to amplify the voices of activists, experts and others beyond their typical audience.”  To learn more, use #still here or https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/ .

Did You Know?   An events list for Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75^th Commemoration Events, print, audio and virtual media, and opportunities to provide public comments about a variety of nuclear issues is available here. CCNS 75th Commemoration Events & Upcoming Deadline 7-30-20

1. Thursday, August 6^th at 6 pm – Nuclear Issues Study Group “We Are Not A Wasteland: Empowering Grassroots Resistance” webinar about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  https://www.facebook.com/NuclearIssuesStudyGroup/

2. Tuesday, August 11^th at 5 pm. Deadline to submit comments to the NM Environment Department about the DOE’s plans for FOREVER WIPP! http://nuclearactive.org/stop-forever-wipp/  and http://nuclearactive.org/public-comments-needed-to-stop-wipp-expansion/

3. Monday, August 17^th at 5 pm. Comments due to NM Environment Department about the scope of the Triennial Review of New Mexico’s Water Quality Standards.  https://www.env.nm.gov/surface-water-quality/2020-triennial-review/  For more information:  https://www.amigosbravos.org/ and https://gilaresources.info/wp/

4. Tuesday, September 22th. Comments due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the draft environmental impact statement about a proposed Holtec International consolidated interim storage facility for commercial plutonium contaminated waste from nuclear power plants across the country.  The site is located 16 miles north of WIPP.  http://nuclearactive.org/officials-and-ngos-express-deep-concerns-about-holtec/ , http://www.beyondnuclear.org/radioactive-waste/

5. Tuesday, November 3^rd. Comments due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the draft environmental impact statement about a proposed consolidated interim storage facility for Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners.  The site is located on the Texas/New Mexico border, five miles east of Eunice, NM.  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/centralized-storage/

With so many virtual commemoration events, it is an excellent time to learn more about the harm done 75 years ago when the U.S. government tested the first plutonium bomb in southcentral New Mexico and then dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. CCNS has prepared a detailed listing of past and future events, which is available at http://nuclearactive.org/ .  CCNS 75th Commemoration Events 7-23-20 We highlight some upcoming events here.

This week’s Nuclear Hotseat Podcast is a special edition called the « Trinity A-Bomb at 75.»  Tina Cordova, of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, speaks about « Downwind of New Mexico’s ‘Dirty Bomb,’ » and Joni Arends, of CCNS, asks the question, « Is New Mexico the USA’s Nuclear Sacrifice Zone ? »  http://nuclearhotseat.com/2020/07/23/474-trinity-a-bomb-at-75-downwind-of-new-mexicos-dirty-bomb-tina-cordova-joni-arends/

On Sunday, August 2^nd, Veterans for Peace begins their eight-day virtual 2020 Convention.  At noon Mountain Daylight Time, the Opening Plenary will tell the story in « The Nuclear Weapons Industry – Creating Victims – More Than 75 Years and Counting. »  The scheduled speakers are :  the Chief of Council of the Western Shoshone Nation and Spiritual Person, Chief Johnnie Bobb ; the social practice artist and educator Yasuyo Tanaka; journalist and author in Kyoto, Japan, Toshiya Morita; and peace activist, Joni Arends, of CCNS.

For more information, visit https://vfp2020.attendease.com/

On Thursday, August 6th, at 6 pm Mountain Daylight Time, a program called the 75^th Anniversary Hiroshima Day One-Hour Online Commemoration will be available at https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020 .  The scheduled speakers are :  Roshi Joan Halifax, Buddist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care ; Dr. Ira Helfand, member of the International Steering Committee of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons ; Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico ; and Archbishop of Santa Fe, John Wester.  The host will be the Reverend John Dear, priest, activist, and author of 35 books.  The program is organized by New Mexico 75th Anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene.  The event will also be available at https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events

A two-day virtual event commemorating the 75th year since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is scheduled for August 6th and August 9th under the #stillhere. The organizers intend it to be « a creative, intersectional way to shine a spotlight on local events nationwide, to highlight the stories of survivors, to look toward the future of a world free from nuclear threats, and to amplify the voices of activists, experts and others beyond their typical audience. »  Please visit https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events

For people who heard the KSFR 101.1 FM story on Monday, July 27th, there was reference to the 285ALL group, based in El Dorado, south of Santa Fe, near the intersection of I-25 and 285.  Here is their email: 285allalliance@gmail.com

A listing of upcoming Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75^th Commemoration Events is available here.  CCNS 75th Commemoration Events 7-23-20

1. RADIO INTERVIEWS ABOUT DOE’s PROPOSED WIPP EXPANSION and the CAMPAIGN TO STOP WIPP FOREVER

          *  Saturday, July 25^th at 1:30 – 2 pm on KUNM 89.9 FM – Joni Arends and Laura Watchiempino talk about proposed WIPP expansion on the Women’s Focus with host, Carol Boss.

          *  Tuesday, July 28^th at 3 – 3:30 pm on KTRC 1490 AM – Joni Arends talk about the STOP WIPP FOREVER campaign with host, Richard Eeds.

2. Thursday, August 6^th at 6 pm – Nuclear Issues Study Group “We Are Not A Wasteland: Empowering Grassroots Resistance” webinar about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  https://www.facebook.com/NuclearIssuesStudyGroup/

3. Tuesday, August 6^th at 5 pm. Deadline to submit comments to the New Mexico Environment Department about the DOE’s plans for FOREVER WIPP!  http://nuclearactive.org/stop-forever-wipp/  and http://nuclearactive.org/public-comments-needed-to-stop-wipp-expansion/

4. Tuesday, September 22, 2020 comments due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the draft environmental impact statement about a proposed consolidated interim storage facility for Holtec International. The site is located 16 miles north of WIPP.  http://nuclearactive.org/officials-and-ngos-express-deep-concerns-about-holtec/ and http://nuclearactive.org/nrc-must-hold-five-public-meetings-in-new-mexico-about-holtec/

5. Tuesday, November 3, 2020 comments due to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the draft environmental impact statement about a proposed consolidated interim storage facility for Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners. The site is located on the Texas/New Mexico border, five miles east of Eunice, NM.  http://www.beyondnuclear.org/centralized-storage/

SHAFTED! SHAFTED! SHAFTED! SHAFTED! SHAFTED!

DOE said it needed the NEW WIPP SHAFT for
underground ventilation

But the NEW SHAFT isn’t a ventilation shaft
It’s designed to bring more waste to an expanded

FOREVER WIPP!

The NEW SHAFT will take 3 years to construct

While the NEW FILTER BUILDING coming online in 1 year
will provide all the air that current workers need

WE’VE ALL BEEN LIED TO YET AGAIN

The New Mexico Environment Department gave DOE a
Temporary Authorization so they can start digging the shaft
WITHOUT A PERMIT

DOE IS DIGGING THE SHAFT RIGHT NOW

It’s an End Run around the People of New Mexico
To build the WIPP EXPANSION
before the permit may be approved

WITHOUT A PUBLIC HEARING

WITHOUT VITAL INFORMATION IN SPANISH

Once again the People of New Mexico, a Majority Minority state,
Are targets of environmental sacrifice

SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS TO NMED

BY 5:00 PM AUGUST 11, 2020

Email:  Ricardo.Maestas@state.nm.us

Tell NMED
We need your help
to protect the people of New Mexico

STOP DRILLING THE SHAFT

WITHDRAW THE
TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION

STOP THE WIPP EXPANSION
Mining underground at WIPP

Add your name & address to the pretyped email and click send
or change the text and write your own comment

Protect the People and Environment of New Mexico from
Nuclear dumping that will never end

STOP FOREVER WIPP!

For more information, go to:
WIPP-Timeline_Final

This post is sponsored by STOP FOREVER WIPP!

On April 24, the New Mexico Environment Department prejudicially  authorized construction of a new shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  The Department of Energy (DOE) immediately started digging the shaft.  Seven weeks later, the Environment Department released a draft permit for construction of the shaft for public comment.  The Environment Department action to authorize the construction has tainted the required public review, comment, and hearing process about whether the shaft should be permitted.  The authorization also ignored almost 300 comments submitted in 2019, more than 97 percent of which opposed DOE’s expansion plans and asked that the new shaft permit be denied.  https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/

Public comments are due to the Environment Department on or before Tuesday, August 11th.  Sample public comment letter are available here: WIPP Shaft public comment letter 7-15-20

dhanson@abqjournal.com

Meanwhile, DOE is near completion of a New Filter Building that will provide over 100 percent of the fresh air that is needed by the workers.  It is scheduled to be completed in the next year.  The New Filter Building was needed after one or more drums of plutonium-contaminated waste exploded in the underground on February 14, 2014.  The explosion contaminated portions of the mine, including the existing exhaust shaft, and contaminated 22 workers on the surface.  As a result, workers need to wear personal protective equipment and ventilators in the contaminated mine.

On January 16, 2020, DOE applied for a temporary authorization to construct the shaft as a ventilation shaft.  They claimed that they needed the authorization to start digging the shaft because it would take 37 months to complete the project.  Even though the Environment Department knows the New Filter Building will be up and running within a year, they approved the new shaft construction along with new drifts and tunnels to connect it to the existing disposal system.

WIPP is a pilot plant located in salt beds 2,150 feet below ground surface to dispose of plutonium-contaminated waste from fabricating nuclear weapons.  It opened in 1999 and is scheduled to close in 2024.  It is located 26 miles east of Carlsbad.  https://wipp.energy.gov/

If NMED does not stop DOE from digging, the new shaft would allow new underground rooms that could more than double the disposal area because the existing, permitted panels will be filled in a few years.  http://nuclearactive.org/public-should-comment-on-new-wipp-forever-strategic-plan/

The new shaft is all about expanding WIPP for more waste than legally allowed and new types of waste, including high-level radioactive waste from Hanford, Washington and other sites; commercial waste from West Valley, New York; weapons-grade plutonium from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina; and 50 years of waste from building new nuclear weapons.  http://nuclearactive.org/proposed-wipp-utility-shaft-not-needed/

A listing of upcoming Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75^th Commemoration Events is available here.  CCNS 75th Commemoration Events 7-16-20

1.  TONIGHT at 6 pm:  Nuclear Information Study Group – We Are NOT A Wasteland! Episode 4:  From Shinkolobwe to Tsankawi.  This is a special webinar connecting uranium mining in Congo for the Manhattan Project to the Trinity Test and LANL.  Guests will be zooming from Cape Town, South Africa, Kinshasa, and Rwanda and joined by Beata Tsosie-Pena, Tewa Women United, and Tina Cordova, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium.  https://www.facebook.com/NuclearIssuesStudyGroup/

2.  Monday, July 20^th – Comments due to NRC about their proposal to allow for disposal of radioactive waste in municipal landfills. The latest proposal is called “Very Low-Level Radioactive” (VLLR) Waste.  In the mid-1990s it was called “Below Regulatory Concern,” or BRC.  A sample public comment you can use is here.  VLLW Comments due 7-20-20 Please submit to:  VLLWTransferComments.Resource@nrc.gov

3.  Sunday, August 2^nd to Sunday, August 9^th – virtual National Convention of Veterans for Peace. The convention theme is “Human Rights over Nuclear Might.”  The New Mexico plenary will take place on Sunday, August 2^nd in mid-afternoon.  Stay tuned for details.  To learn more about VFP’s National Convention, go to:   https://www.veteransforpeace.org/2020-annual-convention

4.  Thursday, August 6^th at 8 pm EST; 6 pm MST; 5 pm PST –75^th Commemoration Hiroshima Day Live One-Hour Online Webinar, hosted by the New Mexico 75^th Commemoration of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Committee and Pace e Bene. CCNS is an organizer and co-sponsor of the event. The webinar is free.  Please register or check the website closer to the event date for more information.  https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020

5.  August 6^th – August 9^th – Fasting around the world for nuclear disarmament! The message is:  Nuclear disarmament must happen now!  Join the Fast!  Demand that your country signs the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons!  For more information, visit http://www.abolition2000.org/event/international-fast-for-nuclear-disarmament/  or email Dominique Lalanne, <do.lalanne@wanadoo.fr>

41 years ago, the Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill in New Mexico released 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water into the Rio Puerco and across the  Navajo Nation. It is the largest accidental radioactive release in US history.

The spill was never properly cleaned up and no health studies were done. Today, New Mexicans are #StillHere, facing the contamination of their land, poisoning of their drinking water, and cancers and other health impacts. Hear stories of those impacted by the spill and learn more at https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the United States’ nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Survivors of those attacks and of the next few decades of testing and nuclear weapons production are still here. But so are the weapons. You can be part of the solution to ensure nuclear weapons are never used again.

I hope you will also join the national commemoration event, livestreaming August 6 and 9. You can see the full schedule online — please share this link with your friends! I also urge you to join in and follow along the discussion on social media using the hashtag #stillhere.

Help raise awareness of the stories nuclear survivors want to tell and the issues they still face. Help us work toward ways to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.

Join us!

75^th Commemoration Events for Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Prepared by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

July 15, 2020

Reported Media and Webinars

7/2/20              Desert Exposure, “Introducing the Atomic Age:  The day the sun rose twice, 75 years ago,” https://www.desertexposure.com/stories/introducing-the-atomic-age,4279

7/11 – 7/13      “Report from Santa Fe” with Lorene Mills.  Tina Cordova, Co-founder, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) http://reportfromsantafe.com/episodes/view/600/tina-cordova-co-founder-tularosa-basin-downwinders-consortium/

7/12 – 7/13      Albuquerque Journal two-part series on the Manhattan Project and Its Legacy

7/13/20            Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, USA (WILPF US) sponsored webinar:  “Radioactive New Mexico, From Trinity to Now.” https://youtu.be/9nfZNRXfAaM?t=347

7/15/20            New York Times, “’Now I Am Become Death’:  The Legacy of the First Nuclear Bomb Test,” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/us/trinity-test-anniversary.html

Upcoming Webinars/Zooms

7/15 – 7/16      A Day of Prayer for Forgiveness and Protection at the Trinity Site, by the Center for Christian Non-Violence. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/72313107071?pwd=T1E5MnhLYTdmWjZMSHdmT01QR3M1UT09 – Meeting ID: 723 1310 7071

Wed. 7/15

5:30 pm           Zoom meeting begins for the 24-hour event

6:00 pm           Mass live streamed from vigil site, F. Simon Carlan, OSF

7:00 pm           Invitation to pray and reflect, repeated on the hour

• 20 minutes to say the Rosary
• 20 minutes of silence and/or bring your own spiritual practice
• 20 minutes of video excerpts from topics on the creation and detonation of the first nuclear bomb in history

This hourly cycle is repeated at the top of every hour rotating the Mysteries of the Rosary, silent time, and the video content up to Detonation Time.  The cycle resumes at 6:00 am after the observance of Detonation Time. 

Th. 7/16

5:00 am           Detonation Time Preparation and Countdown

5:29:45 am      Detonation Time, Detonation Observance, Song & Prayer

6:00 pm           Mass live streamed from vigil site, Fr. Simon Carian, OSF

7:00 pm           Day of Prayer closes

Wed. 7/15       8 pm MDT – Int’l Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons After Trinity:  75 years of resistance webinar with Tina Cordova, TBDC.  https://www.icanw.org/gem/after_trinity_75_years_of_resistance

Th. 7/16          9 am MDT – Trinity Downwinders:  75 Years and Still Waiting, zoom event of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium  https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

11 am MDT – Global Online Launch of the first Uranium Atlas:  Facts and Data about the Raw Material of the Atomic Age – Leave Uranium in the Ground.  www.rosalux.de/livestream

Sun. 8/2           3 pm MDT – Veterans for Peace Virtual 2020 Convention New Mexico Plenary with Tina Cordova, TBDC, and Joni Arends, CCNS  https://vfp2020.attendease.com/

Th. 8/6            6 pm MDT – Pace e Bene 75^th Anniversary Hiroshima Day One-Hour Online Commemoration.  https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020

Th. 8/6 & Sun. 8/9      #still here:  75 Years of Shared Nuclear Legacy – https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/

Sun. 8/9           4 pm MDT – “The Bomb:  Understanding its History and the Hope for a Nuclear-Free Future,” with James Nolan, author of Atomic Doctors, at City Lights Bookstore webinar.  http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=3666

4 pm MDT – Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom USA (WILPF US) “ One Sunny Day, Remembering Hiroshima” webinar featuring author and Hiroshima survivor, Dr. Hideko Tamura Snider.  https://www.vtwilpfgathering.com/8-9-zoom

And check out the WILPF US 75th Anniversary Timeline to discover information about key events in 1945, which was the year both the United Nations and nuclear weapons were created.