The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the nation’s first geologic disposal site for radioactive and hazardous waste.  https://wipp.energy.gov/  But WIPP should not be the only repository.  For decades, federal laws and state agreements and permits have established a limited mission for both the amount of waste allowed and how long the site can operate.  Other repositories are necessary since the nation has no plans to stop production of nuclear weapons that generate the plutonium waste. Other repositories also are required for commercial spent fuel and military high-level wastes.

In recent years, officials with the Department of Energy (DOE) have discussed various ideas to keep WIPP open for at least 50 years – twice as long as the original schedule – and to expand the types and amounts of waste.  One reason for the “WIPP Forever” plan is to avoid telling Congress and the public that it is time to develop other repositories – since no state is asking for those dump sites.

DOE announced the upcoming release of a Draft Five-Year Strategic Plan and public comment meetings in Santa Fe on Monday, August 26^th from 3 to 5 pm at the Hotel Santa Fe, and in Carlsbad on Wednesday, August 28^th from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Skeen-Whitlock Building.  While WIPP officials acknowledge that more informed public comment happens if the draft plan is released several days in advance, the document may not be available until just before the Santa Fe meeting.

Thus, what exactly is in the five-year plan is uncertain.  But it likely will presume that WIPP continues to operate until at least 2050 and the amount of waste totals at least thirty percent more than the legal limit of 175,564 cubic meters.  It will certainly include adding at least one new shaft and numerous underground disposal rooms beyond those ever included in past designs.  That additional space is for plutonium-contaminated waste previously designated for WIPP that doesn’t fit because of the underground contamination that makes some areas of the underground unusable.  The Plan also could include tons of weapons-grade plutonium and high-level waste that has always been prohibited by federal law and the state permit.

Don Hancock, of Southwest Research and Information Center, said, “Whatever the specifics of the WIPP Strategic Plan, the public can tell DOE that we do not agree with operating WIPP forever.  People can also tell State officials to enforce the legal limits on the amount and types of waste and set a closing date so that DOE and Congress know that it’s time to plan for either long-term storage at generator sites or new repositories in other states.”  http://www.sric.org/

On Monday evening, August 19^th, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) will host a public meeting about the “fake” groundwater discharge permit for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). 

CCNS will discuss how this Facility is key to plans to expand the manufacture of the plutonium pits, or the triggers, for nuclear weapons by 50 percent – from 20 pits to 30 pits per year.  We’ll discuss what was old, is new again – including the reintroduction of plans from the Bush II administration to build a bridge across the Rio Grande from Santa Fe to Ancho Canyon.  We’ll talk about how the collective “we” defeated those plans.  We’ll encourage you to get involved and have concrete suggestions about how.  Monday’s meeting will be from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Santa Fe’s Downtown Library at 145 Washington Avenue.  http://santafelibrary.org/  It’s free.  Please join us.

The groundwater discharge permit is “fake” because the New Mexico Water Quality Act requires a permit for “the discharge of any water contaminant.”  LANL has not discharged any water or contaminant through the discharge pipe, called Outfall 051, since November 2010.  Without a discharge, the New Mexico Environment Department has no basis to issue the discharge permit.

LANL has no plans to discharge.  In fact, in 1998, LANL stated its plans to eliminate liquid discharges from the Facility by rebuilding it to become a “zero liquid discharge” facility.  That goal was accomplished nearly nine years ago with the elimination of any discharges.

Further, under the law, the permit does not go into effect until there is a discharge.  The Environment Department issued the permit last August, but it did not go into effect because there has been no discharge.  As a result, the Environment Department does not have any enforcement power over the permit.

For these reasons and others, including that hazardous waste is stored and treated in the Facility; the correct regulatory structure is the New Mexico Hazardous Waste Act and the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.  The hazardous waste laws and regulations are more protective of human health and the environment.  They require more public participation and provide opportunities to request a public hearing about the permit, and for proposed modifications to the permit.

Since the fall of 2013, the Communities for Clean Water (CCW), of which CCNS is a founding member, has challenged the regulation of the Facility by the Water Quality Act.  CCW has argued for regulation by the Hazardous Waste Act, which will not result in a “fake” permit.

Please join us on Monday evening for an interesting and lively discussion.

For background on this Update, please go to previous Updates at:

March 23, 2018 – http://nuclearactive.org/ccw-files-motion-to-dismiss-draft-lanl-discharge-permit/

April 13, 2018 – http://nuclearactive.org/public-comments-needed-for-lanl-groundwater-discharge-permit-for-zero-liquid-discharge/

April 5, 2019 – http://nuclearactive.org/ccw-asks-wqcc-to-remand-lanl-permit-to-nmed-secretary/

June 6, 2019 – http://nuclearactive.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/190606-CCW-Petition-for-Mandamus-2019-06-06.pdf

June 21, 2019 – http://nuclearactive.org/wqcc-remands-lanl-discharge-permit-back-to-nmed/

1. Monday, August 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Santa Fe Library (Downtown) at 145 Washington, CCNS is hosting a public information meeting about the “fake” discharge permit for LANL’s Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility.  The state permit will not go into effect until there is a discharge.  But LANL has not discharged since November 2010, and has no plans to do so.  The permit cannot be enforced because it will not go into effect.

Soon, because of defects in the public notice, the New Mexico Environment Department’s draft permit will be re-noticed for public comments.  As a result, the public hearing will be delayed until November or later.

CCNS has argued for over a decade that the facility should be regulated by the federal and state hazardous waste laws and regulations because it treats and stores hazardous waste.  The hazardous waste laws and regulations are more protective and offer more opportunities for public participation than the NM Water Quality Act.  Join us for this important and lively discussion at the Santa Fe Downtown Library!  Learn how you can get involved!

2. Thursday, August 22, 2019 from 5:30 to 7 pm at the Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe by LANL’s Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) about The Environmental Management Cleanup Forum:  Legacy Waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  EM Cleanup Forum Save the Dates_08022019

3. Thursday, August 29th from 11 to 1 pm, the Cold War Patriots are hosting a public meeting for DOE/NNSA/LANL/Sandia/WIPP workers and former workers about how to navigate the complex EEOICPA and RECA government programs at St. John’s Methodist Church in Santa Fe.  https://coldwarpatriots.org/

Thank you to everyone who submitted comments to the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for plans to manufacture plutonium triggers, or pits, for nuclear weapons at the Savannah River Site.  Public comments are now needed on those plans, plus plans for a 50 percent increase in pit manufacturing at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) by 2030.  These plans were revealed in the 2008 Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, also known as the “Bombplex,” and they are back.  Comments are due on Monday, August 12^th to NEPA-SRS@srs.gov. A sample public comment letter is available on Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s website at https://nukewatch.org/

Overall, NNSA plans to quadruple production from 20 to 80 pits per year.  NNSA plans to produce at least 30 pits at LANL and 50 pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Expanded plutonium pit production is a crucial part of the $1.7 trillion “modernization” plan to completely rebuild the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; its supporting research and production complex; and the missiles, submarines, and bombers to deliver nuclear weapons.  Together, the modernization plan is fueling a new global nuclear arms race that is more dangerous than any time since the height of the Cold War.

Expanded pit production, costing an estimated $43 billion over thirty years, is not needed.  More than 15,000 existing pits are already stored at NNSA’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, while independent experts have found that pits last more than a century.

No pit production is scheduled to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile.  Instead, NNSA plans to produce heavily modified pits for speculative new-design nuclear weapons. This could degrade confidence in stockpile reliability since new pits cannot be full-scale tested because of an international testing moratorium.  In the extreme, it could even prompt the U.S. to resume nuclear weapons testing, which would have severe international proliferation consequences.

To meet public review requirements under the federal NEPA, NNSA completed a Supplement Analysis to determine whether existing nation-wide programmatic public review of pit production should be supplemented. NNSA has already decided no.

It is time to tell NNSA that a new programmatic environmental impact statement is required.  Please email your comments to NEPA-SRS@srs.gov by August 12, 2019, or as soon thereafter as possible.  Please customize your comments before emailing, as that is more effective.

NNSA did not respond adequately to public comments submitted in 2008.  If you submitted comments then, please attach them to your new comments.

To learn more about plutonium pit production, check out Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s fact sheet at https://nukewatch.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/PitProductionFactSheet.pdf

To learn about what is happening with the Bombplex at LANL’s “sister” lab at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California, go to the Tri-Valley CAREs [Communities Against a Radioactive Environment] website at http://www.trivalleycares.org/

1.    Monday, August 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, CCNS is hosting a public information meeting about the “fake” discharge permit for LANL’s Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility.  The state permit will not go into effect until there is a discharge.  But LANL has not discharged since November 2011, and has no plans to do so.  The permit cannot be enforced because it will not go into effect.

Soon, because of defects in the public notice, the New Mexico Environment Department’s draft permit will be re-noticed for public comments.  As a result, the public hearing will be delayed until November or later.

CCNS has argued for over a decade that the facility should be regulated by the federal and state hazardous waste laws and regulations because it treats and stores hazardous waste.  The hazardous waste laws and regulations are more protective than the NM Water Quality Act.  Join us for this important public information meeting at the Santa Fe Downtown Library!  Learn how you can get involved!

3.   Thursday, August 29th from 11 to 1 pm, the Cold War Patriots are hosting a public meeting for DOE/NNSA/LANL/Sandia/WIPP workers and former workers about how to navigate the complex EEOICPA and RECA government programs at St. John’s Methodist Church in Santa Fe.  https://coldwarpatriots.org/

4.    Thursday, September 26th is the United Nations’ International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.  Let’s organize commemoration events in New Mexico.  https://www.un.org/en/events/nuclearweaponelimination/

Thirty years after a special grand jury was empaneled to look into possible environmental crimes committed at the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Plant, 60 to 65 sealed boxes of their documents are missing.  Many people living near the plant, as well as downwind and downstream, believe the contents may provide critical information about the buried plutonium wastes and help to resolve conflicts about access to the site, expansion of housing developments nearer to the site, and a proposal to build a by-pass road along the fence line.

In January, attorney Pat Mellen asked the federal court to unseal the boxes and make them public.  Last month, the federal Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed that they could not locate the boxes in their office, or in the Federal Records Center where closed cases are stored.

When asked, an attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office emailed attorney Mellen, stating that he has been “attempting to reach out to former [] staff and attorneys who touched the Rocky Flats matter over the years to see whether they have any memory of where the boxes might have ended up.  That effort is ongoing, but has not yet yielded results.”

Rocky Flats is located about 16 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado, at the base of the Rocky Mountains.  About 70,000 plutonium pits, or the triggers for nuclear weapons, were manufactured there from 1952 to 1989 when the FBI raided Rocky Flats for violations of the Clean Air Act and federal hazardous waste laws, including illegal waste storage.

Rockwell International, the DOE contractor at the time, pled guilty to 10 environmental violations in 1992.  They paid $18.5 million in fines.

After nearly a decade, a $7 billion “cleanup” commenced.  The cleanup standards were not as protective as people in the communities had wanted.  The community’s standards addressed the long-term impacts of plutonium to human health and the environment.

After “cleanup,” most of the Rocky Flats site was transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and became a wildlife refuge where school children go on field trips.  Nevertheless, seven school boards, including Denver and Boulder, will not take their students on field trips to the refuge.

Further, subdivisions are being built closer to the site.  As a result, the occurrences of rare childhood cancers are growing in those neighborhoods.

Attorney Pat Mellen is representing seven organizations.  http://patmellenlaw.com/ They are:  the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups https://www.eecap.org/ANWAG_News.htm ; Candelas Glows/Rocky Flats Glows https://candelasglows.com/ ; Environmental Information Network https://archives.colorado.edu/repositories/2/resources/622 ; Rocky Flats Downwinders http://rockyflatsdownwinders.com/ ; Rocky Flats Neighborhood Association http://www.rockyflatsneighbors.com/about.html ; Rocky Flats Right to Know https://www.rockyflatsrighttoknow.org/ ; and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center https://www.rmpjc.org/.

LeRoy Moore, Ph.D., and founder of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, said, “”I thought I’d seen the worst, but losing more that 60 cartons of evidence from the 1989 FBI raid beats all.”

This week the groups asked the court to unseal the yet-to-be-found documents within thirty days.

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) released a draft ground water discharge permit (DP-1132) for LANL’s Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at Technical Area 50.  See page 5 of this public notice:   https://cloud.env.nm.gov/water/resources/_translator.php/3wdGf2YvWP7JR8htsQErkMxbvE56mnoqDRp2BQAIXXbigeEtSCEhgT9cBlqLEUu1Bu05rtzHpSvgDBYBZ/UkvNj1xm6YWbE032FsQ+I0sXXv1czn8rKsfXGEget28K6+1ZKKfKD2Ec4=.pdf 

It processes low-level and transuranic (plutonium) contaminated water from nuclear weapons operations at the Plutonium Facility and related facilities.  This is a key facility for DOE/NNSA plans to expand plutonium pit production at LANL (known as “Bombplex II”).

Since 2013, CCNS and other groups have argued that it is illegal for NMED to issue a ground water discharge permit for this facility.  To obtain a permit, the NM Water Quality Act and regulations require a facility to discharge water contaminants.  Since November 2011, LANL has not discharged from the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility.

CCNS and other groups have argued that the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility is a hazardous waste treatment and storage facility and should be regulated by the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), as implemented in NM by the NM Hazardous Waste Act and regulations.  The waste storage activities are currently covered by the NMED hazardous waste permit for LANL.  The entire Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility must be regulated under RCRA.

Mark Your Calendars and Stay Tuned!  

*  Monday, August 19th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Santa Fe Downtown Public Library.  You are invited to the CCNS public meeting about the draft ground water discharge permit and what you can do.

*  CCNS is available to present at house parties or another event.  Please contact us about availability by email to ccns@nuclearactive.org, or by phone at (505) 986-1973.

*  Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at 5 pm (MST).  Public comment are due to NMED.  Sample public comments will be available here soon.  Please stay tuned!

*  Tuesday, September 24, 2019.  NMED has scheduled a public hearing on the draft permit.  Location and time:  TBD.

Please support our critical, time-sensitive work by making a tax-deductible contribution at http://nuclearactive.org/ or mail your check to:  CCNS, P. O. Box 31147, Santa Fe, NM  87594-1147. 

Leading up to the 75^th year since the Trinity atomic bomb test in New Mexico and the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki next year, there are a plethora of events, activities, and dialogues taking place to “normalize” the nuclear weapons industry in New Mexico.  Knowing the details of the harm done to all living beings by the nuclear weapons industry, CCNS is resisting these attempts.  There are two events of note.  They are the Friday, August 2^nd opening of the Black Hole/Atomic City (State of Decay) exhibition in Albuquerque, and the Saturday, August 3^rd Hiroshima Peace Day Commemoration in Los Alamos.

Dedicated to alternative stories of the “nuclear business” in New Mexico, the Black Hole/Atomic City (State of Decay) exhibition examines the combined burden of nuclear by-products and waste that decays over tens of thousands of years on the People of New Mexico.  It questions the theft and decimation of sacred Indigenous lands.  It examines how involuntary radiation exposures affect future generations.  It asks about the ongoing threats from transportation, storage, and disposal of radioactive wastes.

Barbara Grothus, exhibition organizer, said, “The tired story of Profiteers of the Nuclear Business in New Mexico has worn thin.  For generations, Indigenous people and residents of their colonized lands have suffered and died for the State of Decay.  Their stories must no longer go unheard.”

The exhibition is at the Sanitary Tortilla Factory, located at 401 2^nd Street Southwest, in Albuquerque.  The opening reception is on Friday, August 2^nd from 6 to 9 pm.  The exhibition will be up until Friday, August 30^th.    Black Hole_Atomic City (State of Decay) – Press Release-2

Also, the 16^th Annual Hiroshima Peace Day Commemoration and Peace Vigil will take place on Saturday, August 3^th in Los Alamos.  People will gather at Ashley Pond, in the center of town, at 2 pm.

Participants will remember the 74^th anniversary of the bombings at the place where the first nuclear weapons were built and where they continue to be built.  There will be a silent procession towards Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Participants may sit in silence for 30 minutes in sackcloths, or burlap bags, and ashes, which will be provided.  Participants will walk back to Ashley Pond for discussion and reflection, led by Father John Dear, an activist and author.

He said, “We’ve been going to Los Alamos every August for sixteen years now, to pray and speak out for the abolition of nuclear weapons; but the world’s violence and war making is only worsening while we continue to waste billions of dollars on these weapons of mass destruction.”

For more information, please contact Ellie Voutselas at ellievout@gmail.com or (505) 474-8557.  August 6 Hiroshima 2019 Flyer rev3-1

CCNS is releasing this week’s Update early to encourage you to get your scoping comments in about the Department of Energy’s (DOE) plans to expand plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.  They are due on Thursday, July 25th.  A sample public comment letter containing the story of the boondoggle MOX facility is available at our SRS Watch’s website at http://www.srswatch.org/ under “In the News” on the right side of the home page.

The Conservation Voters of South Carolina have set up this automatic comment submission form, in case anyone wants to go this quick route:  https://p2a.co/EKKU5yl

Key points include:

1.  DOE plans to expand plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site (SRS) to produce 80 pits (the triggers for nuclear weapons) per year. 

2.  DOE plans to prepare an environmental impact statement about its SRS proposal to produce 50 pits per year in the boondoggled MOX facility, which was never completed.  Comments are due on Thursday, July 25th.

3.  As usual, DOE is putting the cart before the horse.  The 1996 Department of Energy (DOE) nation-wide programmatic environmental impact statement on Stockpile Stewardship and Management set a plutonium pit production cap of 20 pits per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

4.  Because DOE is planning to expand pit production at a second site at SRS, it is necessary for DOE to supplement the 1996 programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) – before conducting an environmental impact statement process for the SRS MOX plant.

5.  Conducting a supplemental PEIS process would require DOE to hold public hearings across the country, and along the transportation routes.

The first atomic explosion, July 16, 1945, Trinity Site, New Mexico;
July 1945

On the 74^th anniversary of the Trinity atomic bomb test, U.S. Congressman and Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján introduced amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to expand coverage for New Mexicans who were overexposed to radiation.  The amendments would cover the Downwinders of the July 16, 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test and those exposed to years of above ground atomic tests in Guam.  They would expand coverage for uranium workers who worked during 1971 and 1990.

Further, the amendments would provide a Congressional apology to individuals exposed to radiation in the western U.S., Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands; and extend the RECA Trust Fund from 2022, when it is scheduled to sunset, to 2045.

Assistant Speaker Luján said, “Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve fought to ensure justice for communities impacted by radiation exposure – including miners, workers, and downwinders.  Radiation exposure has taken the lives of too many and continues to hurt our communities.  I know how important this legislation is for New Mexico families that have been affected.  This legislation will extend compensation for those individuals who played a role in our national security and help make those individuals whole.”

New Mexico Congresswomen Deb Haaland and Xochitl Torres Small are co-sponsors of the bill.  https://lujan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/lujn-members-of-congress-introduce-legislation_to-expand-compensation-for-individuals–impacted-by-radiation-exposure

The legislation is needed now.  On Monday, July 15^th, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published an important article, entitled, “Trinity:  ‘The most significant hazard of the entire Manhattan Project,’” by Kathleen M. Tucker and Robert Alvarez.  They report, “Evidence collected by the New Mexico health department but ignored for some 70 years shows an unusually high rate of infant mortality in New Mexico counties downwind from the [Trinity] explosion and raises a serious question whether or not the first victims of the first atomic explosion might have been American children.”

In 1958, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation   recognized that growing fetuses and infants are more susceptible to ionizing radiation as it damages dividing cells.

Infant mortality in New Mexico prior to the July 16, 1945 Trinity test was declining.  Infant mortality is reported as the number of deaths per 1,000 live births.  Following the Trinity test, infant mortality dramatically increased in the counties that experienced Trinity test fallout.  The highest rate occurred in September.

In August, the infant mortality rate was 152.3 per 1,000 live births.  In September, the rate was 187.8.  In October, it fell to 123.1.  When compared to rates in 1943, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1948, 1945 rates show a dramatic increase.  https://thebulletin.org/2019/07/trinity-the-most-significant-hazard-of-the-entire-manhattan-project/

Tina Cordova, a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said the data is “significant.”

To learn more and to get involved, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

1. Wednesday, July 17, 2019.  WetheFourth released a press release and brief to the New Mexico State Auditor about Did Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance collude with Holtec? http://www.wethefourth.org/

2. Saturday, July 20, 2019.  Two events held by the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC) to commemorate the 74th year since the Trinity test, the first atomic bomb test, on what is now called the White Sands Missile Range.  the events will take place in Tularosa, NM, north of Alamogordo, NM.

At 2 pm, the TBDC will host a town hall at the Tularosa Community Center, 1050 Bookout Road, to inform the public about the amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) that have been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (July 16, 2019) and the U.S. Senate (3/28/19).  There will also be an interactive birddogging training to learn some of the best ways to ask questions to elected officials and those running for office.  

At 7:30 pm at the Tularosa Little League Field, the 10th Annual Candlelight Vigil will acknowledge the negative health effects suffered by the People of New Mexico after overexposure to radiation from the July 16th, 1945 Trinity Test.  the event will memorialize those that have lost their lives to cancer and honor those who are living with or who have survived cancer.  For more information and to make a contribution, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

3. Tuesday, July 23, 2019.  Comments are due to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on the 5-Year Review of the Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM.  For more information and a sample public comment letter you can use at http://nuclearactive.org/excavation-comments-needed-for-sandia-mixed-waste-landfill/ and Citizen Action New Mexico at http://www.radfreenm.org/

4. August 2 – 30, 2019 Black Hole/Atomic City (State of Decay) exhibition at the Sanitary Tortilla Factory, 401 2nd St. SW, Albuquerque.  Barbara Grothus, daughter of Edward Grothus, is the lead organizer of the project.  It is an exhibition “dedicated to alternative stories related to ‘the nuclear business’ in New Mexico since the dawn of the Anthropocene/Trinity test near Tularosa in July 1945.”  The opening reception is August 2nd from 6 to 9 pm.  http://sanitarytortillafactory.org/

@RepBenRayLujan just introduced legislation to expand compensation for individuals exposed to radiation – a critical effort to ensure justice for the individuals, families, and communities impacted. #RECA2019

Thousands of families in New Mexico and across the country were exposed to radiation causing illness, cancer, and death in our communities. @RepBenRayLujan just introduced #RECA2019 to ensure these individuals get the compensation they need & deserve.

Radiation exposure has taken the lives of too many and continues to hurt our families – it’s time to pass @RepBenRayLujan’s #RECA2019 legislation to expand compensation for these families.

Finally, the Five-Year Review of the Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories is available for public review.  https://hwbdocuments.env.nm.gov/Sandia%20National%20Labs/2018-12-14%20MWL%205%20Year%20Report.pdf  Comments are due to the New Mexico Environment Department by 5 pm on Tuesday, July 23^rd.  Public notice in English:    https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MWL-5-Yr-Report-Public-Notice-2019-5-24-English.pdf and public notice in Spanish:  https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MWL-5-Yr-Report-Public-Notice-2019-5-22-Spanish.pdf  A sample public comment letter, prepared by Citizen Action New Mexico, is available at MWL 5-Yr Review Comment letter 7-10-19

Citizen Action supports Sandia’s review because it recognizes the best alternative for the dump is excavation and disposal of the long-lived toxic and radioactive chemical wastes off-site.  Sandia even suggests that the Department issue an order for Sandia to proceed with a plan, called a Corrective Measures Implementation Plan, for excavation and off-site disposal.  This is very great news!  Citizen Action has been advocating for excavation for nearly two decades.  http://www.radfreenm.org/index.php/mm-mwl

The Mixed Waste Landfill is a 2.6-acre dumpsite that contains an estimated 1,500,000 cubic feet of radioactive, toxic and hazardous wastes from reactor meltdown experiments and the research and development of nuclear weapons.  We know plutonium, americium, tritium, depleted uranium, lead, beryllium, PCBs and chlorinated solvents were disposed there.  Nevertheless, Sandia officials cannot state for certain the dump’s contents.  Among community concerns is the dump’s location near to Albuquerque, Isleta Pueblo, the Sunport, and the growing urban area and children’s park of Mesa del Sol.

The waste lie above Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer in plastic bags, cardboard boxes and steel drums.  In 2009, a dirt cover, which was approved by the Department, was installed. 

Citizen Action states the, “existing dirt cover installed above the wastes cannot protect the public and Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer from the long-lived radionuclides and toxic chemicals.”

In May 2005, the Environment Department Secretary issued a Final Order about the dump, which required that every five years Sandia review whether excavation is feasible, provide an update of the fate and transport model, conduct an evaluation of pollution reaching groundwater, and make it publicly available.    https://www.env.nm.gov/HWB/SNL/MWL/Final_Decision/Final_Order_(05-26-2005).pdf  But 2010 came and went without the first five-year review being submitted.

In January 2014, the Department approved a Long-term Monitoring and Maintenance Plan, which they claimed started the clock for the five-year review.  So here we are, almost a decade later with the opportunity to review and provide public comments about the dump.  https://www.env.nm.gov/HWB/documents/SNL-12-007_1-8-2014_LTMMP_Approval.pdf and Response to Comments https://www.env.nm.gov/HWB/documents/SNL_MWL_LTMMP_Response_to_Comments_1-8-2014.pdf

Dave McCoy, Director of Citizen Action New Mexico, encourages you to submit your comments in support of excavation.  He said, “”The public has been in favor of the Environment Department issuing a clean up order for decades.  New Mexico should not be burdened with the human, environmental and financial costs for the nation’s nuclear weapons program and irresponsible waste disposal.”

For more information, please visit Citizen Action’s website at http://www.radfreenm.org/

Courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory

1.    CCNS has good news to report!  The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) heard the concerns of the community, retired and current LANL employees, CCNS and others about the need for the NMED Department of Energy (DOE) Oversight Bureau to remain in Los Alamos.  On Monday evening, July 8th,

James Kenney, NMED Secretary, announced that the Oversight Bureau will remain in the Los Alamos area as they have been situated for nearly 30 years.  There are several excellent news stories about the meeting.  Check them out!

*  Federally funded bureau hits brakes on plan to move to Santa Fe, by Rebecca Moss, Santa Fe New Mexican.  Read the article HERE

*  NMED won’t move LANL Oversight Bureau office from Los Alamos, by Kendra Chamberlain, New Mexico Political Report.   http://nmpoliticalreport.com/category/environment/

2.    Saturday, July 20th, beginning at 7:30 pm at the Tularosa Little League Field, the 10th Annual Candlelight Vigil, hosted by the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, will acknowledge the negative health effects suffered by the People of New Mexico from the July 16th, 1945 Trinity Test.  For more information and to make a contribution, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/       2019 TBDC Candlelight Vigil

3.  Nick Maxwell, of WeTheFourth, filmed this week’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission Midland, TX public hearing about the proposed plan to bring 40,000 tons of the nation’s most deadly nuclear reactor waste to Andrews County, Texas – on the NM/TX border.  https://nukehearing.net/  The applicant, Interim Storage Partners, is a joint venture between Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists (WCS), that formed after WCS, the original applicant for interim storage of high-level waste, filed bankruptcy and was acquired by J.F. Lehman & Co. Concerned citizens including elected officials, clergy, oil industry executives, parents and others oppose the proposal.  The waste, which would be stored above ground in dry casks, consists of irradiated fuel rods from nuclear reactors, which would be transported across the country, posing risks from accidents, leaks and sabotage. Exposure to unshielded high-level radioactive waste is lethal in minutes.  For more information, go to Beyond Nuclear at www.beyondnuclear.org

4.  If you appreciate receiving the Update and information about the latest nuclear safety issues, events and action alerts, seriously consider signing up to provide a monthly contribution to CCNS at http://nuclearactive.org/  Thank you!

On Monday, July 8th, the New Mexico Environment Department will host its first quarterly public meeting in Los Alamos, from 5:30 to 7 pm, in the Pajarito Room of the Fuller Lodge, located at 2132 Central Avenue.  The primary topic will be “the mission and work of the Environment Department’s Department of Energy Oversight Bureau, as well as a discussion on a proposed move of the Bureau’s Los Alamos Field Office to Santa Fe.  Please plan to attend this important meeting to support the Oversight Bureau remaining in Los Alamos.  https://www.env.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/062819-LANL-public-meeting.pdf

A little over 30 years, after findings of radioactive, toxic, and hazardous contamination in established communities where the Department of Energy (DOE) located its nuclear weapons facilities, the Secretary announced a 10-point initiative to improve its accountability to environmental protection, public health, and safety.  DOE provided funding for states, such as New Mexico, to establish oversight programs that would monitor the air, surface water, ground water, and soils for contamination and report their findings to the public.

In New Mexico, the Oversight Bureau is located within the Environment Department and monitors the three DOE sites in New Mexico.  For nearly 30 years, an oversight office has been located in Los Alamos, the location of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Similarly, an oversight office has been located at or near Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.  The oversight office for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is currently located in Carlsbad, 26 miles west.  https://www.env.nm.gov/doeob/doe-ob-history/

About a year ago, some quietly began planning to move the Los Alamos Oversight Bureau to Santa Fe.  After the public found out about such plans, they objected.  Nearly 70 percent of the Oversight Bureau’s work is done in the field.  It would be a waste of time and energy for the majority of the staff, who live in Los Alamos, to travel from Los Alamos to Santa Fe, only to have to turn around and go back to Los Alamos to do their monitoring work.

As a result of the proposed change, nearly half of the Oversight Bureau staff expressed concerns about remaining in their jobs.  Any reduction in staff results in the loss of essential institutional knowledge and history of LANL operations.

In response, the Environment Department’s Secretary, James Kenney, said “We have heard from employees, community members and stakeholders on this proposed move and look forward to continuing this dialogue on July 8.  Through state procurement processes, we are actively working toward finding a location in Los Alamos County for our staff that allows us to accomplish our mission.”

Future quarterly meetings will address other community concerns.

1) Beginning on Wednesday, July 10th, and continuing as needed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a hearing on the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners application to store 40,000 tons of the nation’s deadly nuclear reactor spent fuel rods, at the Midland County Courthouse, 500 N. Lorraine Street, Midland, TX, at 9 am. Opposition organizers are asking that you wear red.  The public will not have the opportunity to speak.  Nevertheless, your presence will make a difference.  For more information, please call or text David Rosen at (432) 634-6081.  Flyer for NRC WCS 7-10-19 Hearing

2) On Saturday, July 13th, from 7 am to 3 pm, the Red Water Pond Road Community will host its 40th annual commemoration of the 1979 Uranium Tailings Spill.  http://swuraniumimpacts.org/

3) On Saturday, July 20th, at 7:30 pm, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will host its 10th Annual Candlelight Vigil at the Tularosa Little League field to commemorate the 1945 Trinity test and acknowledge the negative health effects suffered by the people of New Mexico.  https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

4) August 3, 2019, the 16th Annual Hiroshima Peace Day, Commemoration, and Peace Vigil will take place at Ashley Pond in downtown Los Alamos. 

July 16^th is an historic day for public health and environmental disasters in New Mexico.  On July 16, 1945, the U.S. government tested the first atomic bomb, called the Gadget, on the grounds of the White Sands Missile Range.  The Gadget held 13 pounds of plutonium, of which only three pounds fissioned.  The remaining 10 pounds disbursed as the mushroom cloud came down in the rainstorms that followed the blast.  The contaminated ash fell on open water sources, fields ready for harvest, gardens, workers, and animals.

Thirty-four years later, on July 16, 1979, the largest uranium tailings spill in the U.S. occurred at the North East Church Rock Uranium Tailings site.  An earthen dam, operated by United Nuclear Corporation, holding liquid uranium waste, broke.  It released 1,100 million tons of solid radioactive mill waste and more than 90 million gallons of acidic and radioactive liquids into the Rio Puerco.  The contaminated waters flowed downstream through Gallup, and across nine Navajo chapters, contaminating at least 80 miles of the river and its banks.

On Saturday, July 13^th, from 7 am to 3 pm, the Red Water Pond Road Community will host its 40^th annual commemoration of the 1979 Uranium Tailings Spill, at a location 12 miles north of the Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566, near Church Rock.  At 7 am there will be a walk to the spill site to offer healing prayers and educational events.

Edith Hood, a resident of the Red Water Pond Road Community, said, “Let us come together again and share these issues and concerns, collaborate and strategize, to push cleanup of these contaminated environments among our Dine people, to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth.”

On Sunday, July 14^th, a Nuclear National Film Showing will take place in Gallup from noon to 4 pm.  40th Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration 19 Flyer

For more information, please visit http://swuraniumimpacts.org/

On Saturday, July 20^th, beginning at 7:30 pm, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will host its 10th Annual Candlelight Vigil to commemorate the harm experienced from the 1945 Trinity test.  It will be held at the Tularosa Little League Field, located west of the Tularosa High School.

The Downwinders will memorialize loved ones who have lost their lives to cancer and honor those who are living with or who have survived cancer by lighting luminarias with individual names written on the paper bags.

Tina Cordova, co-founder of the organization, said, “It’s difficult to grasp that we’ve been doing this for ten years now. Our list of deceased loved ones continues to grow.  We’ll light more than 800 luminarias this year, I’m certain.”

There will be a town hall meeting at the Tularosa Community Center at 2 pm.

TBDC Candlelight Vigil flyer 2019

For more information, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

1.  CCNS understands that the New Mexico Environment Department public meeting about its Oversight Bureau at LANL will be held on Monday, July 8, 2019, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos.  More information will be available soon at https://www.env.nm.gov/  

2.  Beginning on Wednesday, July 10th, and continuing as needed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a hearing on the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners application to store 40,000 tons of the nation’s deadly nuclear reactor spent fuel rods, at the Midland County Courthouse, 500 N. Lorraine Street, Midland, TX, at 9 am.

Opposition organizers are asking that you wear red.  The public will not have the opportunity to speak.  Nevertheless, your presence will make a difference.  For more information, please call or text David Rosen at (432) 634-6081.  Flyer for NRC WCS 7-10-19 Hearing

3.  The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous silo within the Department of Energy, released its draft Supplemental Analysis (SA) for expanded plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site (SRS) for public review and comment.  “NNSA is preparing the SA to determine whether, prior to proceeding with the action to produce plutonium pits at a rate of no fewer than 80 pits per year by 2030, the existing Complex Transformation Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement [also known as “The 2006 Bombplex Proposal”] should be supplemented, a new environmental impact statement prepared, or no further National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis is required.”  Comments are due no later than August 12, 2019 to NEPA-SRS@srs.gov.

The draft Bombplex Supplemental Analysis is available here: https://www.energy.gov/nepa/downloads/eis-0236-s4-sa-02-draft-supplement-analysis

The People defeated this proposal in the late ’00s – Let’s Do It Again!!!  Stay tuned for more information and sample public comments you can use.