CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 2/28/14 through 3/7/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

·   Remembering Fred Tyler, Co-Founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium

Fred Tyler, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, passed away suddenly on February 14^th from an unknown lung ailment.  Born in 1950 in the Tularosa Basin, Tyler was very active in his community and church, and was currently serving as a Tularosa Village Trustee.  For 35 years Tyler worked for the Army and Air Force Exchange.  During that time, he and his family moved 14 times before returning to Tularosa.  He soon became a pecan and grape farmer.

In 2004, Tyler co-founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium with Tina Cordova.  They both were raised in Tularosa and had heard the stories about the searing light that rose into the sky the morning of July 16, 1945.  The community had been told that it was a military ammunition cache that had exploded, but it was actually the first plutonium atomic weapon explosion at the Trinity Test Site some 35 miles northwest of Tularosa.  Over 13 pounds of plutonium did not fission and remains unaccounted for.

Tyler, the eldest son of Rufina Utter Tyler, had often heard the first hand stories of the blast from his mother who suffered multiple bouts of different forms of cancer.  Tyler had often wondered how the blast played in the cancer that ultimately took his mother.

Cordova researched the regional autoimmune disease and cancer statistics and found that, in 1999, the national average was 202.7 per 100,000 people.  In their Otero County, Cordova found it was 694.6.   In neighboring Lincoln County, the rate was 764.5 per 100,000 people.  The numbers have remained consistent throughout the years.

Cordova and Tyler founded the Consortium to gather data from family histories and individuals who may have been damaged by exposure to the Trinity radiation.  Reinforced with the data, they went to the congressional offices to ask for financial compensation and medical benefits for the New Mexico downwinders under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA). 

Senator Tom Udall has led the effort to include the Trinity downwinders in the proposed amendments to RECA, which is co-sponsored by Senator Martin Heinrich.  http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1272  Representative Ben Ray Lujan introduced a companion bill in the House, which is co-sponsored by Representatives Michelle Lujan Grisham and Steve Pearce.  http://lujan.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=3&sectiontree=&searchkey=radiation+exposure+compensation+act

In February, the New Mexico Legislature passed a House Memorial 36 in the support of the RECA amendments.  http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=H&LegType=M&LegNo=36&year=14  Representative Brian Egolf introduced the Memorial.  It was put on the Consent Order and passed unanimously on the House floor.  Senate Memorial 35, sponsored by Senator Howie Morales, did not get heard on the floor of the Senator.  The Senator was prepared to say on the floor, ““Senate Memorial 35 is dedicate to the life and work of Fred Tyler, co-founder of Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, who died during this session.”  Senator Morales, who is running for governor, is committed to advancing RECA however he is able.  Holly Beaumont, with Interfaith Worker Justice, led the effort to shepherd the memorial through the 30-day session.

Tina Cordova, said, “It is our honor to dedicate this Memorial to the memory of Fred Tyler who worked tirelessly to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include the people of New Mexico who have been damaged by exposure to radiation from the Trinity blast.  The work of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will go on but we will forever miss Fred and what he brought to our efforts.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook. 

For more information about the work of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, please open the link vimeo.com/85980906 to see a short video, “Forgotten:  Trinity’s Downwinders.”  Produced by journalists Dennis Carroll and Natalie Guillen, the sizzle reel features Fred Tyler and other Trinity Downwinders.  It was made to elicit support and contributions toward production of a full-length documentary that will tell the story of the decades-long suffering of those who lived near and downwind from the 1945 Trinity atomic test.

Sizzle Reel for “Forgotten: Trinity’s Downwinders” http://vimeo.com/85980906 About this video “Dismissed and abandoned for nearly 70 years, New Mexico residents who lived near the site of the first detonation of a nuclear bomb suffered in silence – until now. To contribute and be a part of this historic project, please visit the film’s Web site at childrenofthebomb.blogspot.com.”

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium has been working for years to expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include the people of New Mexico, as they were the first Downwinders.   Please share the film’s Web page link, childrenofthebomb.blogspot.com (no www) with everyone you know.  We need to bring attention to this issue. 

Tax-deductible gifts, made in Fred Tyler’s memory, can be made to CAPPED Support Services, 907 New York Avenue, Alamogordo, NM 88310, and phone number (575) 434-4673.   CAPPED Support Services is a non-profit cancer support center in Alamogordo that is accepting contributions for the Carroll and Guillen video “Forgotten: Trinity’s Downwinders.”  Please indicate in the memo line of your check that your contribution is for the documentary.  You can also make a contribution on the documentary’s Web page, childrenofthebomb.blogspot.com, or at www.capped.org.  Please designate Trinity Film Project in the purpose field.  

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium is extremely grateful for your support. 

 

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 2/21/14 through 2/28/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

·   Plutonium Leaks from WIPP While Plans to Expand the Site’s Capacity Proposed 

Shortly after the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) announced on Friday, February 14^th that a draft hazardous waste permit was available for 60 days of public review and comment, a release of radiation was detected in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground.  http://www.wipp.energy.gov/index.htm  The detection triggered the HEPA filtration system which is designed to capture much of the contamination before the air is released into the environment.  On Wednesday, February 19^th, the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center announced that plutonium and americium were found in an air monitoring station more than a half mile northwest of the WIPP exhaust shaft where filtered air is released.  Those radionuclides traveled more than a mile and a half from the presumed location of the underground release.  http://www.cemrc.org/

A press conference was held in Carlsbad on Thursday, February 20^th in which the Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn and the WIPP Manager Jose Franco both said that the release was “very serious.”  Franco explained that the underground leak was the first of its kind since WIPP opened almost 15 years ago for the disposal of plutonium-contaminated waste generated by the nuclear weapons complex.  He added that an investigation team will begin work soon.

Flynn explained the state’s view of the leak by saying, “Events like this should never occur. From the state’s perspective, one event is far too many. Our primary concern continues to be public safety.”

Flynn traveled to Carlsbad after he was notified that radiation had been detected above ground.  He said, “We are wondering why it took a couple of days to confirm the radiological event outside of the underground. We will demand that federal officials share information with the public in real time. That’s the reason we are here.”

At the same time the New Mexico Environment Department draft hazardous waste permit supports WIPP’s proposal to increase the underground disposal capacity by 25 percent to allow much more waste for disposal; to reduce safety protections for workers and the public by eliminating robust barriers that would lessen the amount of toxic chemicals and radioactivity that could be released to the environment; and to reduce the air monitoring program for volatile organic compounds or VOCs.  http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/wipp/index.html under “News”

Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, in Albuquerque, said, “Given the declining safety culture evidenced by the recent fire and radiation leak, this is no time to allow expansion of the capacity or the mission of WIPP.  Federal, Environment Department and public resources are best used now in understanding why the accidents happened, how to safely clean up the contamination, and how to prevent future accidents and leaks.”  See http://sric.org/nuclear/docs/WIPP_Leak_02262014.pdf

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

Recent articles about the WIPP fire and plutonium release:

ENE News has compiled a number of articles and comments – http://enenews.com/officials-theres-indications-of-a-nuclear-release-from-containers-at-new-mexico-waste-site-we-never-ever-thought-this-kind-of-an-event-would-occur-the-absolute-seriousness-of-this-is

Saturday, February 22, 2014 Carlsbad Current-Argus:  Town hall meeting to discuss WIPP radiation leak – http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_25206355/town-hall-meeting-discuss-wipp-radiation-leak?source=email

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board: Base WIPP response on science, not emotions – <http://www.abqjournal.com/author/editorial>

Other links:

WIPP Information at the Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD) website, researched and written by Deborah Reade – http://www.cardnm.org/

February 21, 2011, Analysis:  WIPP is no safe haven for nuclear materials – http://enviroleaks.org/2011/01/21/analysis-wipp-is-no-safe-haven-for-nuclear-materials/

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 2/14/14 through 2/21/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

·    DOE Begins Investigation of Vehicle Fire in WIPP Underground

The Department of Energy (DOE) Accident Investigation Board arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) on Monday, February 10^th to begin their investigation of the salt-hauling vehicle fire.  The fire started on the morning of Wednesday, February 5^th when a truck used for hauling salt in the underground WIPP mine caught fire for as yet unknown reasons.  The vehicle was being used to prepare space for proposed heater tests.  Immediate attempts to put out the fire were unsuccessful.  http://www.wipp.energy.gov/

All workers were safely evacuated to the surface.  Six employees were treated for smoke inhalation at the Carlsbad Medical Center and then released.  Four of them continue to be monitored by medical staff at the WIPP site.  Operations were suspended and shipments to the site were stopped.

WIPP is the nation’s only disposal site for plutonium-contaminated waste from nuclear bomb production.  The fire occurred in the northern part of the underground mine, near the salt handling shaft from which smoke billowed at the surface.  The shaft is more than 1,500 feet away from the nearest waste disposal rooms.

The Accident Investigation Board, comprised of officials from the DOE and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, will be supported by experts in the areas of fire protection, ventilation and mine safety.  How much time the investigation will take has not been decided.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board previously has raised issues about the adequacy of the fire protection system in the underground.  In 2011, the Defense Board, an independent federal agency that watches the DOE weapons sites around the country, reviewed the WIPP Fire Hazard Analysis, which assesses fire hazards and associated protections.  http://www.dnfsb.gov

The Defense Board stated, “The Board’s staff is concerned that the [Fire Hazard Analysis], while containing a complete analysis of the aboveground operations, does not adequately address the fire hazards and risks associated with the underground operations. Of particular concern to the staff is that the [Analysis] fails to recognize the potential impact of a fire on WIPP’s ability to process waste, and ultimately on the ability to reduce inventories of transuranic (TRU) waste at other DOE sites.”

In its December 2011 response, DOE stated, “Small fires would likely be detected and extinguished by facility personnel using the extinguishers positioned throughout the occupied portions of the mine.”   http://www.dnfsb.gov/board-activities/letters/doe-response-board-june-24-2011-reporting-requirement-outlining-actions-tak

Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, in Albuquerque, said, “The underground fire at WIPP should have been quickly extinguished, but it was not.  Clearly, the fire protection system proved to be inadequate and must be improved.”  http://www.sric.org

Hancock added, “The investigation should examine whether non-essential activities, such as proposed heater tests, increase underground fire hazards.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 2/7/14 through 2/14/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

 *  Salt-hauling Vehicle Catches Fire in WIPP Underground

On the morning of Wednesday, February 5^th, a truck used for hauling salt in the underground mine at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) caught fire for as yet unknown reasons.  Immediate attempts to put out the fire were unsuccessful.  All workers were safely evacuated to the surface.  Six employees were treated for smoke inhalation at the Carlsbad Medical Center and then released.  Operations were suspended and shipments to the site were stopped.  http://www.wipp.energy.gov/

WIPP is the nation’s only disposal site for plutonium-contaminated waste from nuclear bombs.  The football-field-size disposal rooms are located 2,150 feet below the surface of the earth in the Permian salt beds about 26 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico.  The fire occurred in the northern part of the underground mine, near the salt handling shaft from which smoke billowed at the surface.  The shaft is more than 1,500 feet away from the nearest waste disposal rooms.  Federal law allows WIPP to hold up to 6.2 million cubic feet of radioactive and hazardous waste; slightly more than half that amount has been emplaced since March 1999.

Later in the day, five members of a mine rescue team entered the mine, confirmed that the air was safe to breathe, and that the fire was extinguished.  As of 1:05 am on Thursday, February 6^th, the emergency situation was declared over by the Department of Energy (DOE), the federal agency in charge of the site.  As of the morning of Friday, February 7^th, DOE has yet to provide an official report of the cause of the fire and why fire suppression systems did not quickly extinguish the blaze, among other things.

Although there is no underground or surface air monitoring at the salt handling shaft near the fire, WIPP officials emphasized that there was no release of radioactive and toxic chemicals, apparently because of the size of the fire and the distance from the waste.

Don Hancock, director of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, in Albuquerque, said, “A fire in any mine is a very bad thing. And this kind of accident is never supposed to happen at WIPP.  The fire points out that diesel-fueled underground vehicles pose a fire danger and that mining should be done only as necessary.  Thus, mining for non-WIPP-related activities, such as the proposed heater tests, should be terminated.”  http://www.sric.org

Hancock added, “Since a planned maintenance outage is scheduled for February 14^th to March 10^th, no more waste should be trucked to WIPP until the maintenance is over, a full investigation is completed and made public, and actions are taken to prevent any future fires in the mine.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/24/14 through 1/31/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

•  BioInitiative 2012 Report Issues New Warnings on Wireless and Electromagnetic Fields

A new report by the BioInitiative Working Group 2012 says that we know enough to take action to lower the levels of exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic fields and wireless technologies.  The BioInitiative report, subtitled “A Rationale for Biologically-based Exposure Standards for Low-Intensity Electromagnetic Radiation,” says that since 2007, the health risks from electromagnetic radiation fields (EMFs) and wireless technologies have substantially increased.  http://www.bioinitiative.org

The study covers EMFs from powerlines, electrical wiring, appliances and hand-held devices, including cell and cordless phones, cell towers, smart meters, WiFi, wireless laptops, wireless routers, and baby monitors.  Health impacts include damage to DNA and genes, effects on memory, learning, behavior, attention, sleep disruption, cancer and neurological diseases.  The report reviewed over 1800 new scientific studies and concluded that all cell phone users are at risk, and that parents-to-be, pregnant women, and young children exposed to EMFs are at particular risk.  The BioInitiatives Working Group says that new safety standards are “urgently needed for protection against EMF and wireless exposures that now appear everywhere in daily life.”

One of the authors, Lennart Hardell, a physician at Orebro University in Sweden, says, “There is a consistent pattern of increased risk for glioma, [a malignant brain tumor] and acoustic neuoma with use of mobile and cordless phones.  Epidemiological evidence shows that radiofrequency should be classified as a human carcinogen.  The existing [] public safety limits and reference levels are not adequate to protect public health.”

Martha Herbert, a physician and PhD, says, “While we aggressively investigate the links between autism disorders and wireless technologies, we should minimize wireless and EMF exposures for people with autism disorders, children of all ages, people planning a baby, and during pregnancy.”  New studies indicate that wireless devices, such as phones and laptops, may alter brain development of the fetus.  In addition, hyperactivity and learning and behavioral problems have been linked to such use in both animal and human studies.

The BioInitiative website states, “Each wireless need had a wired solution in counterpart that has none of the health effects that wireless [radiofrequency radiation] does, with the exception of cell phone use for talking directly to someone.  It is time to re-think the wireless tsunami and educate people about health, privacy and security risks.  It is past time to develop new safety standards.  It is necessary now to look at less harmful ways to communicate, move ourselves from place to place, shop, sleep, recreate, save energy, and educate our children in school.  It is time to rethink our global commerce, energy, banking, transportation and communications infrastructures so we are all committed to sustaining healthy living spaces and conserve safe sanctuary for all species on earth.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/31/14 through 2/7/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

• Egolf and Morales Introduce Memorials in Support of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in New Mexico Legislature

Representative Brian F. Egolf, Jr., of Santa Fe, and Senator Howie Morales, of Silver City, introduced memorials into their respective New Mexico legislative bodies requesting that the New Mexico Congressional delegation support amendments to expand compensation under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) for individuals exposed to radiation.  The proposed amendments would expand compensation to include all of New Mexico, including those exposed to the July 16, 1945 Trinity Test of the first nuclear weapon, near Alamogordo.  As always, public participation will make a difference.  Please contact your New Mexico legislators and ask them to support Senate Memorial 35 and House Memorial 36.  http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=S&LegType=M&LegNo=35&year=14 and http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=H&LegType=M&LegNo=36&year=14

RECA was first passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, which provided some compensation to those who were exposed to radiation from certain atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Nevada and in the Pacific, along with uranium mining and processing operations, some of which occurred in New Mexico.

In 2013, U.S. Senator Tom Udall led a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Senator Martin Heinrich, to expand RECA to provide compensation, including medical benefits, for Americans sickened from working in uranium mines and related operations and living downwind and downstream of nuclear weapons tests.  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:SN00773:|/home/LegislativeData.php|  U.S. Representative Ben Ray Lujan introduced a companion bill in the House, which is co-sponsored by Representatives Michelle Lujan Grisham and Steve Pearce.  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:HR01645:|/home/LegislativeData.php|

In April 2013, Senator Tom Udall said, “We have seen the heartbreaking effects of those who sacrificed their health and lives by working or living near uranium mines and nuclear test sites in the mid-20th century.  Many Americans unwittingly paid the price for our national security, and unfortunately, some victims fell through the cracks in the original legislation. Expanding RECA will provide these individuals with recognition so that they can receive the much needed compensation they deserve.”  http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1272

The compensation would cover those who experienced the first bombing of innocent civilians living in the Tularosa Basin in July, 1945.  Tina Cordova, of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said,  “ The time has come for us to perform our most basic duty and that is to see to it that every man, woman and child in New Mexico who has suffered with, is suffering with or who has died from cancer and other diseases directly associated with radiation exposure  is compensated.  It is our moral and ethical duty and obligation.”

The New Mexico memorials congratulate Senator Udall and Representative Lujan “for their vision in introducing legislation to expand, under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, the rights of individuals exposed to radiation.”

To find your New Mexico legislators, go to www.nmlegis.gov.  Ask them to support House Memorial 36 and Senate Memorial 35.

Senate Memorial 35 will be heard in two committees before going to the floor, Senate Rules and Senate Judiciary.

House Memorial 36 will be heard in House Energy and Natural Resources before going to the floor.  Representative Egolf is the chair of that committee.

The memorials are identical and independent, which means either or both can pass or fail. They are not subject to the governor’s veto.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

WIPP Panel Closure:  Will it reduce safety? fact sheet

WIPP Panel Closure FS 1-15-14

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/17/14 through 1/24/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

• LANL Storm Water and EPA WIPP Meetings Next Week

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will hold a required public meeting about its individual storm water permit on Wednesday, January 22^nd from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cities of Gold Conference Center in Pojoaque.

The meeting will begin with a 20-minute poster session.  Then LANL will provide an overview of the 1,000 year flood events that occurred late last summer; provide an update about permit compliance in 2013; and provide information about the application they will submit soon to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a new permit.  Robert Chavez, the Youth Initiative Project Coordinator for the Communities for Clean Water, will also make a presentation about the new project.  Its purpose is to develop and enhance the capacity of youth who live downstream and downwind of LANL to become leaders and stewards for the protection and restoration of the health of Northern New Mexico communities impacted by historic and current operations at LANL.

LANL has a dedicated website for the storm water permit where you can sign up to receive meeting information. [for email version:  http://www.lanl.gov/community-environment/environmental-stewardship/protection/compliance/individual-permit-stormwater/index.php]

Additionally, the EPA will hold two meetings regarding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico next week.  The first will be held in Carlsbad on Wednesday, January 22^nd in the Main Auditorium of the Department of Energy (DOE), Carlsbad Field Office, from 1 to 4 pm.  The field office is located at 4021 National Parks Highway.  The second EPA meeting will be held in Albuquerque on Thursday, January 23^rd at the Albuquerque Embassy Suites Hotel and Spa, Sandia Ballroom, from 1 to 4 pm.  The hotel is located at 1000 Woodward Place, Northeast.  If there are a considerable number of requests from the public for an additional evening session in Albuquerque, a meeting from 6 to 8 pm will be added.

The public meetings are about the proposed rule for the redesign of the structures to be used to close the panels where plutonium-contaminated waste is disposed.  Because the waste generates hydrogen gas, the panel closures are needed to protect workers.  Instead of installing concrete monolith and mortared explosion walls, DOE has proposed a Run-of-Mine Salt Panel Closure System.  The proposed design will use the mined salt and steel bulkheads to seal the filled waste panels.  DOE claims that the new panel closure system will cost less and will reduce the impacts on disposing of waste, even though it is a much less robust barrier to prevent releases from the closed panels.   A 60-day public comment period closes on February 3, 2014.  For more information, please visit our website to download a fact sheet.  WIPP Panel Closure FS 1-15-14

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

 

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/10/14 through 1/17/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

• DOE Inspector General Finds Problems with Plutonium Facility Security Upgrades; Project Does Not Meet Seismic Standards

The Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General found that the DOE and Los Alamos National Security, LLC, did not take the required steps to properly manage the contractors hired for the $245 million security upgrade to the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  As a result, the project that was scheduled for completion in December will require as many as nine more months of work.  http://energy.gov/ig/downloads/special-report-doeig-0901

The security upgrades, which began in 2009, include building new security fences on the north and south sides and installing redundant security alarm systems.  The contractor, however, placed the security alarm fiber optic cables in the same location as the existing security systems, thereby eliminating the system redundancy.  As a result, DOE suspended the work.

The Plutonium Facility is the only facility in the U.S. that manufactures plutonium triggers, or pits, for nuclear weapons.  Over the past decade, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has issued many reports about the facility’s imminent and substantial danger to the public because of unsafe security, unsafe work practices and the great seismic hazard that exists on the Pajarito Plateau.

Last May, the Chair of the Defense Safety Board testified before Congress.  He said, “The risk posed by the Plutonium Facility at [LANL] remains among the Board’s greatest concerns. An earthquake resulting in collapse of the facility would likely result in very high radiological doses to the public in nearby towns. The Board continues to urge DOE to take meaningful, near-term action to mitigate this risk.”

In 2010, the Defense Safety Board recommended that DOE reduce the plutonium inventory.  Instead, DOE increased the powdered plutonium inventory for multi-year storage at the Plutonium Facility, which, even with the security upgrades, is not designed to meet the DOE seismic requirement to prevent the release of powdered plutonium.

In October 2013, the Union of Concerned Scientists described the plutonium as being “in powdered form and easily inhaled, so it poses a greater health risk than plutonium pits.”   http://www.ucsusa.org/  They also said, “Los Alamos stored four metric tons of plutonium as of September 2009.  The United States has declared 1.2 metric tons of that to be excess, and has likely moved that amount to Savannah River. The remaining 2.8 metric tons—enough for more than 1,000 pits—is available to produce new pits for nuclear warheads.”

In April 2012, the scientists said there is no need to manufacture new plutonium triggers for at least several decades.

Robert H. Gilkeson, an Independent Registered Geologist who has dedicated years to exposing the seismic danger, said,  “In light of the conclusion of the Union of Concerned Scientists report that we do not need the manufacture of new plutonium pits for a least several decades,  the imminent and substantial danger to the public from 1) the very large inventory of powdered plutonium at the Plutonium Facility; 2) the unsafe security; and 3) the record of unsafe work operations, the LANL Plutonium Facility should be immediately shut down.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/3/14 through 1/10/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

• Upcoming Events about Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Waste

The coming weeks bring discussions and decisions about nuclear weapons and nuclear waste.  We look forward with hope and trepidation.  Citizen involvement, as always, will be very significant to the results.  Congress will pass a $1 trillion spending bill; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be in New Mexico regarding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP); and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will hold its semi-annual public meeting for the individual storm water permit.

Although a place and time has not been determined for the public meeting about the individual storm water permit, the LANL meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 22^nd.  Meeting topics may include a review of the data from last summer’s storms; an update about permit compliance; and an overview of upcoming public participation opportunities, including the annual report submitted to the EPA.  LANL has a dedicated website for the storm water permit where you can sign up to receive meeting information.  http://www.lanl.gov/community-environment/environmental-stewardship/protection/compliance/individual-permit-stormwater/index.php]

The EPA will be hold an informal public meeting about the proposed rule for the redesign of the WIPP panel closures in Albuquerque, likely on Wednesday, January 22^nd.  Instead of installing a concrete monolith and mortared explosion walls, the Department of Energy (DOE), owner of WIPP, has proposed to install a Run-of-Mine Salt Panel Closure System.  The proposed design will use the mined salt and steel bulkheads to seal the filled waste panels.  DOE claims that the new Panel Closure System will cost less and will reduce the impacts on waste emplacement, even though it is a much less robust barrier to prevent releases from closed panels.   A 60-day public comment period closes on February 3, 2014.  For more information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/radiation/news/wipp-news.html

Congress is working on a $1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill, the result of the budget agreement by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Paul Ryan.  Both houses of Congress must pass the omnibus bill by January 16^th in order to avoid another government shutdown.

Nuclear weapons programs may be subject to additional cuts or increased funding.  Two major funding issues for LANL and Sandia are the DOE plans to spend more than $10 billion on 400 B-61 nuclear bombs and possible funding for a new design of the proposed Nuclear Facility for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project at LANL.  In the new Defense Authorization bill, Congress allowed a “modular building strategy as an alternative to the [CMRR] replacement project,” that would be operational by 2027, and would meet the “requirements for maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile over a 30-year period.”

CCNS will keep you posted about these and other nuclear weapons and waste issues.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 12/27/13 through 1/3/14

(THEME UP AND UNDER)  This is the CCNS News Update, an overview of the latest nuclear safety issues, brought to you every week by Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety.  Here is this week’s top headline:

• Area G Resolution Unanimously Passed by Santa Fe City Council
  

The Santa Fe City Council unanimously approved a resolution in early December requesting that the New Mexico Environment Department consider alternatives to leaving radioactive, toxic and hazardous waste buried at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Area G dump.  LANL has proposed to the Environment Department that the installation of a “cap and cover” over the 63-acre dump will protect the ground water beneath it.  The dump is estimated to contain a million cubic meters, or approximately 35 million cubic feet, of toxic waste.

Mayor David Coss introduced the resolution.  He is also the chair of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities.  He said that public comments at the monthly meetings consistently indicate that people don’t want Area G to become a permanent nuclear waste dump.  At the City Council meeting, more than a dozen people spoke in support of the resolution.  They stated that the dump must be excavated in order to protect groundwater.

Area G began operations in the late 1950s before there were laws protecting the land, air and water from pollution.  None of the dumps, dug out of the volcanic tuff, are lined.  Plumes of solvents and radioactive tritium have been found in the shallow water bodies below Area G.  Pollution also has been found in the regional aquifer below the dump.

Santa Fe has a special concern because two of its water supplies are located just five miles east of the dump.  Councilor Ron Trujillo declared, “This resolution has relevance for the City of Santa Fe.  That nuclear waste is close to the Rio Grande.  Should something catastrophic happen there I don’t want that hitting the Buckman [wells and diversion project].”

Communities downwind and downstream of LANL also have special concerns.  Mayor Coss encouraged communities up and down the Rio Grande to pass similar resolutions.  He said, “Santa Fe is the first but Santa Fe should not be the last” community to voice its concerns.

Teresa Chavez, of the Tewa Women United Environmental Justice Group, based in Espanola, supported the resolution.  She said that cleanup would “result in a tremendous positive impact.  Passing this resolution would be a step toward allowing the land and our people to heal.”

CCNS, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, and Independent Registered Geologist Robert H. Gilkeson worked many hours to refine the resolution.  They inserted protective wording that requires LANL to conduct field studies of the ground water below the dumps, as well as conduct seismic field studies of the LANL site, both as required by the hazardous waste laws and Department of Energy orders.  They will continue to monitor the journey of the resolution.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  For more information and to make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org.