Mission

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

Our mission is to protect all living beings and the environment from the effects of radioactive and other hazardous materials now and in the future.

P.O. Box 31147
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594

Telephone: (505) 986-1973
Email: ccns@nuclearactive.org

Learn more »

Our Work

Support CCNS

Help us help you. We gratefully accept donations to assist our organization in protecting all living beings and the environment from the effects of radioactive and other hazardous materials now and in the future.

Make a one-time contribution by using the "Donate" button:


 
Current Activities

2025 Highlights and What is in Store for 2026

Please allow us to state the obvious:  2025 has been a busy year in terms of addressing proposals for MORE to support the growing nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico.  From Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration have big plans. Specifically, we’ll continue to oppose them.

From a proposed LANL electrical line across the Caja del Rio, to venting of radioactive tritium from containers that had been in storage for decades, to the discovery of the expansion of the chromium plume to Pueblo de San Ildefonso, the harm continues.

In 2026 new proposals for expanded plutonium pit production are on the table. In the spring, we’ll have the opportunity to provide comments about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production at LANL and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Presidential Executive Orders may well be used to change and obliterate the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, limiting the public scoping comment period to 30 days.  And inevitably, it will be scheduled during Holy Week or other traditional spring holidays.

There will be educational trainings about the nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico and how to prepare effective scoping comments.

CCNS will continue the fight for proper regulation of LANL’s Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility (RLWTF).  It is a key facility that handles, treats and stores plutonium-contaminated and low-level wastewaters from the Plutonium Facility, or PF-4.  Underground pipes and trucks deliver contaminated waters to the RLWTF.

There is one discharge pipe from the RLWTF into Effluent Canyon.  For nearly a decade, LANL used a mechanical evaporator system to dispose of the treated liquids into the air. Then LANL began discharging through the pipe again.

That one discharge pipe is regulated by both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department.  The federal and state discharge permitting processes generally run in tandem, which doubles the work for small grassroots organizations, like CCNS.

Currently, EPA and LANL’s nuclear weapons contractor, Triad National Security, LLC, are challenging our standing before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.  And Triad is challenging our standing before the New Mexico Supreme Court. Our filings are due to both courts in early January.

Your financial support is needed more than ever.  Please consider signing up to make a monthly contribution on our website at nuclearactive.org.  Together we are making a difference!


  1. Friday, December 26th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

 

  1. SAVE THE DATES – April 4th – 11th, 2026: Shut Down Drone Warfare at Alamogordo and Holloman AFB. For more information, email  nmvetsforpeace@gmail.com

 

 

  1. If you appreciate our work, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to CCNS before the end of the year. We’re on Paypal, or mail your contribution to:  CCNS, POB 31147, Santa Fe, NM  87594-1147.  Thank you!!!
 

Less Than 50 Days Before New START Treaty Expires! Contact Your Congressional Members to Stop A New U.S. – Russia Arms Race

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or the New START Agreement, is set to expire on Thursday, February 5th, 2026 – in less than 50 days.  The New START Agreement is the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation.

It was signed in 2010.  It limits the number of strategic long-term nuclear warheads and launchers that the United States and Russia can deploy.

And, without any New START Agreement, there would be no limits on United States and Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles.

In September, President Putin offered a one-year extension; President Trump, unfortunately, has not responded in an official manner. https://nuclearactive.org/putin-proposed-to-extend-new-start-treaty-for-one-year-trump-has-not-formerly-responded/

This is where you come in.  The Treaty must be extended for at least one year.  Engage your social media contacts, make calls and texts to friends, family and talk shows, pray, write letters to the editor.  Contact your Congressional members and urge them to do everything they can to extend the New START Agreement. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard Line is (202) 224-3121.

Indeed, we are in dark times. Under the existing Treaty, Russia and the United States have roughly 10,000 nuclear weapons, or 87 percent of the global inventory.  According to the Federation of American Scientists, China possesses about 600 warheads.

The Treaty sets caps on the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, land- and submarine-based missiles, and delivery vehicles that the United States and Russia may deploy in the event of nuclear war. In doing so, the Treaty increases and strengthens verification measures, transparency, encourages increased communication, and reduces the risk of miscalculation.

This week Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CARES) https://trivalleycares.org/,  Friends Committee on National Legislation https://www.fcnl.org , Arms Control Association https://www.armscontrol.org/ , and numerous partner groups across the country are mobilizing to urge Members of Congress to act now to ensure that the limits on nuclear weapons in the New START Agreement do not expire. Talking points are available on Tri-Valley CARES website at https://trivalleycares.org/2025/national-call-in-day-december-17th-to-stop-new-u-s-russia-arms-race Make your calls today!

Reports from congressional offices tell us that when they receive a sustained number of phone calls in a short time, it helps to raise issues on legislators’ priority lists.  Always mention that you are a constituent of the legislator you are calling and remind them that diplomacy is far superior to a dangerous new arms race and should be vigorously pursued.

A successor to the New START Agreement can, and should, serve as a stepping-stone to further reductions in the nuclear weapons stockpiles of both countries and hold open the door to future negotiations.

Peace is Possible.


 

  1. Friday, December 19th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 20th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza – The Santa Fe Raging Grannies invite you to sing along with them on your favorite holiday “carols” turned into protest songs. Join us, won’t you?

 Sing along to songs like:

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fascism

Auld Lang Syne for Freedom

Walking in a Nuclear Wasteland

I’m Dreaming of a Kind Christmas … and many more.

 

 

  1. SAVE THE DATES – April 4th – 11th, 2026: Shut Down Drone Warfare at Alamogordo and Holloman AFB. For more information, email  nmvetsforpeace@gmail.com

 

 

  1. If you appreciate our work, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution before the end of the year. We’re on Paypal (see button on top right of page) or mail your contribution to:  CCNS, POB 31147, Santa Fe, NM  87594-1147. Venmo coming soon! Thank you!!!
 

Putin Proposed to Extend New START Treaty for One Year; Trump Has Not Formerly Responded

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is set to expire on Thursday, February 5th, 2026.  In late September, President Putin proposed to extend the treaty for one year.  President Trump has yet to formerly respond.  On October 5th, he said, “[It] sounds like a good idea to me.”

This is where you come in.  The Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation must be extended for one year.  Engage your social media contacts, make calls and texts to friends, family and talk shows, pray, write letters to the editor.  Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to do everything they can to extend New START.  https://armscontrolcenter.org/understanding-new-start-agreement/

Extending it would allow the only remaining bilateral nuclear weapons treaty to continue. The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) describes the Treaty as “the centerpiece of global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.”  https://www.iaea.org/publications/documents/treaties/npt

Granted we are in dark times. Under the Treaty, Russia and the United States have roughly 10,000 nuclear weapons, or 87 percent of the global inventory.  According to the Federation of American Scientists, China has about 600 warheads.

The Treaty sets caps on the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, land- and submarine-based missiles, and delivery vehicles that the United States and Russia may deploy in the event of nuclear war.  Even so, the Treaty increases and strengthens the verification measures and transparency between them.  It encourages increased communication.  It reduces the risk of miscalculation.

On November 9th, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to Russian news service RIA Novosti.  In response to a question about the pending expiration of New START, he said, “The constructive initiative put forward by President Vladimir Putin in the post-New START context speaks for itself.  It contains no hidden agenda and is perfectly clear for understanding.  Its practical implementation would not require any special additional efforts.  Therefore, we do not consider it necessary to hold in depth discussions on this proposal…. So far, there has been no substantive response from Washington.”  https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2025-12/features/getting-most-out-new-start-it-expires

Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to save the Treaty.

It is not complicated.

No negotiations are needed.

Agree to extend the Treaty for one year.

Stop a new arms race.

Peace is Possible.


  1. Friday, December 12th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 13th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza – The Santa Fe Raging Grannies invite you to sing along with them on your favorite holiday carols. The lyrics, of course, are revised as only the Raging Grannies can do!  Join us, won’t you?

 Sing along to songs like:

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fascism

Auld Lang Syne for Freedom

Walking in a Nuclear Wasteland

I’m Dreaming of a Kind Christmas … and many more.

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 13th through Monday, December 15th from 11 am to 3 pm – Site Santa Fe is hosting Exposure: Portraits at the Edge of the Nuclear

As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.

Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.

On the 13th and 14th they will have a discussion at 2pm where activists (including Terry on Sunday and Laura on Saturday) will discuss current nuclear affairs.  https://www.sitesantafe.org/en/events/exposure-portraits-at-the-edge-of-the-nuclear/

 

 

  1. Wednesday, December 17th from 5 to 7 pm at SALA Event Center and Via Microsoft Teams – EM-LA and N3B to Present a Year-in-Review and Discuss Hexavalent Chromium Plume – LANL Environmental Management Cleanup Forum – with public Q&A. For more information and virtual meeting links:  https://n3b-la.com/emcf-12-17-2025/
 

Resumption of Nuclear-Explosive Testing: A Dangerous Path – An Editorial by Dr. John Burroughs of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy

SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Dec 2 2025 (IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency) – In a Truth Social post that reverberated around the world, on October 29 President Donald Trump wrote: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”

A month later, it remains unclear what “testing programs” Trump had in mind. Other than North Korea, which last tested in 2017, no country has carried out nuclear-explosive testing since 1998.

Some commentators speculated that Trump was referring to tests of nuclear weapons delivery systems, since Russia had just carried out tests of innovative systems, a long-range torpedo and a nuclear-powered cruise missile.

Perhaps to underline that the United States too tests delivery systems, in an unusual November 13 press release Sandia National Laboratories announced an August test in which an F-35 aircraft dropped inert nuclear bombs.

It appears, though, that the testing in question concerns nuclear warheads. In what was clearly an effort to contain the implications of Trump’s announcement, on November 2, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said regarding US plans that “I think the tests we’re talking about right now” involve “noncritical” rather than “nuclear” explosions. The Energy Department is responsible for development and maintenance of the nuclear arsenal.

In contrast, Trump’s remarks in an interview taped on October 31 point toward alleged underground nuclear-explosive testing by Russia, China, and other countries as the basis for parallel US testing. His remarks perhaps were sparked by years-old US intelligence assessments that Russia and China may have conducted extremely low-yield experiments that cannot be detected remotely.

The prudent approach is to assume that Trump is talking about a US return to nuclear-explosive testing. That assumption is reinforced by the fact that a few days after Trump’s social media post, the United States was the sole country to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

The Russian government is taking this approach. On November 5, President Vladimir Putin ordered relevant agencies to study the possible start of preparations for explosive testing of nuclear warheads.

US resumption of nuclear-explosive testing would be a disastrous policy. It would elevate the role of nuclear arms in international affairs, making nuclear conflict more likely. Indeed, nuclear tests can function as a kind of threat.

It likely would also stimulate and facilitate nuclear arms racing already underway among the United States, Russia, and China. Over the longer term nuclear-explosive testing would encourage additional countries to acquire nuclear weapons, as they come to terms with deeper reliance on nuclear arms by the major powers.

Resumption of nuclear test explosions would also be contrary to US international obligations. The United States and China have signed but not ratified the CTBT. Russia is in the same position, having withdrawn its ratification in 2023 to maintain parity with the United States. Due to the lack of necessary ratifications, the CTBT has not entered into force. Since the CTBT was negotiated in 1996, the three countries have observed a moratorium on nuclear-explosive testing.

That posture is consistent with the international law obligation, set forth in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, of a signatory state to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty.

The object and purpose of the CTBT is perfectly clear: to prevent and prohibit the carrying out of a nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.

The CTBT is a major multilateral agreement with an active implementing organization that operates a multi-faceted world-wide system to verify the testing prohibition. It stands as a precedent for a future global agreement or agreements that would control fissile materials used to make nuclear weapons, control missiles and other delivery systems, and reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals.

The sidelining or evisceration of the CTBT due to an outbreak of nuclear-explosive testing would reverse decades of progress towards establishing a nuclear-weapons-free world.

A return to nuclear-explosive testing would similarly be incompatible with compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Its Article VI requires the negotiation of “cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date.”

Nuclear-explosive testing has long been understood as a driver of nuclear arms racing. The preamble to the NPT recalls the determination expressed in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits above-ground nuclear tests, “to seek to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time and to continue negotiations to this end.”

In 1995, as part of a package enabling the NPT’s indefinite extension, a review conference committed to completion of negotiations on the CTBT by 1996, which was accomplished. In 2000 and 2010, review conferences called for bringing the CTBT into force.

To resume nuclear-explosive testing though a comprehensive ban has been negotiated, and to support design and development of nuclear weapons through such testing, would be a thoroughgoing repudiation of a key aim of the NPT, the cessation of the nuclear arms race.

That would erode the legitimacy of the NPT, which since 1970 has served as an important barrier to the spread of nuclear arms. The next review conference will be held in the spring of 2026. Resumption of nuclear-explosive testing, or intensified preparations to do so, would severely undermine any prospect of an agreed outcome.

It is imperative that the United States not resume explosive testing of nuclear weapons. It would be a very hard blow to the web of agreements and norms that limit nuclear arms and lay the groundwork for their elimination, and it could even lead toward the truly catastrophic consequences of a nuclear conflict.  https://www.ipsnews.net/2025/12/resumption-of-nuclear-explosive-testing-a-dangerous-path/

              Dr John Burroughs is Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. https://www.lcnp.org/


  1. Friday, December 5th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

 

  1. Friday, December 5th from 3 to 5 pm – Healing Sacred Relations: Counter-Mapping Nuclear Colonialism in New Mexico for launch of the Story Map in the Frank Waters Room in UNM’s Zimmerman Library.  A cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental collaboration between Faculty and Students in UNM Department of Art [Art & Ecology RAVEL Spring 2025, lead by Kaitlin Bryson and Rachel Bordeleau] and UNM Geography & Environmental Studies Department [Critical Cartography Fall 2025, lead by Tybur Casuse].

Students and Faculty from both courses worked closely and collaboratively with our community partners:  Communities for Clean Water, Tewa Women United, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and the Northern New Mexico College and Northern Stewards Program.  Refreshments provided.

 

 

  1. Monday, December 8thLast Day to register for YUCCA’s We Got Us Bootcamp or Youth Summit. In January, YUCCA will host We Got Us –a weekend of training, solidarity and collective action that will culminate in a mass mobilization at the State Capitol on the Opening day of the 2026 Legislative Session.  https://www.yuccanm.org/post/we-got-us-train-up-and-take-action-with-us-in-january

 

 

  1. Tuesday, December 9th from 5:30 pm to 7 pm at the SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Avenue, Los Alamos – NNSA schedules HYBRID public meeting to discuss data from LANL flanged tritium waste containers (FTWC) venting. https://losalamosreporter.com/2025/11/29/nnsa-public-meeting-set-for-dec-9-to-discuss-data-from-lanl-flanged-tritium-waste-containers-depressurization/ and https://www.ccwnewmexico.org/tritium

Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86235824828?pwd=zCBisrAgasSL2ZnhuiRlZw67azyXEE.1

Meeting ID: 862 3582 4828; Passcode: 463520

On November 14th, NNSA shipped the fourth FTWC offsite for permanent storage and posted Volume 1 of the FTWC Radioactive Air Emissions Summary, Volume 1 Stack Emissions & Off-Site Dose Consequence report

 

 

  1. Wednesday, December 10th from noon to 1:30 pm MT, Sovereign Tea Community Conversations on Environmental Justice on Zoom. Learn how to support New Mexico Environmental Justice movements. SovereignTea Dec 2025 flyer  We’ll hear about:
  • the recent Water Quality Control Commission vote
  • updates in the NM LAWS case
  • new information on the growing hexavalent chromium plume
  • a new campaign from Healthy Climate New Mexico

Questions? Chenoa@tewawomenunited.org

Please register here: https://bit.ly/EJ-Winter-Workshops

 Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83070117493

Meeting ID: 830 7011 7493

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 13th through Monday, December 15th from 11 am to 3 pm – Site Santa Fe is hosting Exposure: Portraits at the Edge of the Nuclear

 As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.

Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.

On the 13th and 14th they will have a discussion at 2pm where activists (including Terry on Sunday and Laura on Saturday) will discuss current nuclear affairs.  https://www.sitesantafe.org/en/events/exposure-portraits-at-the-edge-of-the-nuclear/

 

 

8. Wednesday, December 17th from 5 to 7 pm at SALA Event Center and Via Microsoft Teams – EM-LA and N3B to Present a Year-in-Review and Discuss Hexavalent Chromium Plume – LANL Environmental Management Cleanup Forum – with public Q&A. https://n3b-la.com/emcf-12-17-2025/

 

NMED Requires LANL to Stop All Injection Operations into Regional Drinking Water Aquifer

In a protective move, on Friday, November 18th, the New Mexico Environment Department required the Department of Energy (DOE) to cease all injection operations of treated waters back into the sole source regional drinking water aquifer shared by Pueblo de San Ildefonso, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and others.  2025-11-18-WPD-GWQB-NMED-Withdrawal-of-Temporary-Authorization-for-DP-1835-Final and EMID-704003_EMLA-26-BF028-2-1_Resp_DP-1835_Temp_Auth_WD_112125

In October, hexavalent chromium contamination was found beneath Pueblo de San Ildefonso while LANL was drilling a new well on the Pueblo, called San Ildefonso Regional Monitoring Well 3, or SIMR-3, in Mortandad Canyon. The Pueblo and LANL share borders in the area of Mortandad Canyon.

In Friday’s letter, the Environment Department wrote to LANL that “[S]ince 2021, DOE has neither complied with [the Environment Department’s] regulatory directives nor made substantial progress towards ensuring the protection of the regional aquifer. The latest sampling results from SIMR-3 prove that DOE’s refusal to take appropriate steps to ensure that contamination does not migrate further in the regional aquifer or offsite has created the harm to the environment that [the Environment Department] sought to prevent.”

Further, “DOE’s actions, as well as its inactions, in ignoring [the Environment Department’s] years-long insistence that DOE comply with regulations, look at the alarming contaminant trends, and take actions to reduce and reverse the contaminant trends, show that DOE apparently does not value preservation of the sole source regional aquifer, and instead prioritizes costs and effort minimization to the detriment of the environment and human health.”

The Environment Department’s strong language enforces why we must raise our voices in support of thorough cleanup of LANL watersheds and the dumps located near or in them. The contaminant pathways to the regional aquifer have been established.  They cannot be ignored.  They must be addressed now.

The New Mexico Environment Department permit that allows LANL to extract contaminated waters from the aquifer for treatment and to inject the treated waters back into the aquifer is called Discharge Permit 1835, or DP-1835.

CCNS led the Communities for Clean Water (CCW) effort for a more protective DP-1835 permit.  Together we participated in the early negotiations, in public meetings and provided public education materials.  We argued for lower chromium standards.  The permit requires LANL to comply with chromium standards that are less than 90 percent of New Mexico’s numeric standard of 0.05 milligrams per liter (mg/l) – or set at or less than 0.045 milligrams per liter (mg/l).  We celebrate the change as it sets a precedent for more protective chromium standards for other water quality permits.  2016-08-21 – WPD GWQB DP-1835 Final DP


  1. Thursday, November 27th from 10 am to 3 pm – Thanksgiving Potluck at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard Drive SE, Albuquerque at the intersection of Harvard and Silver. https://www.abqpeaceandjustice.org/events/at-the-center

 

 

  1. Friday, November 28th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

 

  1. Tuesday, December 2nd at 7 pm at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos – An Evening With: The Nagasaki Hibakusha Friendship Association.  Chiyoko Motomura and Dr. Masao Tomonaga will speak about their childhood memories of the 1945 bombings, the lessons learned from those events and how to move forward in more constructive ways of peacemaking and diplomacy.  https://ladailypost.com/lanl-and-community-invited-to-attend-historic-talk-by-two-survivors-from-nagasaki-dec-2-at-fuller-lodge/

 

 

  1. Friday, December 5th from 3 to 5 pm – Healing Sacred Relations: Counter-Mapping Nuclear Colonialism in New Mexico for launch of the Story Map in the Frank Waters Room in UNM’s Zimmerman Library.  A cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental collaboration between Faculty and Students in UNM Department of Art [Art & Ecology RAVEL Spring 2025, lead by Kaitlin Bryson and Rachel Bordeleau] and UNM Geography & Environmental Studies Department [Critical Cartography Fall 2025, lead by Tybur Casuse].  Students and Faculty from both courses worked closely and collaboratively with our community partners:  Communities for Clean Water, Tewa Women United, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and the Northern New Mexico College and Northern Stewards Program.  Refreshments provided.

 

 

  1. Monday, December 8thLast Day to register for YUCCA’s We Got Us Bootcamp or Youth Summit. In January, YUCCA will host We Got Us –a weekend of training, solidarity and collective action that will culminate in a mass mobilization at the State Capitol on the Opening day of the 2026 Legislative Session.  https://www.yuccanm.org/post/we-got-us-train-up-and-take-action-with-us-in-january

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 13th through Monday, December 15th from 11 am to 3 pm – Site Santa Fe is hosting Exposure: Portraits at the Edge of the Nuclear

As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.

Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.

On the 13th and 14th they will have a discussion at 2pm where activists (including Terry on Sunday and Laura on Saturday) will discuss current nuclear affairs.  https://www.sitesantafe.org/en/events/exposure-portraits-at-the-edge-of-the-nuclear/

 

Los Alamos Warns the West Mesa: Stop the Next Perchlorate and Chromium Crisis

For over 25 years, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) has fought to protect surface and groundwater from radioactive, toxic and hazardous contamination from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  In 2004, that campaign expanded to contain the co-located perchlorate and chromium plume – contamination that migrated into the top of the 1,000 foot deep aquifer below LANL, Pueblo de San Ildefonso and the Española Basin Sole Source Drinking Water Aquifer.  https://www.epa.gov/dwssa/overview-drinking-water-sole-source-aquifer-program#What_Is_SSA Despite federal assurances and repeated promises of a solution, the plume remains unresolved.

That history should be a flashing red warning light for every Rio Rancho and Sandoval County resident now facing Project Ranger, a proposed hypersonic rocket motor and detonation facility approved without baseline science, transparency, or lawful process. https://www.castelion.com/news/castelion-announces-project-ranger/ The same patterns that delayed accountability at LANL are reappearing on the West Mesa—only this time the risks include perchlorate, hazardous propellants, explosive residues, and the wildfire threats of a high-hazard industrial site.

For more information, visit the informative website of Common Ground Rising. https://commongroundrising.org/  Its mission is to to educate, organize, and implement community grassroots committees to take action that protects our environment against the drivers of climate change, that impacts watershed, air, public health and safety.

Project Ranger Claims: “The site is 1,000 feet above groundwater.”  The project’s contractor, Ron Bohannon, has repeatedly used this statement with no scientific meaning to reassure residents.

Being “1,000 feet above groundwater” does not prevent contamination when dealing with PFAS, ammonium perchlorate, explosive waste, or chemical runoff. Decades of Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of Defense research show that perchlorate in arid soils migrates laterally, moving through shallow and intermediate aquifer layers—just as chromium migrated laterally from LANL into Pueblo lands.

And the most critical fact remains:  Project Ranger did not provide baseline groundwater, air, soil, or wildfire assessments before the City of Rio Rancho and Sandoval County approved Project Ranger.  One cannot declare minimal risk when the science investigation has been deliberately skipped.

We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of Los Alamos. Once contamination begins, it moves, grows, and becomes exponentially more difficult to contain. CCNS’s decades-long struggle proves this. Project Ranger without scientific review is not national security; it is reckless public endangerment.

The Bottom Line.  Before a single rocket motor is mixed or a single detonation occurs, residents must demand full hydrology studies, wildfire analyses, contamination modeling, lawful public hearings, and independent citizen based oversight of Project Ranger.

New Mexico cannot afford another groundwater disaster.


  1. Friday, November 21st from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has published a resource guide to viewing “A House of Dynamite.”  https://thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-bulletin-resource-guide-to-viewing-a-house-of-dynamite/

 

  1. Thursday, November 27th from 10 am to 3 pm – Thanksgiving Potluck at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard Drive SE, Albuquerque at the intersection of Harvard and Silver. https://www.abqpeaceandjustice.org/events/at-the-center

 

 

  1. Tuesday, December 2nd at 7 pm at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos –An Evening With: The Nagasaki Hibakusha Friendship Association.  Chiyoko Motomura and Dr. Masao Tomonaga will speak about their childhood memories of the 1945 bombings, the lessons learned from those events and how to move forward in more constructive ways of peacemaking and diplomacy.  https://ladailypost.com/lanl-and-community-invited-to-attend-historic-talk-by-two-survivors-from-nagasaki-dec-2-at-fuller-lodge/

 

 

  1. Saturday, December 13th through Monday, December 15th from 11 am to 3 pm – Site Santa Fe is hosting Exposure: Portraits at the Edge of the Nuclear

As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.

Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.

On the 13th and 14th they will have a discussion at 2pm where activists (including Terry on Sunday and Laura on Saturday) will discuss current nuclear affairs.  https://www.sitesantafe.org/en/events/exposure-portraits-at-the-edge-of-the-nuclear/

 

LANL Reneges on Active Confinement Ventilation Systems at PF-4

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) continues to neglect its obligations to safely operate its nuclear weapons facilities in a manner required by laws, orders, guidance and common sense.

A recent report from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB or the Board) details the threats from the release of plutonium contaminated air during a seismic event from the LANL Plutonium Facility, or PF-4.  For over 20 years, the Board has recommended that LANL establish active confinement ventilation systems for PF-4, and LANL agreed.  https://www.dnfsb.gov/content/review-los-alamos-plutonium-facility-documented-safety-analysis

Active confinement ventilation systems require negative air pressure in rooms and buildings where plutonium is stored, handled and processed.  In the event of seismic activity, or other possible catastrophic events, the negative air pressure would keep the contamination inside where it could be held and filtered before being released.

The converse, which is called passive confinement systems, would do nothing.  No filtration would occur.  Contaminated air would move out of the building and into the air we breathe.  Depending on the wind direction, radioactive plutonium particles would be deposited in neighborhoods, on hiking trails, fields, school grounds, and in the Rio Grande.

The first major report about the Board’s recommendations for active confinement systems was in 2004 – over 20 years ago.  In a case of fits and starts, progress to establish active confinement systems moved forward and then were delayed.  The Board has been consistent in its nuclear safety recommendations for active confinement systems, not less.

In 2009, the Board again recognized on-going safety issues at the Plutonium Facility because of the lack of active confinement systems.  The Board described the very large potential doses the public may receive following seismic events.  The Board and LANL continued the conversation for years.

In March 2022, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator reversed the commitment for active confinement systems.  The Administrator wrote to the Board stating that its focus would shift from active confinement systems to passive confinement systems where NNSA would manage obsolescence, do incremental upgrades and install replacements as needed.  The NNSA commitment to active confinement systems was out the window, like plutonium blowing in the wind.  The Administrator wrote an active confinement ventilation system “would require substantial facility upgrades for in excess to those that are currently planned.”

NNSA’s priorities remain – to ignore common sense.  NNSA’s shift to passive confinement systems would deny the public the protection needed from the anticipated very large radioactive plutonium doses from the Plutonium Facility in a seismic event.


  1. Friday, November 14th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. Read Joe Cirincione’s article A House of Dynamite Explodes the Missile Defense Myth: It is no wonder the interceptors fail in the film. This is an accurate portrayal of what is likely to happen in a crisis in New Republic (October 15, 2025). Cirincione is a national security analyst and author in Washington, D.C.

 

  1. Thursday, November 13th and Friday, November 14th International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo National Museum in Window Rock, Arizona. The IUFF showcases an array of compelling films and explores the detrimental impacts of the uranium fuel chain on communities around the world. Organizers believe the films are a necessary part of the ongoing resistance to nuclear, specifically for public health and harm reduction efforts. For more information, visit: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
 

Trump’s Threat to Resume Nuclear Testing

In 1963 John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev signed the ban on atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, which was extended to a moratorium in 1992 and secured as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. The Treaty has been signed by 187 states. On October 31st, United Nations member states voted on a resolution in support of the Treaty and the global nuclear test moratorium. The United States was the only “no” vote.

Donald Trump is now threatening to resume nuclear testing because “he believes others are doing it.” They aren’t. The threat came after Vladimir Putin announced that the Kremlin had successfully experimented with a torpedo capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.  But if the United States does, they will, too.  https://www.reuters.com/world/china/putin-says-russia-tested-poseidon-nuclear-capable-super-torpedo-2025-10-29/

Tied to this is the situation at Los Alamos National Laboratory, or LANL, the heart of the new trillion-dollar modernization program that will rebuild every nuclear warhead in the planned stockpile with new military capabilities and produce new-design nuclear weapons as well. LANL will fabricate plutonium pits, or triggers, for these nuclear warheads, along with the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

A Nuclear Watch New Mexico press release stated: “The underlying point is that new-design plutonium pits for new-design nuclear weapons may create inexorable pressures for resumed nuclear weapons testing by the United States. This would be sure to set off a chain reaction of testing by other nuclear weapons powers [ ]. The final result is a dramatically accelerating nuclear arms race, arguably more dangerous than the first arms race given multiple nuclear actors, new hypersonic and cyber weapons, and the rise of artificial intelligence.”  https://nukewatch.org/press-release-item/trump-orders-nuclear-weapons-testing-for-new-nuclear-arms-race-new-plutonium-pit-bomb-cores-at-los-alamos-lab-could-make-it-real/

According to the Arms Control Association, it would take 18 to 36 months to establish a contained, full-scale underground nuclear test in the Nevada desert. The association notes, “In 1992, Congress acted to end U.S. testing and can do so again. Thirty-six hours after Trump’s pronouncement, Congresswoman Dina Titus, of Nevada, backed by her delegation and the Arms Control Association, introduced a bill to block resumption of U.S. nuclear testing.” https://www.armscontrol.org/2025-11/take-action-tell-congress-you-oppose-resumption-nuclear-explosive-testing

As a result of the lawsuit filed by Nuclear Watch, Savannah River Site Watch, and Tri-Valley CAREs, the Department of Energy will release a draft Plutonium Pit Production Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement around March 2026. Public hearings will be held around the country, including in Santa Fe.  Once again, the public will need to express its strong opposition to plutonium pit production.

This has been the CCNS News Update, which was adapted from La Jicarita News. https://lajicarita.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/trumps-knee-jerk-threat-to-resume-nuclear-testing/

Contact your two Senators to stop resumption of nuclear weapons testing.


  1. Friday, November 7th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. Read Joe Cirincione’s article A House of Dynamite Explodes the Missile Defense Myth: It is no wonder the interceptors fail in the film. This is an accurate portrayal of what is likely to happen in a crisis in New Republic (October 15, 2025). Cirincione is a national security analyst and author in Washington, D.C.

 

 

  1. Thursday, November 6th from 4 to 6 pm – HYBRID WIPP Community Forum at Southwest New Mexico College, Room 103, Main Building, 1500 University Drive, Carlsbad, NM, hosted by U.S. Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO). There will be a short update about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with a question and answer period to follow.  Bring your questions about getting the Waste Off the Hill.  To register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uNCfTOvqS6-62wVIx6ATGA#/registration

 

 

  1. Saturday, November 8th from noon to 3:30 pm PT – Virtual afternoon sharing memories and tributes to the life and legacy of Dan Hirsch. RSVP to committeetobridgethegap@gmail.com, indicating if you are able to attend in person and the number in your party. If you can’t make it to Simi Valley, there will be a Zoom option starting at 1 pm.  Please click here if you’d like to register for the Zoom; once you’ve registered, you’ll be sent the Zoom info.  Dan’s obituary may be found here.

 

 

  1. Monday, November 10th – Meeting of the NM Legislature Radioactive & Hazardous Waste Committee at Roundhouse in Santa Fe. The agenda will be posted when available at https://www.nmlegis.gov/Committee/Interim_Committee?CommitteeCode=RHMC

 

 

  1. Tuesday, November 11th, beginning at 10:30 am on the Santa Fe Plaza. Please join Veterans For Peace Santa Fe chapter for an Armistice Day Peace Vigil.  Bell ringing at 11 am.  Peace songs sing-along with the Santa Fe Raging Grannies. This Armistice Day, Veterans For Peace calls on you to say NO to more wars and to demand justice and peace, at home and abroad. We demand equality for all people and an end to all oppressive and violent policies. We call for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Let’s begin to build a culture of peace, not a culture of war.

 

 

  1. Wednesday, November 12th from 3 to 5 pm – LANL Public Training Session for the Electronic Public Reading Room and IntellusNM public environmental data portal on MS Teams. IntellusNM is the data portal that provides continuous public access to the environmental data collect on and around LANL.  It is jointly managed by the New Mexico Environment Department DOE Oversight Bureau (NMED-OB) and LANL contractors, N3B and TriadFor more information:  envoutreach@lanl.gov or call 505-551-4514.

Training Session Information:

Location: Microsoft Teams Need help?

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 287 510 480 761 3

Passcode: c7fW2e48

 

Dial in by phone

+1 575-323-9652,,588562889# United States, Las Cruces

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 588 562 889#

 

 

  1. Thursday, November 13th and Friday, November 14th International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo National Museum in Window Rock, Arizona. The IUFF showcases an array of compelling films and explores the detrimental impacts of the uranium fuel chain on communities around the world. Organizers believe the films are a necessary part of the ongoing resistance to nuclear, specifically for public health and harm reduction efforts. For more information, visit: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
 

Action You Can Take NOW to Stop Nuclear Weapons Testing

In response to the president’s call to resume testing of nuclear weapons, contact  your two United States Senators to support Senate Resolution 323 that urges the United States to lead a global effort to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race.  https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/sres323/BILLS-119sres323is.pdf

Introduced on July 16, 2025 – 80 years since the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site – Senate Resolution 323 calls for the leadership of the United States to prevent testing of nuclear weapons again. To learn more about the Resolution and its sponsors – https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-resolution/323

It recognizes that in less than 100 days, the 2010 Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, or the New START Treaty, is set to expire on February 5, 2026.  The Resolution recognizes that fact and states in part:

Resolved, That the Senate calls on the President to

actively pursue a world free of nuclear weapons as a national security imperative; and

lead a global effort to halt and reverse a global nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war by—

engaging in good faith negotiations with—

the other 8 nuclear armed countries to—

halt any further buildup of nuclear arsenals; and

aggressively pursue a verifiable and irreversible agreement or agreements to verifiably reduce and eliminate their nuclear arsenals according to negotiated timetables;

the Russian Federation to pursue and conclude new nuclear arms control and disarmament arrangements with the Russian Federation to prevent a buildup of nuclear forces beyond current levels; and

the People’s Republic of China on mutual nuclear risk reduction and arms control measures;

leading the effort to have all nuclear-armed countries renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first;

implementing effective checks and balances on the sole authority of the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to order the use of United States nuclear weapons;

ending the Cold War-era ‘‘hair-trigger alert’’ posture, which increases the risk of catastrophic miscalculation in a crisis;

ending plans to produce and deploy new nuclear warheads and delivery systems, which would reduce the burden on taxpayers in the United States;

maintaining the de facto global moratorium on nuclear explosive testing;

protecting communities and workers affected by nuclear weapons by –

fully remediating the deadly legacy of environmental contamination from past and current nuclear weapons testing, development, production, storage, and maintenance activities;

providing health monitoring, compensation, and medical care to those who have and will be harmed by nuclear weapons research, testing, and production, including through an expanded program under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (Public Law 101–426; 42 U.S.C. 2210 note); and

actively planning a just economic transition for the civilian and military workforce involved in the development, testing, production, management, and dismantlement of nuclear weapons and for the communities that are economically dependent on nuclear weapons laboratories, production facilities, and military bases.


  1. Friday, October 31st from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Watch A House of Dynamite on Netflix. Read Joe Cirincione’s article A House of Dynamite Explodes the Missile Defense Myth: It is no wonder the interceptors fail in the film. This is an accurate portrayal of what is likely to happen in a crisis in New Republic (October 15, 2025). Cirincione is a national security analyst and author in Washington, D.C.

 

 

  1. New 11-Week ONLINE Course from Monday, November 3, 2025 to Monday, February 2, 2026 about Nuclear Weapons & Radiation – Health Risks & Advocacy Training by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and Generational Radiation Impact Project (GRIP) to prepare you to testify in the hearings next spring about the proposed plutonium pit production for new nuclear weapons.  We need a massive turnout by people to oppose this escalation of a new nuclear arms race. PSR and GRIP are looking to enlist a new generation of health professionals and activists who are equipped to step forward with the medical / health voice on social decisions like whether to make new nuclear weapons… whether to resume testing…

For more information, and to register on or before Friday, October 31st with sliding scale and scholarship option at

https://psr.org/radiation-and-nuclear-weapons-health-risks-and-advocacy-training/

 

 

  1. Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 9 am MT – Open Seminar with the authors of “What is ‘Restorative Justice’ after the Church Rock Uranium Spill?” The article was recently published in the Journal of Disaster Studies (JDS). Event hosted by JDS and University of California EcoGovLab. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/article/971161

 The article’s authors are: Teracita Keyanna (Red Water Pond Community Association, Navajo Nation) | Thomas De Pree & Cheryl Jim (Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute) | Chris Shuey  & Kirena E. Y. Tsosie (Southwest Research and Information Center) | Mallery Quetawki (University of New Mexico). Zoom registration at https://uci.zoom.us/meeting/register/C6-uxA-bTXmKuN6E_stf8w#/registration

 

 

  1. Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 10:30 am MT – Experts React: Netflix’s ‘A House of Dynamite,’ hosted by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Hear from the experts about the film, the questions it raises and how the film can spark more conversation about arms control and deterrence. Registration at https://pages.thebulletin.org/ahod

 

 

  1. Subject to rescheduling due to federal government shutdown – Thursday, November 6 from 4 to 6 pm – HYBRID WIPP Community Forum at Southwest New Mexico College, Room 103, Main Building, 1500 University Drive, Carlsbad, NM, hosted by U.S. Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO). There will be a short update about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with a question and answer period to follow.  Bring your questions about getting the Waste Off the Hill.  To register:  https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20251001.asp   

 

 

  1. Subject to rescheduling due to federal government shutdown – Wednesday, November 12 from 3 to 5 pm – LANL Public Training Session for the Electronic Public Reading Room and IntellusNM public environmental data portal on MS Teams. IntellusNM is the data portal that provides continuous public access to the environmental data collect on and around LANL.  It is jointly managed by the New Mexico Environment Department DOE Oversight Bureau (NMED-OB) and LANL contractors, N3B and TriadFor more information:  envoutreach@lanl.gov or call 505-551-4514.

 

 

  1. Thursday, November 13th and Friday, November 14th International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo National Museum in Window Rock, Arizona. The IUFF showcases an array of compelling films and explores the detrimental impacts of the uranium fuel chain on communities around the world. Organizers believe the films are a necessary part of the ongoing resistance to nuclear, specifically for public health and harm reduction efforts. For more information, visit: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
 

LANL Declares Tritium Venting “Success” — Communities Demand Disclosure as Operation Raises More Questions Than Answers

The Communities for Clean Water (CCW) coalition is calling on the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) to immediately release all data, monitoring results, and analytical records from the recent tritium venting operation at LANL.  https://www.ccwnewmexico.org

CCW is also calling for the release of the final report and supporting air monitoring data be made public at least two weeks prior to any announced public meeting, to allow Tribes, local governments, independent experts, and community members adequate time for review.

The coalition’s call follows LANL’s recent press statement claiming “successful depressurization” of the four flanged tritium waste containers (FTWCs), “no health or environmental consequences,” and a total tritium release of “less than 123 curies.”

“LANL is congratulating itself for cleaning up its own negligence,” said Chenoa Scippio, Project Coordinator with Tewa Women United. “This operation wasn’t a success story — it was the outcome of 20 years of mismanagement that NMED itself acknowledged. Despite years of preparing to vent radioactive tritium into the environment, LANL has yet to provide real data or independent verification of that data.”  https://tewawomenunited.org/

Contradictory Statements and Misleading Assurances

LANL’s official updates [ https://www.lanl.gov/engage/environment/ftwc ] and press release [ https://losalamosreporter.com/2025/10/14/lanl-flanged-tritium-waste-containers-successfully-depressurized/ ] following the conclusion of the operations contain multiple inconsistencies and omissions that raise serious concerns.  CCW provides the following examples:

  • No Pressure, Yet “Depressurization”:
    LANL’s daily reports showed no internal pressure in all four containers. This implies no measurable buildup of gas or explosion risk. Yet the lab continues to describe the operation as “depressurization,” contradicting its own data and the emergency justification used to obtain NMED’s expedited temporary authorization. No internal pressure indicates that LANL’s calculations on which it based the urgency of venting were wrong. It also implies that the FTWCs could have been transported without depressurization. In that case the emission of any tritium would violate DOE Order 458.1 – to keep radiation exposure As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA).
  • Ambiguous “Background” Claims:
    LANL’s statement that offsite impacts were “indistinguishable from background” offers reassurance without real information. LANL has not disclosed the detection limits of its instruments or the raw data necessary for independent verification.
  • Compliance Is Not Safety:
    The reported offsite dose of “0.0123 millirem” is calculated for a hypothetical “maximally exposed individual (MEI)”— a 30-year-old, 150 lb white male with a Western diet — not infants, pregnant people, or Pueblo communities who rely on land-based practices. Compliance with outdated federal models does not guarantee protection for vulnerable populations.
  • Unverified “Independent” Review:
    The so-called independent technical review was led by [the] DOE NNSA’s own Office of Environment, Safety, and Health, with only one outside reviewer.

“LANL’s claim that offsite impacts were ‘indistinguishable from background’ is meaningless without knowing the detection limits,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). “Despite requests, LANL has failed to disclose key details, including why any tritium was released if there was no pressure in the FTWCs.”  https://ieer.org/

Outstanding Technical Questions

CCW continues to seek clear, verifiable answers to the following:

  • What was the measured pressure in the headspace of each FTWC prior to venting? How does the measured pressure in each FTWC compare to the 5 psi per year increase that LANL modeled?
  • What was the full chemical composition of the gases in each FTWC?
  • Did any container exhibit an explosive gas mixture, and if so, what were the measured concentrations of hydrogen, tritium, and other gases?
  • How was the venting compatible with ALARA for the FTWCs that did not have explosive gas mixtures in the headspace??
  • Where and how was atmospheric tritium monitored for each FTWC, given LANL’s claim that levels were “consistent with background”?
  • Were stack emissions measured in real time as previously stated? If so, what instruments were used and where were they located?
  • If emissions were estimated, what was the method of estimation?
  • Was tritium captured in molecular sieves for each FTWC? If not, why not? If so, what quantities were retained, and where will the captured material be managed?
  • What were the minimum detectable limits (MDL) of tritium for the atmospheric and stack air sampling instruments?
  • What specific instruments, calibration records, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) documentation were used for real-time detection?
  • What is the local background concentration of tritium at and near Technical Area 54 (TA-54) and the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility (WETF) prior to venting?
  • How and when will all raw monitoring data and corresponding meteorological data be disclosed to the public and affected Tribal governments?

Key Concerns and Coalition Positions

  • LANL did not meet NMED’s prerequisites for authorization.
    The required public meeting and “independent” technical review were both deficient and failed to meet standards for public participation or scientific integrity.
  • There was no true emergency.
    LANL has previously stated that venting could wait until 2028. Its own data now confirm that all containers were unpressurized, disproving the claimed urgency.
  • Alternatives remain obscured.
    LANL has acknowledged identifying 53 alternatives to venting in communications with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6, yet it has never released the technical analysis explaining why they were rejected.
  • Dose modeling excluded vulnerable populations.
    Independent experts (Dr. Arjun Makhijani, IEER; Dr. Bernd Franke, ifeu – Institut für Energie und Umweltforschung, Heidelberg gGmbH – https://www.ifeu.de/en/ ) found that LANL’s modeling ignored infants, pregnant people, and cumulative community exposures. LANL admitted that infant doses could be three times higher than adult doses, exceeding regulatory limits.
  • ALARA compliance has not been demonstrated.
    LANL failed to meet DOE Order 458.1 requirements to keep radiation exposure as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA), and did not account for cultural or land-based exposure pathways critical to Pueblo communities. The fact that there was no internal pressure also indicates ALARA non-compliance, since the lowest emission indicated would appear to be zero.

Demands for Transparency and Accountability

CCW calls on DOE, NNSA, LANL, and NMED to:

  1. Release the full final report and all supporting data for the September and October venting operations at least two weeks before the public meeting.
  2. Disclose raw, time-stamped emission data and meteorological readings correlated with each venting event.
  3. Make public the headspace modeling and alternatives analysis that justified venting.
  4. Commit to independent third-party verification of air monitoring results by EPA Region 6 or the New Mexico Department of Health.
  5. Engage in government-to-government consultation with affected Pueblos and include public health agencies in post-operation evaluation.

Conclusion

LANL and NNSA’s “successful completion” narrative does not substitute for transparency, accountability, or truth. Communities deserve verified data — not public relations spin. Until LANL provides full disclosure and independent review, its assurances of safety remain unsubstantiated and unacceptable.


  1. Friday, October 24th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners.

 

 

  1. Friday, October 24 through Saturday, October 25 – Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History film showing at the Institute of American Indian Arts (campus), 83 Avan Nu Po Road, Santa Fe, NM. Limited to 18 seats per screening in the FullDome Theater.  For more information and FREE tickets:   https://www.waysofknowing.us/

 

 

  1. Monday, October 27 at 5 pm – Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History film showing at UNM Sub Theatre at UNM – Albuquerque. FREE admission.  https://www.waysofknowing.us/

 

 

  1. Monday, October 27th from 6 to 8 pm – Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament – at Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Community, 11 College Avenue, Santa Fe, NM. Join Archbishop John C. Wester for a special HYBRID evening where he will share reflections from his pastoral letter, Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace, and speak about the importance of dialogue and hope in working toward nuclear disarmament.  Livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/@SMDLP/streams  For more information, contact the Santa Fe Ecumenical Conversations Toward Nuclear Disarmament Committee at

 

 

  1. Tuesday, October 28th Public comment period ends for the draft NM Environment Department amendments to the NM Standards for Ground and Surface Water Protection at 20.6.2 NMAC and the new NM draft regulations known as the New Mexico Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NMPDES) at 20.6.5 NMAC.

 For more information:  https://www.env.nm.gov/events-calendar/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D189342697