* Mayor Delgado makes a deal for WIPP waste
to travel on partially unpaved bypass road.
* Secretary of Energy Pe�a resigns.
* Western Shoshone ask the US to honor the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
* President Clinton urges Senate to ratify
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
* The Department of Energy hopes to begin
weekly nuclear weapons production waste shipments by May 31 from
Los Alamos National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
(or WIPP) near Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico.
Mayor Larry Delgado met with Secretary of New Mexico Highway
and Transportation Department Pete Rahn, Senator Pete Domenici,
and Congressman Bill Redmond on April 7th to work out a joint
effort allowing WIPP waste on the Relief Route five months
earlier than planned. In the agreement the WIPP waste is to be
trucked on Camino La Tierra from U.S. 84/285 to Interstate 25
even though five miles of the route are unpaved. Residents
living near Camino La Tierra feel the road is not ready for
nuclear waste shipments, citing the occurrence of many accidents
on the very narrow and highly dangerous road. Santa Fe City
Councilor Frank Monta�o said the recent agreement reached by the
city barred truckloads of radioactive material through Santa Fe
until the 4-lane bypass was completed. "It's absolutely
irresponsible for the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin
shipping nuclear waste along a narrow street, I don't understand
what's the big hurry."
Both Carlsbad Area Office manager George Dials and Secretary
Pe�a recently made statements that lawsuits to stop the opening
of WIPP are anticipated. These lawsuits will be filed by
environmental activist groups and the Attorneys General of New
Mexico and Texas. Many legal experts believe the lawsuits will
delay the opening of WIPP.
* Department of Energy Secretary Federico Pe�a
announced his resignation this week citing personal family
reasons. The most likely person to succeed Pena is Elizabeth
Moler, the DOE's deputy secretary.
Pe�a has been under criticism lately regarding cleanup plans
at DOE sites around the nation. When asked by Rep. Adam Smith (D-
Wash) in an early April meeting with the House National Security
Military Procurement Subcommittee about DOE site cleanup, Pe�a
admitted that the department is "above budget and behind
schedule." Later in the same session Pe�a said the opposite,
stating the cleanup of Fernald, Ohio would be completed and the
site closed by 2004, and that closure at Rocky Flats would be
completed by 2006. When asked about the leaking radioactive
contamination at the Hanford site in Washington, he did not give
a direct answer, saying , "Our number-one priority is to protect
the [Columbia] River." Smith continued to speak of the problem
being encountered with the removal of spent fuel from Hanford's K
Basins, where estimated costs have increased by $274 million
dollars and the project completion date has been delayed to the
year 2003. Smith also mentioned the departments tendency to miss
agreement deadlines at other DOE sites, referring to threats of
lawsuits from various Governors. Pe�a said, "Obviously we hope
we don't get sued."
* Hundreds of protesters from around the
world will join representatives of the Western Shoshone Nation at
the entrance to the Nevada Test Site Easter weekend. The
activists will be there to support the Western Shoshone National
Council's declaration that their traditional land known as Newe
Sogobia is a nuclear free zone. The Western Shoshone are
demanding a halt to the destruction of their lands, and an end to
the violations of their religious rights. The tribe says the
U.S. must honor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a treaty
with the Shoshone Nation, to shut the Test Site down.
Adjacent to the Nevada Test Site, is Yucca Mountain, the
nations first proposed high-level nuclear waste dump. Under the
1997 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, plans to ship over 45,000
containers of nuclear waste to Nevada for temporary storage will
affect millions of citizens in over 40 states. According to the
DOE estimates between 70 to 310 accidents are expected to occur
during this shipping campaign.
* In an attempt to convince India,
Pakistan, and North Korea to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty, the Clinton Administration urged the Senate to ratify the
treaty by the fall of 1998. Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC, the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is primarily
responsible for the holdup through his refusal to hold hearings
on the issue.
While maintaining that the U.S. is secure in its ability to
simulate nuclear tests, Undersecretary of State John Holum said
that the Senate has "a historic opportunity" to make it harder
for other nations to develop weapons of mass destruction.
