NNSA and DOE Officials Will Be in Santa Fe on Tuesday, April 4th to Answer Your Questions

The National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and Senior Advisor to the Department of Energy Office of Environment Management Ike White will be in Santa Fe next week for a public town hall.  It is essential that they hear from you!

You are invited to the question and answer town hall in-person or virtually on Tuesday, April 4^th from 6:30 pm at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, at 201 West Marcy Street in Santa Fe.  The entrance to underground parking is available from Federal Place.  The virtual links will be available closer to the event.

Our top issues are expansion of nuclear weapons operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  Both are Department of Energy (DOE) sites in New Mexico.  As more information is revealed about the very expensive expansion plans, it is clear that the proposed doubling of the size of the underground disposal site at WIPP is needed to support proposed expansion of plutonium pit production at LANL.  The pits are the triggers of nuclear weapons.

None of the plans make common sense.  For example, it is estimated that over the next 50 years, pit production will add an estimated 57,550 cubic meters, or 2,032,360 cubic feet, of radioactive and hazardous waste.  These volumes constitute more than half of WIPP’s estimated expansion capacity.  Our common sense requires us to ask:  What other waste is expected to be disposed at WIPP?  The federal agencies have not said.

But under agreements, WIPP is supposed to close in 2024.  DOE wants to keep WIPP operating until at least 2080.  But WIPP was not designed to operate until then.

Some possible questions for Hruby and White include:

• How much water will be needed for expanded pit production?
• What emissions will be released into the air at LANL, along the transportation routes, and at WIPP from expanded operations?
• What climate change analysis has been done?
• What efforts are being made to find other disposal sites in states other than New Mexico?
• Why is DOE and NNSA disregarding the commitments made to New Mexicans for a 2024 closure?

Please bring your questions to the virtual and in-person town hall.  There are many on-line resources to help you develop your questions at CCNS’s website at http://nuclearactive.org/ ; Nuclear Watch New Mexico at https://nukewatch.org/ ; and Stop Forever WIPP at https://stopforeverwipp.org/ .

Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen will moderate the town hall. http://nuclearactive.org/santa-fe-county-commission-chair-anna-hansen-to-moderate-public-qa-with-nnsa-and-doe-officials-on-tuesday-april-4th-in-santa-fe/

Did You Know about these Opportunities to Get Involved?

1. Friday, March 31st from noon to 1 pm – Join the weekly peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament on the corners of Alameda and Guadalupe in downtown Santa Fe with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, Pax Christi and others.

2. Tuesday, April 4^th at 6:30 pm at Santa Fe Community Convention Center in-person and virtual – Santa Fe County Commission Chair Anna Hansen will Moderate a Public Question and Answer Session with Jill Hruby, National Nuclear Security Administrator, and Ike White, a Senior Advisor to the DOE Office of Environmental Management. There is parking below the Santa Fe Community Convention Center – enter on Federal Place.  Bring your question about planned expansions at LANL and WIPP and transportation between the two.  The virtual link will be posted soon.  It will also be in newspaper ads.  http://nuclearactive.org/santa-fe-county-commission-chair-anna-hansen-to-moderate-public-qa-with-nnsa-and-doe-officials-on-tuesday-april-4th-in-santa-fe/

3. Thursday, April 6^th from 3 to 4 pm Mountain – webinar about The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals with Debamanyu Das. The Uranium Caucus of the Western Mining Action Network and the Institute for Policy Studies is hosting a series of three webinars about Rare Earth Elements.  Debamanyu Das is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst.  His research focuses on the political economy of critical minerals used for the green transition. Please join Das on April 6th for the first webinar.  Registration at https://ips-dc.org/events/geopoliticsofcriticalminerals/  

4. April 1^st to 7^th – Join the Sacred Peace Walk, an interfaith journey of approximately 60 miles from Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) (formerly the Nevada Test Site), through the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, on the beautiful traditional lands of the Indigenous Western Shoshone and Paiute Peoples, bringing the message of non-violence to the test site and Creech AFB (the center of drone warfare and assassination for the US military and the CIA). For more information, contact the Nevada Desert Experience at kingsbayplowshares@gmail.com and http://nevadadesertexperience.org/

5. Sunday, April 16^th from 1 pm to 4:30 pm – What is WIPP? Free educational conference – in-person in Santa Fe and on Zoom – in Spanish and English. Join people statewide to learn about the DOE’s pending application with the New Mexico Environment Department for the continued operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  There will be presentations about WIPP history, the facility, and proposed expansion of WIPP, NMED’s draft operating permit, and the ways in which the public can have a say in WIPP’s future.  For more information:  https://stopforeverwipp.org/home

6. April 15^th to 22^nd – Shut Down Drone Warfare – Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico – “From Tax Day to Earth Day, Rise Up!” Co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace and Ban Killer Drones.  Join for a week of peaceful resistance against drone warfare and out-of-control U.S. empire.  Why Holloman?  It is the largest-drone training base in the U.S. – training 600 or more drone pilots and operators annually.  For more information:  http://www.shutdowndronewarfare.org/

Three great peace activists join us to discuss the upcoming protest at Holloman Air Force Base in April. Toby Blome, Colonel Ann Wright, and Ken Mayers talk about drones, the dangers, and the damage to people on the ground and people at the control. They also discuss the international ramifications of drones and their uncontrolled spread. With all that, they are protesting at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and are encouraging people to come. There will be transportation, lodging, food, workshops, speakers, music, and yes non-violent direct action, specifics are a secret.  https://soundcloud.com/user-55976759/33023-veterans-for-peace-shut-down-drone-warfare-protest-is-coming

Tags: 10-year renewal permit for WIPP, Department of Energy, DOE, free conference, Ike White, Jill Hruby, LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration, New Mexico Environment Department, NMED, NNSA, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, plutonium pits, plutonium triggers, powdered plutonium, Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, STOP FOREVER WIPP, surplus plutonium, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WIPP