Rain or shine, please join diverse organizations and individuals at the Inaugural Albu(r)querque Peace Festival on Saturday, August 5^th from 2 to 6 pm at Roosevelt Park for music, speakers, informational tables and food trucks. The Albu(r)querque Peace Festival is an effort by multiple organizations to bring attention to the danger of nuclear weapons, the horror of nuclear war, and promote efforts toward longstanding peace locally, nationally, and globally.  https://abqpeacefest.org/

At 5:15 pm, a commemoration bell will be rung in coordination with the August 6^th events in Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 am – the time of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 near the end of World War II.

Co-sponsoring the inaugural event are the following seventeen organizations (as of July 19, 2023):  Donald and Sally-Alice Thompson Chapter of the Veterans for Peace – Albu(r)querque; the Joan Duffy Chapter of Veterans for Peace – Santa Fe; Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety; the Green Party Albu(r)querque Metropolitan Area; Taos Environmental Film Festival; the ANSWER Coalition; Stop the War Machine; Party for Socialism and Liberation – Albu(r)querque; the Raging Grannies; The Paper; Unity Spiritual Center Albu(r)querque; the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition; the New Mexico Peace Choir; Demand Nuclear Abolition; Progressive Democrats of America-Central New Mexico; Nuclear Watch New Mexico; and Communities for Clean Water.

If you would like to participate as a co-sponsor, please contact CCNS at ccns@nuclearactive.org by Friday, July 21^st.  Please include your logo in the email.

Roosevelt Park, 500 Spruce St SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, is southwest of University Boulevard and Coal Avenue, Southeast.

For more information and to make a donation to the effort, please visit https://abqpeacefest.org/

Also, on Saturday, August 5^th at 10 am, the Guild Cinema will show the documentary “The Forgotten Bomb: A discovery of the true story of nuclear weapons and how the world might learn to live without them,” made by local filmmakers Bud Ryan and Stuart Overbey.  In sum, “The Forgotten Bomb explores our preconceptions about nuclear weapons and their history, investigates how they inform our sense of identity and discovers what the Bomber can learn from the Bombed.”  https://www.forgottenbomb.com/  and https://www.guildcinema.com/movies/the-forgotten-bomb

Peter Phillips, with Veterans for Peace Albu(r)querque and an organizer of the Festival, invites you to join in the August 5^th events.  Phillips is a Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology, Sonoma State University.  He said, “New Mexico has a legacy of being the prime location for the advance of nuclear weapons in the world.  New Mexicans must now take the moral leadership role of seeking the total elimination of all nuclear weapons.”

1. Friday, July 21^st from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Trinity: Legacies of Nuclear Testing – A People’s Perspective Art Exhibit at the Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main Street, Las Cruces, NM.  The exhibit will be up until September 23, 2023.  https://www.lascruces.gov/1528/Branigan-Cultural-Center

3. Friday, July 21 release of Oppenheimer in the U.S. and U.K. by Universal Pictures. https://www.oppenheimermovie.com/

4. Thursday, July 27, 2023 from 5 to 7 pm – Kirtland AFB Bulk Fuels Facility leak project open house at the groundwater treatment system facility. The GWTS is located on Kirtland Air Force Base, with public access provided for this event through the Ridgecrest Gate (Ridgecrest Dr SE & Louisiana Blvd SE, south of Gibson Blvd.)

If you would like additional information, please contact the 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs office at (505) 846-5991 or by email at 377ABW.PA@us.af.mil.

5. Wednesday, August 9^th at 1 pm – Please join members of Veterans For Peace, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Nonviolent Santa Fe and others for an informal gathering at Ashley Pond to commemorate the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki on that day 78 years ago. We will engage in silent meditation at the shelter shown on the aerial photo.  Also bring water and protection from sun and/or possible rain. Please encourage friends and family to join you in attending.

You are invited to come to a free in-person and live stream public vigil entitled “From Reflection to Action:  An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test” on Sunday, July 16^th from 4 to 6 pm Mountain Time at Santa Maria de la Paz Church at 11 College Avenue in Santa Fe.  The vigil will commemorate the 78^th year since the detonation of the first atomic weapon, called The Gadget, at the Trinity Test Site in south central New Mexico and provide you with tools to work for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Doors open at 3:15 pm so you may view exhibits and visit with representatives of local organizations, including CCNS.

The organizers have asked you to pre-register to attend in person or on youtube at: form.jotform.com/ASFPMD/July162023Event  To view the event on July 16^th:  youtube.com/watch?v=2EnpL0aDQ1E

Among the scheduled speakers is Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe.  Wester declared, “We can no longer deny or ignore the extremely dangerous predicament of our human family.  We are in a new nuclear arms race even more dangerous than the first, and I believe we need to rejuvenate a sustained, serious conversation about universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament.”

Other areas of New Mexico had already been impacted by nuclear weapons research.  Beginning in the spring of 1943, design research for The Gadget was done at the Y Site, now known as Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Northern New Mexico.  The Tewa name is Sankaweh.

Research was needed to determine the amount of time for the spherical shell of the atomic bomb to collapse, or implode, on itself.  The Y-Site scientists conducted 32 open-air explosive tests in Bayo Canyon at Sankaweh before the Trinity test.  They used high-level radioactive lanthanum, or RaLa, as a substitute for plutonium, which was still being developed.  Along with RaLa, depleted uranium and conventional high explosives were used.  Some of the spherical shells were the size of a matchhead, but contained hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of curies of radioactivity.

Each test used hundreds of pounds of high explosives that dispersed the radioactivity upwind and downwind to the Rio Grande and northeast to Pueblo de San Ildefonso, Santa Clara Pueblo and beyond.

The RaLa tests and Trinity test are documented in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Los Alamos Historic Document Retrieval and Assessment Project 2010 Final Report.  https://wwwn.cdc.gov/LAHDRA/Content/pubs/Final%20LAHDRA%20Report%202010.pdf

Information about the 254 Radioactive Lanthanum (RaLa) experiments is found throughout the Final LAHDRA Report.  For an overview, check out Chapter 16:  Partial Chronology of Accidents, Incidents and Events at LANL (pp. 427-461 of the pdf), which provides information about each of them.

Chapter 10 is devoted to the Trinity Test (pp. 237-291 of the pdf).  Check out the Conclusions Regarding Public Exposures from the Trinity Test (p. 286 of the pdf).

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “The nuclear weapons industry has severely impacted the People, lands and economy of New Mexico.  It is beyond time to eliminate nuclear weapons.  To learn what you can do, come to the July 16^th vigil.”

1. Friday, July 14th from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 9 am MT free virtual meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space – Latest development on war via space. https://space4peace.org/  To register:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-network-31st-annual-meeting-latest-developments-on-war-via-space-tickets-638565886757  

3. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 4 pm – 44^th Annual Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration, hosted by the Red Water Pond Road Community, the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, and the Pipeline Road Community. For more information, please contact Susan Gordon at sgordon@swuraniumimpacts.org

4. Saturday, July 15^th – Trinity:  Legacies of Nuclear Testing, a People’s Perspective Art Exhibit from 11 am to 1 pm at the Branigan Cultural Center, 501 N. Main Street, Las Cruces, NM.  Exhibit will be up until September 23, 2023.  
   

13^th Annual Candelight Vigil from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Albert Johnson Park, 896 N. Main Street, Las Cruces, NM.  Program begins at 8 pm.  Bring a chair or blanket, sunscreen, bug spray and water.  For more information:  https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/  

Message from the Downwinders of New Mexico: 

Stand in solidarity with the Downwinders of New Mexico.  Many people cannot be with us in Las Cruces for our 13^th Annual Candlelight Vigil where we memorialize those we’ve lost to cancer.  If you want to participate from your own home make a luminaria and light it in solidarity with us on the evening of July 15, 2023.

For those of you who are not familiar with the traditional New Mexico luminaria, it is a brown paper lunch bag with a cup or so of sand in the bottom and a votive candle placed in the middle of the bag.  You can write your own message on the bag.  At dusk you light the candle and leave it lit until the candle extinguishes.  Let us know that you are standing with us by sending us an email at info@trinitydownwinders.com

5. Sunday, July 16^th – Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester’s service about A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, at the Santa Maria de la Paz Center at 11 College Avenue, Santa Fe (just before the Santa Fe Community College (road work is taking place in the area – allow for extra travel time). https://archdiosf.org/living-in-the-light-of-christs-peace

6. Friday, July 21 release of Oppenheimer in the U.S. and U.K. by Universal Pictures. https://www.oppenheimermovie.com/

7. Thursday, July 27, 2023 from 5 to 7 pm – Kirtland AFB Bulk Fuels Facility leak project open house at the groundwater treatment system facility. The GWTS is located on Kirtland Air Force Base, with public access provided for this event through the Ridgecrest Gate (Ridgecrest Dr SE & Louisiana Blvd SE, south of Gibson Blvd.)

If you would like additional information, please contact the 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs office at (505) 846-5991 or by email at 377ABW.PA@us.af.mil.

8. Save the date: Saturday, August 5^th from 2 to 6 pm at Roosevelt Park in Albuquerque – Albuquerque Peace Festival – Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemorative Rally in collaboration with Hiroshima Day in Japan.  Details to follow.

To commemorate the 78^th anniversary of the first detonation of an atomic weapon at the nearby Trinity Test Site, the complete elimination of nuclear weapons must be prioritized.  A free in-person and live streamed public event entitled “From Reflection to Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test” will be held at the Santa Maria de la Paz Community Hall in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Sunday, July 16^th from 4 to 6 pm.  Doors open at 3:15 pm so you may view exhibits on nuclear issues and visit with representatives of local organizations.

Among the scheduled speakers is Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe.  Wester declared, “We can no longer deny or ignore the extremely dangerous predicament of our human family.  We are in a new nuclear arms race far more dangerous than the first, and I believe we need to rejuvenate a sustained, serious conversation about universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament.”

The government did not warn or evacuate the estimated tens of thousands of people living within a 50-mile radius of the Trinity Test blast.  The detonation produced more heat and light than the sun, generating radioactive ash that fell for days.  The communities downwind of the blast saw a spike in infant deaths in the months after the explosion and, generations later, continue to suffer its effects.

Tina Cordova, event co-organizer and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said, “We don’t ask IF we’ll get cancer, we ask WHEN it will be our turn.  The government basically walked away from the people of New Mexico and has taken no responsibility for all the sacrifice, suffering, and the dying.”

Attendees will learn about actions they can take toward a world without nuclear weapons, such as calling on congresspeople to co-sponsor U.S. House Resolution 77, “Embracing the Goals and Provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.”  They will be encouraged to join forces with the grassroots Back from the Brink coalition to spur communities to adopt resolutions urging the U.S. to prioritize negotiations toward the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, and to extend and expand victim assistance and environmental remediation at local nuclear weapons facilities.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Soka Gakkai International-USA, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and United Church of Santa Fe are organizing the event.

For more information and to pre-register, go to https://archdiosf.org/social-justice

A gentle reminder:  CCNS is seeking donations large and small through throughout the summer as we challenge DOE, WIPP and LANL in court and to keep the Update and social media program going.  We are extremely grateful for your support! 

1. Friday, July 7th from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Saturday, July 8^th through Sunday, July 9^th for a 24-Hour Peace Wave 2023 on Zoom, produced by International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War. It begins on Sat. July 8^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain; and ends on Sun. July 9^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain.  Watch live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world moving around the globe with the sun.  To register:  https://worldbeyondwar.org/wave/

3. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 9 am MT free virtual meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space – Latest development on war via space. https://space4peace.org/  To register:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-network-31st-annual-meeting-latest-developments-on-war-via-space-tickets-638565886757  

4. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 4 pm – 44^th Annual Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration, hosted by the Red Water Pond Road Community, the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, and the Pipeline Road Community. For more information, please contact Susan Gordon at sgordon@swuraniumimpacts.org

5. Save the date: Saturday, August 5^th in Albuquerque – Peace Commemoration in collaboration with Hiroshima Day in Japan.  Details to follow.

CCNS and five other non-governmental organizations and one individual successfully negotiated a settlement agreement last week to revise the draft ten-year hazardous waste renewal permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  Also at the table were the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) https://www.env.nm.gov/ and the co-Permittees, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, LLC (SIMCO).  https://wipp.energy.gov/

The NGOs are Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD) https://www.cardnm.org/ , Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) http://nuclearactive.org/ , Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM) https://cvnm.org/ , Nuclear Watch New Mexico (NWNM) https://nukewatch.org/ , Southwest Alliance for a Safe Future (SAFE) https://www.swalliance.org/ , and Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) http://www.sric.org/ .  The individual is Steve Zappe, a grandfather and former NMED WIPP Program Manager.

In April, the NGOs and the individual requested a public hearing because they opposed portions of the draft renewal permit.  The four days of successful negotiations resulted in changes to the renewal permit and the withdrawal of the requests for a public hearing.  https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/

The NGOs claimed victory that DOE is now required to provide an annual report about establishing another repository for plutonium-contaminated radioactive waste in a state other than New Mexico.  WIPP was never supposed to be the only repository for this waste, called transuranic, or TRU, generated by the production of nuclear weapons.

Additional protective conditions include the Environment Department exercising its power to revoke and require closing the site if the volume of waste disposed of at WIPP is increased or the types of waste are changed.

The permit requires the Permittees to implement a new plan with a full inventory of legacy waste around the U.S. for disposal at WIPP.  This should be the first definition of legacy waste generated by the first 55 years of nuclear weapons production.

It includes additional public notice and participation opportunities.

The permit also prioritizes getting legacy waste “off the hill” at Los Alamos National Laboratory to WIPP.   With timely implementation it may reduce contamination reaching the regional drinking water aquifer.

New Mexico Environment Department Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said, “Communities in New Mexico and around the U.S. benefit from the cleanup of legacy waste and its disposal at WIPP.  The new permit conditions affirm New Mexico’s authority and position that all roads lead from WIPP – we are no longer the last stop for cleanup but the driving force in that process that begins here.”

The Environment Department will host an in-person and virtual public meeting on September 22^nd.  The public comment period will remain open through the September 22^nd public meeting.  https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/, see June 27, 2023 entry under “WIPP News.”

DOE will host an in-person and virtual Community Forum and Open House on Tuesday, July 11^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Marriott Albuquerque.  Registration is available at https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20230627.asp

A gentle reminder:  CCNS is seeking donations large and small through throughout the summer as we challenge DOE, WIPP and LANL in court and to keep the Update and social media program going.  We are extremely grateful for your support! 

1. Friday, June 30th from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Four EM-LA Strategic Vision Meetings about cleanup at LANL – three in-person meetings and one virtual meeting. The same information will be presented in each of the meetings.  Pre-register for one of the meetings at bit.ly/EM-LAStrategicVisionMeetings or https://n3b-la.com/outreach/#strategic-vision

a. Monday, June 26 from 5 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Moving Arts Española, 68 NM-291, Española, NM

b. Wednesday, June 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Santa Fe Community College, West Wing, Room 213, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM. (Follow signs for West Wing entrance, once inside, walk up the stairs, take a left and the meeting room is on the left.)  Please note:  roadwork is taking place in the area – allow extra travel time.

c. Thursday, June 29^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm virtual

d. Friday, June 30^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Avenue, Los Alamos, NM

3. Saturday, July 8^th through Sunday, July 9^th for a 24-Hour Peace Wave 2023 on Zoom, produced by International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War. It begins on Sat. July 8^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain; and ends on Sun. July 9^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain.  Watch live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world moving around the globe with the sun.  To register:  https://worldbeyondwar.org/wave/

4. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 9 am MT free virtual meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space – Latest development on war via space. https://space4peace.org/  To register:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-network-31st-annual-meeting-latest-developments-on-war-via-space-tickets-638565886757  

5. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 4 pm – 44^th Annual Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration, hosted by the Red Water Pond Road Community, the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, and the Pipeline Road Community. For more information, please contact Susan Gordon at sgordon@swuraniumimpacts.org

6. Sunday, July 16^th – Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester’s service about A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, at the Santa Maria de la Paz Center at 11 College Avenue, Santa Fe (just before the Santa Fe Community College (road work is taking place in the area – allow extra travel time). https://archdiosf.org/living-in-the-light-of-christs-peace

7. Save the date: Saturday, August 5^th in Albuquerque – Peace Commemoration in collaboration with Hiroshima Day in Japan.  Details to follow.

Each week you depend on CCNS to provide you with the latest nuclear safety issues through the radio, on the internet and by email.  We’ve been producing the weekly CCNS News Update for over 35 years!  We need your financial support to keep our programs going.

For example, the weekly Did You Know? post reminds you about the many events of this busy summer.  You can read it on our website at nuclearactive.org, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and in your email.  All you need to do is sign up on our website.  We don’t ever sell your information.

We begin the summer by tabling at the Santa Fe Pride 30 on the Santa Fe Plaza on Saturday, June 24^th from 10 to 4 pm.  CCNS is a member of the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition that envisions a future of fairness and safety where New Mexicans are informed and involved in protecting public health and the environment.  We work to stop the expansion of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) nuclear waste dumpsite in New Mexico.

We’ll be active participants in the public hearing about the proposed renewal of the hazardous waste permit for WIPP by the New Mexico Environment Department in the late summer/early fall timeframe.  The Department of Energy has controversial plans to keep WIPP open until at least 2080, even though WIPP is scheduled to close in 2024 after 25 years of disposal operations.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is planning to vent over 100,000 Curies of radioactive tritium from either four or five containers later this summer.  CCNS is working with technical experts and Tewa Women United to develop ways to prevent these irresponsible releases into the air.  Tritium is radioactive hydrogen.  It binds with oxygen to form tritiated hydrogen that acts like water.

CCNS monitors LANL’s operations and plans for the hexavalent chromium plume that continues to migrate downward into the regional drinking water aquifer.

We continue to participate in the peaceful protest on Fridays from noon to 1 pm between the Guadalupe Church and LANL’s administrative offices in Santa Fe.  Please join us as we hold banners in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

It’s an important time to support CCNS.  Please make your tax-deductible contribution at nuclearactive.org or mail it to us at CCNS, Post Office Box 31147, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594.  Thank you!  Together we are making a difference!

1. Friday, June 23rd from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Saturday, June 24^th, Pride on the Plaza from 10 am to 4 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza – Join the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition there to learn more about DOE’s plans to continue expanding WIPP in support of expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. https://hrasantafe.org/pride-2023/

3. Four EM-LA Strategic Vision Meetings about cleanup at LANL – three in-person meetings and one virtual meeting. The same information will be presented in each of the meetings.  Pre-register for one of the meetings at bit.ly/EM-LAStrategicVisionMeetings or https://n3b-la.com/outreach/#strategic-vision

1. 1. Monday, June 26 from 5 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Moving Arts Española, 68 NM-291, Española, NM
   2. Wednesday, June 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Santa Fe Community College, West Wing, Room 213, 6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM. (Follow signs for West Wing entrance, once inside, walk up the stairs, take a left and the meeting room is on the left.)  Please note:  roadwork is taking place in the area – allow extra travel time.
   3. Thursday, June 29^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm virtual
   4. Friday, June 30^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in-person meeting at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Avenue, Los Alamos, NM

4. Saturday, July 8^th through Sunday, July 9^th for a 24-Hour Peace Wave 2023 on Zoom, produced by International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War. It begins on Sat. July 8^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain; and ends on Sun. July 9^th at 9 am Eastern, 7 am Mountain.  Watch live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world moving around the globe with the sun.  To register:  https://worldbeyondwar.org/wave/

5. Saturday, July 15^th from 7 am to 4 pm – 44^th Annual Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration, hosted by the Red Water Pond Road Community, the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining, and the Pipeline Road Community. For more information, please contact Susan Gordon at sgordon@swuraniumimpacts.org

6. Sunday, July 16^th – Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester’s service about A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, at the Santa Maria de la Paz Center at 11 College Avenue, Santa Fe (just before the Santa Fe Community College (road work is taking place in the area – allow extra travel time). https://archdiosf.org/living-in-the-light-of-christs-peace

7. Save the date: Saturday, August 5^th in Albuquerque – Peace Commemoration in collaboration with Hiroshima Day in Japan.  Stay tuned for more information.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) plans to prepare an environmental assessment to address the hexavalent chromium contamination in the deep regional drinking water aquifer.  In comments submitted this week, the Communities for Clean Water (CCW) recommended that LANL conduct a more detailed environmental impact statement in order to protect the regional drinking water aquifer and the Environmental Protection Agency-designated Española Basin Sole Source Aquifer from the migrating contamination.  CCW Comments Hexavalent Chromium Scoping IM EA

Hexavalent chromium is toxic and highly carcinogenic and the contamination must be addressed with community input.   

CCW recommended that LANL create a publicly available real-time, interactive, three-dimensional computer model of the plume.  It would provide the public with a way to see the plume’s movement from the pump and treat treatment efforts.  It would also show the connections between the treatment wells, the City of Santa Fe and Los Alamos County drinking water wells, the regional drinking water aquifer, the Española Basin Sole Source Aquifer [ https://www.epa.gov/dwssa ], and the Rio Grande.

As an example, in November 2022 the New Mexico Environment Department directed LANL to stop using six of the paired treatment wells due to growing concerns that the injection wells were pushing the contamination deeper into the aquifer.  NMED also directed LANL to cease all injections into the plume by April 1, 2023.

CCW challenged the LANL statement that an environmental assessment would include the final cleanup remedy.  CCW argued LANL is required to determine and understand the vertical and horizontal extent of the plume before suggesting a final remedy.

CCW is a 20-year old coalition of Indigenous, Land-Based, and Conservation Organizations who work together to safeguard clean water in the Rio Grande watershed.  Its mission is to ensure that community waters impacted by pollution from LANL are kept safe for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.  https://www.ccwnewmexico.org/  

The growing coalition includes Amigos Bravos, Breath of My Heart Birthplace, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, and Tewa Women United.

CCW brings together the vast expertise and commitment of widely respected and well-tested advocacy groups from culturally diverse backgrounds.  Collectively, CCW represents the only community-based coalition in Northern New Mexico that is monitoring toxic threats from LANL and driving public policy changes informed by scientific evidence.

Please contact your elected officials and urge them to support preparation of an environmental impact statement now so that the waters are protected for future generations.

1. Friday, June 16^th from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Saturday, June 17^th at 2 pm – Koohan Paik-Mander speaking about How Space-based Warfare is Accelerating the Sixth Extinction at the Universalist Unitarian, 1107 West Barcelona Road, Santa Fe. Paik-Mander is a Hawai’i-based journalist, author and peace and environmental activist.  She will discuss humanity’s inability to lift itself out of the “race to the bottom.”   $10 suggested donation (no one turned away); proceeds to be shared by UU Santa Fe and the speaker.  Sponsored by Santa Fe Veterans for Peace.   Koohan Paik-Mander June 17 2023 emailable

3. Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9 am MT – virtual and in-person public hearing about draft groundwater discharge renewal permit and modification application (DP-1481) for the URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility and depleted uranium byproduct storage in Eunice (five miles west of the Texas border) in southeast New Mexico. https://urencousa.com/

To view public hearing notice (GWQB 23-3), go to https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/ , scroll down to Lea County, click on URENCO USA.

As of Thursday, June 1, 2023, the 8,000 page Administrative Record for the public hearing has yet to be posted on the NMED website, despite assurances that it would be.  https://www.env.nm.gov/opf/docketed-matters/ , scroll down to Environment Department Cabinet Secretary, to “Ground Water Quality Bureau 23-03 URENCO USA (UUSA) Discharge Permit Renewal and Modification Application DP-1481, Uranium Enrichment Facility and Depleted Uranium Byproduct Storage.”

To submit public comments:  https://nmed.commentinput.com/?id=jMQtf

4. Wednesday, June 21 from 4 to 7 pm – Let’s Talk Safe & Affordable Energy: Join Regional Community Conversation:  Powering up a new equitable paradigm to advance and secure our aging electric grid with a focus on micro-grids.  El Morro Events Center, Gallup, NM.  Dinner Provided.  For more information:  https://nmenergyequity.org/   Flyer HERE

You are invited to join the Ohio Nuclear Free Network for its important virtual public forum, Radioactive Contamination, Environment and Public Health and the Future of the Portsmouth Nuclear Site, on Saturday, June 10^th beginning at 10:45 am Mountain Time.  The in-person and virtual forum offers an opportunity to learn from world-renowned experts about contamination at the Piketon, Ohio site and at Department of Energy (DOE) sites across the country. The forum will be available at https://bit.ly/portsforum and recorded on the Ohio Nuclear Free Network YouTube Channel.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ohio+nuclear+free+network

Dr. Michael Ketterer, an industrial chemistry professor emeritus and former enforcement scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, will unveil new field test results from sampling attics and other obscure locations in people’s homes at various distances from the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, now known as the Portsmouth Nuclear Plant, or PORTS.  [ Dr. Ketterer’s work on plutonium at Rocky Flats:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WNFEFg7fhI ]

Joe Mangano, a noted epidemiologist, will provide evidence of dramatic cancer spikes in residents exposed to radioactive air and water in seven counties downwind and downstream of PORTS.  https://thebulletin.org/biography/joseph-mangano/

Terry Lodge, a specialist in environmental law and civil rights, will discuss the new, secretive Ohio Nuclear Development Authority and the perversion of Ohio state government into promoting advanced reactors and nuclear weapons proliferation.  https://celdf.org/about-celdf/board-staff/

Piketon is a village 80 miles south of Columbus, Ohio, and is the home of PORTS.  It is a DOE installation where, beginning in the 1950’s, fuel for nuclear power plants was enriched.  From time to time PORTS contractors have produced nuclear weapons material.

There is a 70-year legacy of enriched uranium, technetium, americium, possibly plutonium and other radioisotopes contaminating natural features and human lives for miles downwind of the site.

Even as communities are dealing with contamination, new dirty industries are locating at PORTS, including a new production line to purify depleted uranium for use in machine gun bullets, tank and artillery shells and components for nuclear weapons.  https://www.energy.gov/pppo/portsmouth-site,

A new limited study conducted under the watchful leadership of local government officials has just been publicized.  The study, funded by DOE, verifies measurable enriched uranium contamination in a six-mile radius from PORTS.   The study will support the communities’ demands for additional scientific verification, medical tracking and free treatment for cancer and radiation victims, and reparations for what has clearly become a very large sacrifice zone in southern Ohio.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-AkriuifxE

The Ohio Nuclear Free Network is working with groups living in the shadow of other federal nuclear sites to get the truth out about both the natural and human victims of more than 80 years of official nuclear war policy.  https://env-comm.org/2021/08/31/hello-world/

Did You Know?

1. Friday, June 9^th from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. CCNS submitted public comments on the scope of the Sandia National Laboratory Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement. The comments are available here.  230605 CCNS SNL Scoping Comments

3. Thursday, June 8^th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm MT – in person and virtual Town Hall on Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project at Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Meeting Rooms. The Town Hall is hosted by Santa Fe County Commissioner Chair Anna Hansen (District 2) and the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF).  The purpose is to provide information about the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) and give the public an opportunity to ask SFNF leadership program managers and resource specialists about upcoming plans and actions.

Note:  There is road construction at the intersection of Richards Avenue and Avenida Del Sur.  Allow additional time for travel and utilize detours (I-25 to Rabbit Road and through Oshara Village).  For directions to SFCC during construction, visit https://www.sfcc.edu/upcoming-road-closure/

Participants can also attend the Town Hall virtually by calling 1-408-418-9388 and reference meeting number 2492 156 0294 and password: BHeD3S7aiv7.

Or by WebEx at:  https://sfco.webex.com/sfco/j.php?MTID=m256c2f4a145f9904a79d203cb2ccc6a4

4. Thursday, June 8^th from 6 to 8 pm MT – Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance.  The Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club is hosting an exclusive showing and panel discussion of the new 46-minute documentary that warns that so-called small modular nuclear reactors, or SMNRs, are simply the same dangerous nuclear technoogy in a new shiny wrapper.  “New” nuclear is considered a climate solution – which it is not.  Join filmmaker Jan Haaken to learn why SMNRs are a false solution.  For more information:  https://www.sierraclub.org/oregon

5. Saturday, June 10^th from 9:30 to 11:30 am MT – FLOW: remembering our way to a livable future – The unfolding of human/water relations in downtown Santa Fe.  For more information:  https://wisefoolnewmexico.org/flow2023/

6. Saturday, June 10^th at 2 pm Mountain Time – Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester to Speak about the Need for Nuclear Disarmament – in person and virtually. In person at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center, 7241 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM.  Livestreamed at:  https://www.mountaincloud.org/ , click on “sit.mountain.cloud.org”  –  passcode mountain22

7. Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9 am MT – virtual and in-person public hearing about draft groundwater discharge renewal permit and modification application (DP-1481) for the URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility and depleted uranium byproduct storage in Eunice (five miles west of the Texas border) in southeast New Mexico. https://urencousa.com/

To view public hearing notice (GWQB 23-3), go to https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/ , scroll down to Lea County, click on URENCO USA.

As of Thursday, June 1, 2023, the 8,000 page Administrative Record for the public hearing has yet to be posted on the NMED website, despite assurances that it would be.  https://www.env.nm.gov/opf/docketed-matters/ , scroll down to Environment Department Cabinet Secretary, to “Ground Water Quality Bureau 23-03 URENCO USA (UUSA) Discharge Permit Renewal and Modification Application DP-1481, Uranium Enrichment Facility and Depleted Uranium Byproduct Storage.”

To submit public comments:  https://nmed.commentinput.com/?id=jMQtf

CCNS has prepared sample public comments you can modify about the scope of a new draft site-wide environmental impact statement for Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.  Comments may be submitted electronically to SNL-SWEIS@nnsa.doe.gov through Monday, June 5^th, 2023.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) provides the following note: 

Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personally indentifiable information in your comment, please be advised that your entire comment – including your personally identifiable information – might be made publicly available.  If you wish for NNSA to withhold your name and/or other personally identifiable information, please state this prominently at the beginning of your comment.  You may submit comments anonymously.

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 77 / Friday, April 21, 2023 / Notices, p. 24607.  https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-04/noi-eis-0556-snl-site-wide-2023-04.pdf

f Rev. 1 SNL Scoping Comments(1)

Representatives of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which operates Sandia, said they expect the SWEIS process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) will take approximately 2 ½ years.  The draft SWEIS may be released for public comment in 2024, with the final statement available in 2025, and the Record of Decision released in 2026.  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0556-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-continued-operation-sandia-national

Sandia says its analyses will cover the next 15 years of operations.  Normally a SWEIS covers 10 years of operations.  The most recent Sandia SWEIS was completed in 1999, which figures critically in the scope of the one now being drafted. 

While there are Sandia facilities in California, Hawai’i, Nevada and other locations, this SWEIS is limited to operations in New Mexico, mostly located in the Albuquerque metro area.  https://www.sandia.gov/

NEPA requires a wide-range of environmental analyses of impacts, from routine to emergency operations.  These include impacts of climate change; impacts on cultural resources; and environmental justice and socioeconomic impacts on affected communities, among others.

Under NEPA, federal agencies propose alternatives for analyses, beginning with an alternative for no action in the situation as it stands to the preferred alternative.

Sandia’s proposed No-Action Alternative provides a benchmark for comparison with the other alternatives.

Sandia proposes a Modernized Operations Alternative.  It includes construction of new facilities to replace aging facilities; upgrades to existing facilities and infrastructure; and decontamination, decommissioning and demolition projects.

Sandia’s Preferred Alternative includes the Modernized Operations Alternative and expansion of its operations and missions “to respond to further national security challenges and meet increasing requirements.”  These include construction and operation of the Combined Radiation Environments for Survivability Testing (CREST) facility.  The CREST would replace the Annular Core Research Reactor, an aging test reactor.

Sandia also proposes to construct a Next Generation Pulsed Power Facility for testing nuclear weapons in hostile environments.  This facility would produce large X-ray and neutron outputs.

Importantly, Sandia is located within the Kirtland Air Force Base to the southeast of Albuquerque.  Sandia is approximately 16,000 acres and contains about 900 buildings of approximately seven million square feet.  The southern boundary is the Pueblo of Isleta, the eastern boundary is U.S. Forest Service land, and the northern and western boundaries are the City of Albuquerque. 

Please submit your electronic comments to SNL-SWEIS@nnsa.doe.gov through Monday, June 5, 2023.  Written comments on the scope of the SNL/NM SWEIS or requests for information related to it may be sent via postal mail to:

SNL/NM SWEIS Comments
National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia Field Office
PO Box 5400
Albuquerque, NM 87185

f Rev. 1 SNL Scoping Comments(1)

1. Friday, June 2^nd from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Friday, June 2^nd at 1 pm MT – Too Hot to Handle: Managing Radioactive Waste in the U.S. with Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER).  To register for the zoom to view live or later:  https://www.hanfordchallenge.org/nuclear-waste-scholar-series

3. Tuesday, June 6, 2023 – comments due on the scope of an Environmental Assessment for the Chromium Interim Measures and Final Remedy at Los Alamos National Laboratory. CCNS will be requesting a 30-day extension of time to submit comments due to the complexity of the chromium plume.

Submit your comments to: EMLA-NEPA@em.doe.gov (preferred)
Please use the subject line: Chromium EA Scoping Comment

U.S. mail:
Jesse Kahler
NEPA Compliance Officer
U.S. DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office
1200 Trinity Drive, Suite 400
Los Alamos, NM 87544

4. Thursday, June 8^th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm MT – in person and virtual Town Hall on Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project at Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Meeting Rooms. The Town Hall is hosted by Santa Fe County Commissioner Chair Anna Hansen (District 2) and the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF).  The purpose is to provide information about the Santa Fe Mountains Landscape Resiliency Project (SFMLRP) and give the public an opportunity to ask SFNF leadership program managers and resource specialists about upcoming plans and actions.

Note:  There is road construction at the intersection of Richards Avenue and Avenida Del Sur.  Allow additional time for travel and utilize detours (I-25 to Rabbit Road and through Oshara Village).  For directions to SFCC during construction, visit https://www.sfcc.edu/upcoming-road-closure/

5. Thursday, June 8^th from 6 to 8 pm MT – Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance.  The Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club is hosting an exclusive showing and panel discussion of the new 46-minute documentary that warns that so-called small modular nuclear reactors, or SMNRs, are simply the same dangerous nuclear technology in a new shiny wrapper.  “New” nuclear is considered a climate solution – which it is not.  Join filmmaker Jan Haaken to learn why SMNRs are a false solution.

To attend via Zoom:

6. Saturday, June 10^th from 9:30 to 11:30 am MT – FLOW: remembering our way to a livable future – The unfolding of human/water relations in downtown Santa Fe.  For more information:  https://wisefoolnewmexico.org/flow2023/

7. Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9 am MT – virtual and in-person public hearing about draft groundwater discharge renewal permit and modification application (DP-1481) for the URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility and depleted uranium byproduct storage in Eunice (five miles west of the Texas border) in southeast New Mexico. https://urencousa.com/

To view public hearing notice (GWQB 23-3), go to https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/ , scroll down to Lea County, click on URENCO USA.

As of Thursday, June 1, 2023, the 8,000 page Administrative Record for the public hearing has yet to be posted on the NMED website, despite assurances that it would be.  https://www.env.nm.gov/opf/docketed-matters/ , scroll down to Environment Department Cabinet Secretary, to “Ground Water Quality Bureau 23-03 URENCO USA (UUSA) Discharge Permit Renewal and Modification Application DP-1481, Uranium Enrichment Facility and Depleted Uranium Byproduct Storage.”

To submit public comments:  https://nmed.commentinput.com/?id=jMQtf

In response to the lack of concrete progress on nuclear disarmament by the G7 leaders in Hiroshima last week, Ivana Nikolić Hughes, Ph.D., and President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, wrote the following opinion editorial in Common Dreams.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/g7-leaders-fail-on-nuclear-disarmament-in-hiroshima  Below is her piece:

“Last summer, after it was announced that Japan would host the G7 Summit of leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States in Hiroshima, the nuclear disarmament movement was abuzz. The hope was that, after all these years of mostly avoiding the subject, the leaders were going to have a chance to listen to hibakusha, reflect deeply on the lessons learned from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, confront escalating dangers of nuclear war and the threat to all of humanity that this would pose, and finally make concrete commitments on nuclear disarmament.

“Part of the reason for optimism, I think, was that many of those same activists had their lives changed by visits to Hiroshima. As if the whole city were a shrine to the horror, the devastation, the pain, the shame, the misery, but also the resilience and the beauty of humanity, people regularly depart Hiroshima with a changed worldview and a newfound or renewed passion for nuclear abolition. And so, the thinking went, surely the leaders would be similarly transformed and recognize that such collective civilian suffering must never happen again and that the only way to ensure that it wouldn’t is to get rid of nuclear weapons once and for all.

“We were wrong.

“This past weekend, the G7 leaders went to Hiroshima, laid wreaths in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, staying there for just 30 minutes, and then published a statement that could have been produced as a result of meeting anywhere in the world. In fact, it was probably written long before they even arrived in Hiroshima. They didn’t need to go to Japan to offer empty words and zero concrete solutions or steps. According to them, a nuclear weapons-free world is just a dream, and they are determined to keep it that way.

[G7 leaders] didn’t need to go to Japan to offer empty words and zero concrete solutions or steps. According to them, a nuclear weapons-free world is just a dream, and they are determined to keep it that way.

“Many people think that when it comes to nuclear weapons, those of us arguing for their abolition and elimination are trying to prevent another Hiroshima or Nagasaki from happening. And while a repeat of what took place during that tragic week in August of 1945 would be devastating, chances are that use of a nuclear weapon today would have far worse consequences. In 1945, the US used the only two weapons that were on hand, having tested the third in July in New Mexico. Today, there are nearly 13,000 nuclear warheads in the world, most of which are more powerful than the bomb used in Hiroshima on August 6. But even the use of a single, Hiroshima-sized [weapon] – sometimes referred to as tactical nuclear weapon – is expected to lead to full-out nuclear war, according to simulations from Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. And nuclear war would in turn cause nuclear winter – due to soot in the atmosphere as a result of widespread fires – a state of prolonged climate cooling that would result in drastic reductions in agricultural output and starvation around the world. The stakes simply couldn’t be higher.

“How has the G7 statement on nuclear disarmament failed? The answer is pretty much across the board. There are no concrete steps outlined for disarmament, no commitments to stop modernizing or to reduce stockpiles, and not even a mention of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the one internationally binding instrument that actually provides a framework for getting to nuclear zero, while also acknowledging the tremendous humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use and testing.

The G7 leaders refused to understand that bringing about the end of the world as we know it is not why we elected them.

“In fact, the G7 statement reaffirms the importance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which a science and policy expert recently referred to as “being in a coma.” The NPT, having been in force for over 52 years, has failed miserably in its obligations to deliver nuclear and total and complete disarmament. The TPNW, rather than competing with the NPT, could help the NPT achieve their common objective.

“Were we not loud enough? Not clear enough? Or do they just not want to hear what we have to say? In my own letters to each of the leaders, I wrote, ‘If there is a nuclear war and hundreds of millions of people die in the explosions and from ensuing radiation and billions die from starvation due to the onset of nuclear winter, there will be no history books to judge you. Human civilization, which we have patiently built for thousands of years, will have met its end. If you survive the initial stage, you will regret that you didn’t do more when you could. Don’t let that happen. You have the power to change the status quo.’ This is about as clear as I could be.

“At this summit, the G7 leaders refused to understand that bringing about the end of the world as we know it is not why we elected them. No national or alliance goals could possibly justify the risk to all of humanity. It’s time for regular people from all walks of life and a wide range of political opinions to demand real action on nuclear disarmament. The G7 leaders must sign the TPNW. There is a world to save.”

1. Friday, May 26^th 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Monday, June 5, 2023 – comments due on scope of a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Sandia National Laboratories. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/21/2023-08459/national-nuclear-security-administration-notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-site-wide-environmental  and https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0556-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-continued-operation-sandia-national 

Written comments on the scope of the SNL/NM SWEIS or requests for information related to the SNL/NM SWEIS may be sent via postal mail to:

SNL/NM SWEIS Comments
National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia Field Office
PO Box 5400
Albuquerque, NM 87185

or by email to: SNL-SWEIS@nnsa.doe.gov or adria.bodour@nnsa.doe.gov

3. Tuesday, June 6, 2023 – comments due on the scope of an Environmental Assessment for the Chromium Interim Measures and Final Remedy at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Submit your comments to: EMLA-NEPA@em.doe.gov (preferred)
Please use the subject line: Chromium EA Scoping Comment

U.S. mail:
Jesse Kahler
NEPA Compliance Officer
U.S. DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office
1200 Trinity Drive, Suite 400
Los Alamos, NM 87544

4. Saturday, June 10^th from 9:30 to 11:30 am – FLOW: remembering our way to a livable future – The unfolding of human/water relations in downtown Santa Fe.  For more information:  https://wisefoolnewmexico.org/flow2023/

5. Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at 9 am – virtual and in-person public hearing about draft groundwater discharge renewal permit and modification application (DP-1481) for the URENCO USA uranium enrichment facility and depleted uranium byproduct storage in Eunice (five miles west of the Texas border) in southeast New Mexico. https://urencousa.com/

To view public hearing notice (GWQB 23-3), go to https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/ , scroll down to Lea County, click on URENCO USA.

As of Thursday, May 25, 2023, the 8,000 page Administrative Record for the public hearing has yet to be posted on the NMED website, despite assurances that it would be.  https://www.env.nm.gov/opf/docketed-matters/ , scroll down to Environment Department Cabinet Secretary, to “Ground Water Quality Bureau 23-03 URENCO USA (UUSA) Discharge Permit Renewal and Modification Application DP-1481, Uranium Enrichment Facility and Depleted Uranium Byproduct Storage.”

To submit public comments:  https://nmed.commentinput.com/?id=jMQtf

On May 15^th, four Archbishops, including Archbishop John C. Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, sent a letter to the Group of Seven leaders gathering for a three-day summit in Hiroshima, Japan to urge the leaders to take concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament.

The Roman Catholic Church spiritual leaders besides Archbishop Wester, are Paul Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle; Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Archbishop of Nagasaki, and Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama, Bishop of Hiroshima.

The recipients of the letter are the President of the USA, Joseph R. Biden; Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida; President of France, Emmanuel Macron; Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni; Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak; and Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.

It reads:

John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe

Paul Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle

Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Archbishop of Nagasaki

Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama, Bishop of Hiroshima

May 15, 2023

President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden
Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida
President of France, Emmanuel Macron
Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni
Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau

Dear G7 Leaders,

We, the undersigned spiritual leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, urge you to use the upcoming summit of the International Group of Seven to undertake concrete steps toward global, verifiable nuclear disarmament.

We commend Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for choosing the City of Hiroshima, the first victim of nuclear war, as the summit venue. That alone is a powerful message. We enthusiastically welcome the meeting between G7 leaders and the hibakusha – the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – as a step toward recognizing the long-lasting horrors of nuclear warfare.

As the Roman Catholic spiritual leaders of the diocese with the most spending on nuclear weapons in the United States (Santa Fe, NM), the diocese with the most deployed strategic nuclear weapons in the United States (Seattle, WA), and the only two dioceses in the world to have suffered atomic attacks (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan), we are compelled by providence to speak out.

As Prime Minister Kishida observed, the summit presents a unique opportunity “to deepen discussions so that we can release a strong message toward realizing a world free of nuclear weapons” and to “demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the threat or use of nuclear weapons.”

We strongly agree. We, therefore, urge you to use the summit to center international attention on the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament and demonstrate a global commitment to nonproliferation efforts. Rather than viewing the war in Ukraine as an overwhelming impediment toward making substantial progress, we view it instead as a clear demonstration of the absolute need to do so.

Specifically, we encourage G7 leaders to:

• acknowledge the tremendous, long-lasting human suffering the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings inflicted upon the hibakusha; acknowledge the tremendous, long-lasting human suffering that production and nuclear weapons testing caused to downwinders around the world;
• reiterate a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, as well as emphasize that, as the G-20 agreed to in November 2022, the use and the threat of use of nuclear weapons are “inadmissible”;
• reaffirm the goal of a future world free of nuclear weapons;
• announce and commit to concrete steps to prevent a new arms race, guard against nuclear weapons use, and advance nuclear disarmament;
• reiterate that serious talks should be restored between the United States and Russia to renew full implementation of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and to negotiate a follow-on treaty; and finally,
• honor the international mandate to enter into serious multilateral negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament, pledged more than a half-century ago in the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty.

Throughout the years, world leaders have spoken about the need to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, prevent a new nuclear arms race, and avoid the ultimate catastrophe, that is potentially civilization-ending nuclear war. These calls have long been echoed by many notable world leaders, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, and Pope Francis. But it is now time to translate rhetoric into action.

We believe today’s new nuclear arms race is more dangerous than the first arms race, given multiple nuclear actors and the advent of new cyber and hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara asserted that humanity survived the Cuban Missile Crisis only by luck. Luck is not sufficient to ensure the continuing survival of the human race.

We strongly urge world leaders at the G7 Summit to show by example how international leadership is ready, willing, and able to work with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear weapons states to ensure no country or city ever suffers the horrors of nuclear war again.

Yours in the hopes of humanity for lasting peace on earth,

Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, NM

Most Reverend Paul Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle, WA

Most Reverend Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Archbishop of Nagasaki, Japan

Most Reverend Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama,  Bishop of Hiroshima, Japan

1. Friday, May 19^th 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, Nonviolent Santa Fe, and others.

2. Tuesday, May 23^rd at noon – Vigil to end gun violence on the Santa Fe Plaza. https://nonviolentsantafe.org/            Vigil to end gun violence

3. Tuesday, May 23^rd – White Sands Missile Range – Comments due to the NM Environment Department about the draft Hazardous Waste Permit. https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wsmr/  , scroll down to Draft Permit and March 24, 2023 entry.

4. June 5, 2023 – comments due on scope of a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Sandia National Laboratories. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/04/21/2023-08459/national-nuclear-security-administration-notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-site-wide-environmental  and https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0556-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-continued-operation-sandia-national 

Written comments on the scope of the SNL/NM SWEIS or requests for information related to the SNL/NM SWEIS may be sent via postal mail to:

SNL/NM SWEIS Comments
National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia Field Office
PO Box 5400
Albuquerque, NM 87185

or by email to: SNL-SWEIS@nnsa.doe.gov or adria.bodour@nnsa.doe.gov

5. June 6, 2023 – comments due on the scope of an Environmental Assessment for the Chromium Interim Measures and Final Remedy.

Submit your comments to: EMLA-NEPA@em.doe.gov (preferred)
Please use the subject line: Chromium EA Scoping Comment

U.S. mail:
Jesse Kahler
NEPA Compliance Officer
U.S. DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office
1200 Trinity Drive, Suite 400
Los Alamos, NM 87544