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

*  Marshall Islands Challenges Nine Nuclear Armed States in World Court Lawsuits

Late last month the Republic of the Marshall Islands filed nine unprecedented lawsuits in the International Court of Justice to hold the nine nuclear-armed states accountable for flagrant violations of international law contained in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law.  The island nation, which was used for 12 years as an above-ground nuclear weapons testing site for the U.S., is not seeking compensation for the damages to their health and environment, but for declaratory and injunctive relief requiring the nine nuclear-armed states to comply with their treaty obligations.  A related lawsuit was also filed suit in the U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is an island country located in the northern Pacific Ocean with a population of about 70,000 people living on 24 low-lying coral atolls.  The Republic is part of the larger island group of Micronesia.  Between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests there, including the 1954 “Castle Bravo” test which was 1,000 times greater than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

The lawsuits declare that the five original nuclear weapons states – the U.S., Russian, United Kingdom, France and China – are continuously breaching their legal obligations under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  This article requires that the nations pursue negotiations “in good faith” for an end to the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and for nuclear disarmament.  The five original nuclear weapons states are parties to the treaty, but they continue to ignore their obligations.  The four newer nuclear-armed nations – Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea – are not parties to the treaty, but are bound by these nuclear disarmament provisions under customary international law. The lawsuits contend that all nine nuclear-armed nations are violating customary international law and detail their efforts to modernize their arsenals while failing to negotiate nuclear disarmament.  They plan to spend $1 trillion in the next decade on their arsenals.

The Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, Tony de Brum, said, “Our people have suffered the catastrophic and irreparable damage of these weapons, and we vow to fight so that no one else on earth will ever again experience these atrocities.  The continued existence of nuclear weapons and the terrible risk they pose to the world threatens us all.”

On April 29th, Bill Kidd, a member of the Scottish Parliament, and Vice-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, introduced a motion in the Scottish Parliament in support of the lawsuits.  To add your support, please sign the petition at http://www.wagingpeace.org, an effort of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

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

ACTION ALERT!

This morning’s ABQ Journal headline is “DOE: Could be 3 years to fully reopen NM Nuke dump.”  http://www.abqjournal.com/396818/abqnewsseeker/doe-could-be-3-years-to-fully-reopen-nm-nuke-dump.html

Now is the time to call for DOE to stop making any more waste and to call for an independent investigation of the WIPP radiation release.  See below for more information.  Please contact your congressional members.  Together we are making a difference!

Best,
CCNS

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 5/9/14 through 5/16/14

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

* LANL Waste Shipments Suspended

On May 2^nd, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that some nuclear waste shipments from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) were suspended for an undetermined amount of time. The reason for the stoppage was that one or more LANL waste containers may have exploded underground and caused the February 14^th radiation release from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). However, DOE continues to state that the cause of the radiation release is unknown, but that it is investigating all possible scenarios.

Neither DOE nor LANL publicly identified the specific group of containers, called a waste stream, that are included in the shipment suspension. Nor have they publicly stated how many of the suspect containers are at WIPP and WCS and how many remain at LANL.

The suspended waste stream is LA-MIN02-V.001, which is the source of 54 of the 268 contact-handled waste containers in room 7, panel 7, at WIPP, where the radiation release may have originated. Another 116 containers from that waste stream are now at WCS.  The waste stream was created by plutonium operations at LANL that are continuing at Technical Area 55.

The containers hold a portion of the 3,706 cubic meters of plutonium-contaminated waste that is the subject of the January 2012 Framework Agreement between the New Mexico Environment Department and LANL. The agreement states that it is non-binding, but LANL committed to removing all of that waste from Area G by June 30^th, 2014.  http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/documents/Summary_of_NNMCAB_01-5-2012.pdf

When WIPP was closed in early February, about 100 shipments remained at LANL to meet the June 30^th date. Since those shipments could not go to WIPP, DOE agreed to pay WCS $8.8 million to receive and store those wastes for up to one year.

The Environment Department has insisted that LANL meet the June 30^th date, but not the deadlines for other cleanup activities included in the Consent Order that require wide-scale cleanup by 2015. Since October 2011,the Environment Department has issued more than 95 extensions of time for LANL to submit groundwater protection and cleanup investigation reports required by the Consent Order. http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/HWB/documents/LANL_Extensions_as_of_4-7-2014.pdf  The Framework Agreement does not give the Environment Department any power to impose fines and penalties to LANL for missing the June 30^th deadline, while NMED does have that power under the Consent Order.

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “Both LANL and the Environment Department put all of their eggs in one basket by focusing on getting the waste off the Hill to WIPP instead of doing all of the work required under the Consent Order. Now, we still have waste at LANL – with more being created – but many of the important Consent Order activities have not been done.”

This has been the CCNS News Update. For more information, please visit http://www.nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 5/2/14 through 5/9/14

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

* Over 400 New Mexico Nonprofit Organizations Participating in Give Grande New Mexico on Tuesday, May 6th

Give Grande New Mexico May 6, 2014

In celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the formation of community foundations, The Community Foundation Coalition of New Mexico is supporting New Mexico’s participation in a unique 24-hour national day of giving event on Tuesday, May 6^th. The local initiative is called Give Grande New Mexico.  Over 100 communities across the U.S., with the help of their own community foundations, will host local giving events to support local causes and organizations. Each local gift will be amplified with funding from a national incentive pool of funds and New Mexico will have its own incentive prizes.

Five major foundations in New Mexico make up the Coalition. They are the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Santa Fe, Southern New Mexico and Taos Community Foundations. A community foundation is a publicly-supported philanthropic institution governed by a board of private citizens chosen to be representative of the public interest and for their knowledge of the community. Three groups are served by community foundations and they are donors, the nonprofit sector and the community as a whole.

Media sponsors include the Albuquerque Journal, Clear Channel Outdoor, the Taos News, KTAOS 101.9 FM, and KRZA 88.7 FM, 98.7 FM and 100.9 FM. Foundation partners include the McCune Charitable Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Business leaders include the Bank of Albuquerque, Lovelace Health System, NAI Maestas & Ward and Yearout Mechanical, Inc.

Over 400 New Mexico nonprofit organizations are participating in the historic, community-giving event, which will raise as much funding as possible through easy-to-use online fundraising.

CCNS is participating in the crowd-sourced giving event and would appreciate your support. For over 26 years, CCNS has worked diligently to protect the air, water, land and public health through successful lawsuits against the Department of Energy for environmental violations at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). We have worked for over a decade with whistleblower Robert H. Gilkeson, an independent registered geologist, to raise water contamination and seismic issues at LANL. We have also produced the weekly broadcast of the CCNS News Update to keep you informed.       On Tuesday, please go to the Give Grande website to make your contribution to our work.

Denise Gonzales, the Give Grande Project Coordinator, said, “Nonprofit organization are crucial to New Mexico’s cultural, social and economic health. They make even the most basic things like food and shelter possible each and every day for families across the state. They also protect the quality of life we value.” Gonzales continued, “Give Grande New Mexico will reignite the spirit of giving in our communities and provide opportunities for statewide nonprofits to get their creative juices flowing.”

For more information, please visit http://www.givegrandenm.org/

This has been the CCNS News Update. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 4/25/14 through 5/2/14

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

*  Roof Fall Not Cause of WIPP Radiation Release

Tammy Reynolds, the Deputy Recovery Manager at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), reported Wednesday evening at a public meeting in Carlsbad that a catastrophic roof fall was not the cause of the February 14th radiation release.  But the cause of the release and the continuing radiation levels is still not known.  Reynolds reported that three workers walked into Panel 7 of the nuclear waste dump to find the drums that they could see were still standing in formation as they had been placed and there was no debris.  They were able to see the front face of the 258 contact-handled waste drums in Room 7.  They detected 10,000 disintegrations per minute of radiation, which is the measure of decay of radioactive particles.  They also went into Room 6 in order to look at the rear of the stacked drums in Room 7 and detected 20,000 disintegrations per minute of radiation.  From the two views, they did not see any abnormalities in the drums, despite the elevated levels of radiation.  The workers wore Level B hazmat suits with a self-contained air supply.

Also Wednesday, Ted Wyka, Chair of the Department of Energy (DOE) Accident Investigation Board, provided a summary of the 302-page report about the radiation release. The report was released on Thursday morning and is available at http://www.wipp.energy.gov/WIPPRecovery 

The report of the five-person Accident Board was submitted to DOE Headquarters on April 1.  Wyka did not explain the delay in its release. Wyka also did not provide a schedule for when he and other board members would be available for detailed questions and discussion about the report.  The Board also will prepare a Phase 2 report after reentry into the underground when a cause of the release is able to be determined.

The report concludes “that the unfiltered above ground release … was preventable.”  Further, “[t]he Board identified the direct cause of this accident to be the breach of at least one [transuranic] TRU waste container in the underground which resulted in airborne radioactivity escaping to the environment downstream of the [High Efficiency Particulate Air] HEPA filters.”  Not all of the radioactivity released went through the HEPA filters because two dampers in the exhaust building were not suitable and did not fully close, allowing radioactive particles to be released directly to the environment.

The report identifies eight contributing causes to the radiation release to the environment, including that the contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, does not have effective radiation protection, nuclear safety, or maintenance programs.  Further, DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office and Headquarters oversight is ineffective, especially since 2010, but the report does not explain why that declining safety culture occurred.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  For more information about our call for an independent investigation, please visit our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org.

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

    * Ground Water Discharge Permit Public Hearing for Homestake Uranium Mining Company on Tuesday, April 29th in Grants

The Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE) and its member groups will oppose a New Mexico Environment Department draft ground water discharge permit that would allow the Homestake Mining Company to discharge up to 5,500 gallons per minute of polluted water to the clean drinking water sources used by the residents of the Bluewater and Milan villages and the city of Grants at an upcoming public hearing.  http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/Common/pub_notice.htm  MASE invites you to attend the hearing, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, April 29th at 9 am at the Cibola County Government Building, located at 515 West High Street, in Grants, New Mexico.  A public comment period begins at 5 pm.

Nitrates, selenium, uranium, radium, chloride, sulfate, dissolved solids, and molybdenum have been found in the ground water.  The pollutants are seeping from one of the world’s largest uranium mill tailings pile located in the Bluewater and Milan village area, which is a Superfund cleanup site.  The tailings were created when Homestake extracted high-grade uranium from the mined soils through the milling process.  Rain and snow moves through the pile to the ground water below, carrying the pollutants with it.

MASE states that the permit is flawed because it does not ensure protection of the public’s health or future water supplies.  Because pre-uranium development “background” values were never established, the Environment Department is allowing an “acceptable” level of pollution in the four regional aquifers in the San Mateo Creek watershed, located west of Mt. Taylor.  As a result, Homestake, which is now owned by the Barrick Gold Corporation, would not be required to cleanup the groundwater it polluted during 30 years of uranium mill operations.

Susan Gordon, Coordinator for MASE, said, “Our goal is to have more than 60 people attend the public comment section of the hearing.  MASE wants to put the New Mexico Environment Department and all mining companies on notice that the people of New Mexico are not going to let them walk away from their legal obligations to cleanup the uranium tailings left from previous mining. We must demand that the Environment Department use their regulatory power to ensure that the environmental legacy is cleaned up to pre-uranium development background levels before any new uranium mines can be considered.”

MASE is producing fact sheets and talking points for your use and they will be available at http://masecoalition.org/.  Written comments may be submitted to the Hearing Officer prior to and during the hearing.  Her contact information is:  NMED Hearing Clerk, Sally Worthington, Room S2103, 1190 St. Francis Drive, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87502, telephone (505) 827-2002, fax (505) 827-2836, sally.worthington@state.nm.us.

For more information, please contact Susan Gordon, Coordinator for MASE, at susangordon@earthlink.net or (505) 577-8438, or read the article in this month’s Green Fire Times to learn more.  http://greenfiretimes.com/ – go to page 16 (after looking at the beautiful cover photograph).

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

CCNS NEWS UPDATE
Runs 4/11/14 through 4/18/14

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

*  Ask for an Independent Investigation of WIPP

While we await the accident investigation report for the February 14th radiation release from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) that contaminated at least 21 workers, some things can be learned from the report for the February 5th vehicle fire in the underground.   That report describes inadequate equipment maintenance that was a cause of the fire; inadequate worker training to respond to the emergency; and the WIPP culture that prevents workers from bringing issues and concerns to the attention of management.  http://www.wipp.energy.gov/wipprecovery/accident_desc.html – accident investigation report at the bottom of the page.

The accident report describes how 86 workers were in the mine at the time of the fire.  The operator of the salt hauling vehicle tried to extinguish the fire by using a portable fire extinguisher located on the truck and the truck’s fire suppression system, but could not do so.  The report found, “There were inconsistencies between procedures and training for fire response that led to an ineffective response to the salt haul truck fire.”

The Central Monitoring Room was notified about the fire, but the operator did not act appropriately.  The evacuation alarm was sounded for only two seconds; the announcement to evacuate could not be understood; and the emergency evacuation strobe lights were not activated.  The ventilation system was switched from normal to filtration mode to reduce the airflow to contain the fire, but the change resulted in smoke flowing into areas where the workers had expected “good” air.  More difficulties ensued in efforts to reach the waste hoist elevator along established evacuation routes due to poor visibility.

Three trips were required to evacuate the workers from the underground 2,150 feet below the surface.  During the 37 minutes for the evacuation, some workers struggled with or did not use the self-contained breathing apparatus, and 13 had to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “I can’t imagine how afraid and confused the workers must have been.  They had been told that this type of accident would never happen.  But they knew the required training and equipment maintenance was not done; the culture deterred workers from raising issues with their supervisors; and the ventilation system was switched the wrong way.  I would have wondered what else could go wrong and whether I would get out of the mine alive.

“The WIPP culture must be fixed.  We can’t trust this system for nuclear waste disposal to keep the workers safe and those living in the area and along the transportation routes.  An independent investigation of the radiation release is required now.  Please contact your elected officials, including the Governor, congresspersons and senators, and urge them to support an independent investigation of the WIPP radiation release.  Thank you.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  Please go to our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org for the independent investigation action alert.

Hi All,
It’s time for an independent investigation of the radiation release at WIPP.  Please see the Update below for more information.

Please contact Governor Martinez and your U.S. Senators and Representatives to request that an independent investigation of the radiation release at WIPP be conducted ASAP.  Below is the contact information for the New Mexico delegation.  Please email CCNS at ccns@nuclearactive.org with your comment and any response you may receive.  Please share this with your networks.  Thank you!

*  Governor Susana Martinez at http://www.governor.state.nm.us/Contact_the_Governor.aspx

Santa Fe at (505) 476-2200

*  Senator Tom Udall – http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/

*  Senator Martin Heinrich – http://www.heinrich.senate.gov/

Albuquerque at p: (505) 346-6601; f:  (505) 346-6780
Farmington at p: (505) 325-5030; f:  (505) 325-6035
Las Cruces at p: (575) 523-6561; f:  (575) 523-6584
Roswell at p: (575) 622-7113; f:  (575) 622-3538
Santa Fe at p: (505) 988-6647; f:  (505) 992-8435
Washington D.C. at p: (202) 224-5521; f:  (202) 228-2841

*  Representative Ben Ray Lujan – https://lujan.house.gov/

Farmington Office at Phone: (505) 324-1005; Fax: (505) 324-1026
Gallup Office at Phone: (505) 863-0582; Fax: (505) 863-0678
Las Vegas Office at Phone: (505) 454-3038; Fax: 505-454-3265
Rio Rancho Office at Phone: (505) 994-0499; Fax: (505) 994-0550
Santa Fe Office at Phone: (505) 984-8950; Fax: (505) 986-5047
Tucumcari Office at Phone: 575-461-3029; Fax: 575-461-3192
Washington, DC Office:  Ph: (202) 225-6190; Fax: (202) 226-1528

*  Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham – http://lujangrisham.house.gov/

Albuquerque District Office at Phone: 505-346-6781; Fax: 505-346-6723
Washington, DC Office at Phone: 202-225-6316; Fax: 202-225-4975

*  Representative Steve Pearce – http://pearce.house.gov/

Alamogordo at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Hobbs at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Las Cruces at Phone:  855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Las Lunas at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Roswell at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Socorro at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723)
Washington, DC at Phone: 855-4-PEARCE (732723) or (202) 225-2365

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

•    An Independent Investigation of WIPP is Needed

It has been almost two months since the vehicle fire and radiation release from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and we don’t know the essential facts about what happened.  We do know that the radiation release was never supposed to happen, and the federal government is unprepared to safely address the situation.  In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency, charged with determining whether WIPP would leak in 10,000 years, said it would not.

On Wednesday, two eight-person teams traveled down an elevator to the underground salt mine located 2,150 feet below the surface.  It is the first time that people have entered the site since the February 14th radiation release.  They wore anti-contamination suits with air-breathing units.  First reports indicate that no airborne contamination was detected.  That was expected since they entered where outside air comes into the mine and the workers were more than 1,000 feet from where they will find contamination.

Joni Arends, of CCNS, stated, “We understand that plans needed to be prepared in order to ensure the safety of the workers re-entering the mine, and we applaud the Department of Energy (DOE) for being thorough.  On the other hand, for more than 15 years, CCNS has pressed DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department to enhance the emergency preparedness requirements in the hazardous waste permit in anticipation that such an event could happen.  We were ridiculed by the agencies.  And now we see that our concerns were more than justified.”

For decades the non-governmental organizations have made suggestions to promote enhanced protection of workers at WIPP and community members living along the WIPP transportation routes.  Those organizations and others are continuing to carefully monitor what’s happening and demanding that all information be made public.  But those efforts are not enough, given the unprecedented nature of the release and the many unknowns.

Now is the time for an independent investigation of the radiation release.  An Accident Investigation Board was formed to investigate the vehicle fire, which was composed of DOE employees and consultants.  Their report is out and now they have been charged with investigating the radiation release.  But they are not doctors and epidemiologists who are qualified to assess the exposures received by at least 21 workers.  Those people, and the DOE, do not have all the expertise needed to create a plan to decontaminate a salt mine from the first-of-its-kind accident.  There will be no easy, fast solution as to what will happen at WIPP.  We do know that an independent investigation is needed now.

Please contact your elected officials, including the Governor, congresspersons and senators, and urge them to support an independent investigation of the WIPP radiation release.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  Please go to our website at http://www.nuclearactive.org to read the independent investigation action alert.