CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/31/14 through 2/7/14

(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:

• Egolf and Morales Introduce Memorials in Support of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in New Mexico Legislature

Representative Brian F. Egolf, Jr., of Santa Fe, and Senator Howie Morales, of Silver City, introduced memorials into their respective New Mexico legislative bodies requesting that the New Mexico Congressional delegation support amendments to expand compensation under the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) for individuals exposed to radiation.  The proposed amendments would expand compensation to include all of New Mexico, including those exposed to the July 16, 1945 Trinity Test of the first nuclear weapon, near Alamogordo.  As always, public participation will make a difference.  Please contact your New Mexico legislators and ask them to support Senate Memorial 35 and House Memorial 36.  http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=S&LegType=M&LegNo=35&year=14 and http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/legislation.aspx?Chamber=H&LegType=M&LegNo=36&year=14

RECA was first passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, which provided some compensation to those who were exposed to radiation from certain atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Nevada and in the Pacific, along with uranium mining and processing operations, some of which occurred in New Mexico.

In 2013, U.S. Senator Tom Udall led a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Senator Martin Heinrich, to expand RECA to provide compensation, including medical benefits, for Americans sickened from working in uranium mines and related operations and living downwind and downstream of nuclear weapons tests.  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:SN00773:|/home/LegislativeData.php|  U.S. Representative Ben Ray Lujan introduced a companion bill in the House, which is co-sponsored by Representatives Michelle Lujan Grisham and Steve Pearce.  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:HR01645:|/home/LegislativeData.php|

In April 2013, Senator Tom Udall said, “We have seen the heartbreaking effects of those who sacrificed their health and lives by working or living near uranium mines and nuclear test sites in the mid-20th century.  Many Americans unwittingly paid the price for our national security, and unfortunately, some victims fell through the cracks in the original legislation. Expanding RECA will provide these individuals with recognition so that they can receive the much needed compensation they deserve.”  http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1272

The compensation would cover those who experienced the first bombing of innocent civilians living in the Tularosa Basin in July, 1945.  Tina Cordova, of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said,  “ The time has come for us to perform our most basic duty and that is to see to it that every man, woman and child in New Mexico who has suffered with, is suffering with or who has died from cancer and other diseases directly associated with radiation exposure  is compensated.  It is our moral and ethical duty and obligation.”

The New Mexico memorials congratulate Senator Udall and Representative Lujan “for their vision in introducing legislation to expand, under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, the rights of individuals exposed to radiation.”

To find your New Mexico legislators, go to www.nmlegis.gov.  Ask them to support House Memorial 36 and Senate Memorial 35.

Senate Memorial 35 will be heard in two committees before going to the floor, Senate Rules and Senate Judiciary.

House Memorial 36 will be heard in House Energy and Natural Resources before going to the floor.  Representative Egolf is the chair of that committee.

The memorials are identical and independent, which means either or both can pass or fail. They are not subject to the governor’s veto.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

WIPP Panel Closure:  Will it reduce safety? fact sheet

WIPP Panel Closure FS 1-15-14

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/17/14 through 1/24/14

(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 Storm Water and EPA WIPP Meetings Next Week

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will hold a required public meeting about its individual storm water permit on Wednesday, January 22^nd from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cities of Gold Conference Center in Pojoaque.

The meeting will begin with a 20-minute poster session.  Then LANL will provide an overview of the 1,000 year flood events that occurred late last summer; provide an update about permit compliance in 2013; and provide information about the application they will submit soon to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a new permit.  Robert Chavez, the Youth Initiative Project Coordinator for the Communities for Clean Water, will also make a presentation about the new project.  Its purpose is to develop and enhance the capacity of youth who live downstream and downwind of LANL to become leaders and stewards for the protection and restoration of the health of Northern New Mexico communities impacted by historic and current operations at LANL.

LANL has a dedicated website for the storm water permit where you can sign up to receive meeting information. [for email version:  http://www.lanl.gov/community-environment/environmental-stewardship/protection/compliance/individual-permit-stormwater/index.php]

Additionally, the EPA will hold two meetings regarding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico next week.  The first will be held in Carlsbad on Wednesday, January 22^nd in the Main Auditorium of the Department of Energy (DOE), Carlsbad Field Office, from 1 to 4 pm.  The field office is located at 4021 National Parks Highway.  The second EPA meeting will be held in Albuquerque on Thursday, January 23^rd at the Albuquerque Embassy Suites Hotel and Spa, Sandia Ballroom, from 1 to 4 pm.  The hotel is located at 1000 Woodward Place, Northeast.  If there are a considerable number of requests from the public for an additional evening session in Albuquerque, a meeting from 6 to 8 pm will be added.

The public meetings are about the proposed rule for the redesign of the structures to be used to close the panels where plutonium-contaminated waste is disposed.  Because the waste generates hydrogen gas, the panel closures are needed to protect workers.  Instead of installing concrete monolith and mortared explosion walls, DOE has proposed a Run-of-Mine Salt Panel Closure System.  The proposed design will use the mined salt and steel bulkheads to seal the filled waste panels.  DOE claims that the new panel closure system will cost less and will reduce the impacts on disposing of waste, even though it is a much less robust barrier to prevent releases from the closed panels.   A 60-day public comment period closes on February 3, 2014.  For more information, please visit our website to download a fact sheet.  WIPP Panel Closure FS 1-15-14

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

 

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/10/14 through 1/17/14

(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:

• DOE Inspector General Finds Problems with Plutonium Facility Security Upgrades; Project Does Not Meet Seismic Standards

The Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General found that the DOE and Los Alamos National Security, LLC, did not take the required steps to properly manage the contractors hired for the $245 million security upgrade to the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  As a result, the project that was scheduled for completion in December will require as many as nine more months of work.  http://energy.gov/ig/downloads/special-report-doeig-0901

The security upgrades, which began in 2009, include building new security fences on the north and south sides and installing redundant security alarm systems.  The contractor, however, placed the security alarm fiber optic cables in the same location as the existing security systems, thereby eliminating the system redundancy.  As a result, DOE suspended the work.

The Plutonium Facility is the only facility in the U.S. that manufactures plutonium triggers, or pits, for nuclear weapons.  Over the past decade, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has issued many reports about the facility’s imminent and substantial danger to the public because of unsafe security, unsafe work practices and the great seismic hazard that exists on the Pajarito Plateau.

Last May, the Chair of the Defense Safety Board testified before Congress.  He said, “The risk posed by the Plutonium Facility at [LANL] remains among the Board’s greatest concerns. An earthquake resulting in collapse of the facility would likely result in very high radiological doses to the public in nearby towns. The Board continues to urge DOE to take meaningful, near-term action to mitigate this risk.”

In 2010, the Defense Safety Board recommended that DOE reduce the plutonium inventory.  Instead, DOE increased the powdered plutonium inventory for multi-year storage at the Plutonium Facility, which, even with the security upgrades, is not designed to meet the DOE seismic requirement to prevent the release of powdered plutonium.

In October 2013, the Union of Concerned Scientists described the plutonium as being “in powdered form and easily inhaled, so it poses a greater health risk than plutonium pits.”   http://www.ucsusa.org/  They also said, “Los Alamos stored four metric tons of plutonium as of September 2009.  The United States has declared 1.2 metric tons of that to be excess, and has likely moved that amount to Savannah River. The remaining 2.8 metric tons—enough for more than 1,000 pits—is available to produce new pits for nuclear warheads.”

In April 2012, the scientists said there is no need to manufacture new plutonium triggers for at least several decades.

Robert H. Gilkeson, an Independent Registered Geologist who has dedicated years to exposing the seismic danger, said,  “In light of the conclusion of the Union of Concerned Scientists report that we do not need the manufacture of new plutonium pits for a least several decades,  the imminent and substantial danger to the public from 1) the very large inventory of powdered plutonium at the Plutonium Facility; 2) the unsafe security; and 3) the record of unsafe work operations, the LANL Plutonium Facility should be immediately shut down.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 1/3/14 through 1/10/14

(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:

• Upcoming Events about Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Waste

The coming weeks bring discussions and decisions about nuclear weapons and nuclear waste.  We look forward with hope and trepidation.  Citizen involvement, as always, will be very significant to the results.  Congress will pass a $1 trillion spending bill; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be in New Mexico regarding the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP); and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will hold its semi-annual public meeting for the individual storm water permit.

Although a place and time has not been determined for the public meeting about the individual storm water permit, the LANL meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 22^nd.  Meeting topics may include a review of the data from last summer’s storms; an update about permit compliance; and an overview of upcoming public participation opportunities, including the annual report submitted to the EPA.  LANL has a dedicated website for the storm water permit where you can sign up to receive meeting information.  http://www.lanl.gov/community-environment/environmental-stewardship/protection/compliance/individual-permit-stormwater/index.php]

The EPA will be hold an informal public meeting about the proposed rule for the redesign of the WIPP panel closures in Albuquerque, likely on Wednesday, January 22^nd.  Instead of installing a concrete monolith and mortared explosion walls, the Department of Energy (DOE), owner of WIPP, has proposed to install a Run-of-Mine Salt Panel Closure System.  The proposed design will use the mined salt and steel bulkheads to seal the filled waste panels.  DOE claims that the new Panel Closure System will cost less and will reduce the impacts on waste emplacement, even though it is a much less robust barrier to prevent releases from closed panels.   A 60-day public comment period closes on February 3, 2014.  For more information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/radiation/news/wipp-news.html

Congress is working on a $1 trillion omnibus appropriations bill, the result of the budget agreement by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Paul Ryan.  Both houses of Congress must pass the omnibus bill by January 16^th in order to avoid another government shutdown.

Nuclear weapons programs may be subject to additional cuts or increased funding.  Two major funding issues for LANL and Sandia are the DOE plans to spend more than $10 billion on 400 B-61 nuclear bombs and possible funding for a new design of the proposed Nuclear Facility for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project at LANL.  In the new Defense Authorization bill, Congress allowed a “modular building strategy as an alternative to the [CMRR] replacement project,” that would be operational by 2027, and would meet the “requirements for maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile over a 30-year period.”

CCNS will keep you posted about these and other nuclear weapons and waste issues.

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To learn more, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org and like us on Facebook.

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 12/27/13 through 1/3/14

(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:

• Area G Resolution Unanimously Passed by Santa Fe City Council
  

The Santa Fe City Council unanimously approved a resolution in early December requesting that the New Mexico Environment Department consider alternatives to leaving radioactive, toxic and hazardous waste buried at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Area G dump.  LANL has proposed to the Environment Department that the installation of a “cap and cover” over the 63-acre dump will protect the ground water beneath it.  The dump is estimated to contain a million cubic meters, or approximately 35 million cubic feet, of toxic waste.

Mayor David Coss introduced the resolution.  He is also the chair of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities.  He said that public comments at the monthly meetings consistently indicate that people don’t want Area G to become a permanent nuclear waste dump.  At the City Council meeting, more than a dozen people spoke in support of the resolution.  They stated that the dump must be excavated in order to protect groundwater.

Area G began operations in the late 1950s before there were laws protecting the land, air and water from pollution.  None of the dumps, dug out of the volcanic tuff, are lined.  Plumes of solvents and radioactive tritium have been found in the shallow water bodies below Area G.  Pollution also has been found in the regional aquifer below the dump.

Santa Fe has a special concern because two of its water supplies are located just five miles east of the dump.  Councilor Ron Trujillo declared, “This resolution has relevance for the City of Santa Fe.  That nuclear waste is close to the Rio Grande.  Should something catastrophic happen there I don’t want that hitting the Buckman [wells and diversion project].”

Communities downwind and downstream of LANL also have special concerns.  Mayor Coss encouraged communities up and down the Rio Grande to pass similar resolutions.  He said, “Santa Fe is the first but Santa Fe should not be the last” community to voice its concerns.

Teresa Chavez, of the Tewa Women United Environmental Justice Group, based in Espanola, supported the resolution.  She said that cleanup would “result in a tremendous positive impact.  Passing this resolution would be a step toward allowing the land and our people to heal.”

CCNS, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, and Independent Registered Geologist Robert H. Gilkeson worked many hours to refine the resolution.  They inserted protective wording that requires LANL to conduct field studies of the ground water below the dumps, as well as conduct seismic field studies of the LANL site, both as required by the hazardous waste laws and Department of Energy orders.  They will continue to monitor the journey of the resolution.

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

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 12/20/13 through 12/27/13

(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:

• “Zombie” Canyon Uranium Mine Opening Suspended Again

Operations to open the Canyon uranium mine, located six miles south of the Grand Canyon National Park, were suspended in early November.  This is the second time in as many decades that the plans of Energy Fuels Resources, Inc. to sink the drilling shaft have been halted.  The Canyon mine operations were first placed in standby mode in 1992, after uranium prices plunged to record lows.

The Havasupi Tribe, who live in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, has challenged the mine since it was first proposed.  It was joined by conservation groups, including the Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, to file lawsuits against the Canyon mine.  Together they have been working to stop the mine because of the potential harm to waters and wildlife of the Grand Canyon, as well as cultural resources.

The U.S. Forest Service approved the plan of Energy Fuels to sink the shaft to approximately 1,500 feet to access the uranium ore.  The mine plans to use in-situ uranium mining methods.  The shaft has been drilled to about 300 feet.  All surface development has been done, including the head-frame, the hoist, evaporation ponds, buildings, and environmental monitoring facilities.

In early 2013, the mining corporation resumed shaft-sinking operations.  The Havasupi Tribe, along with the conservation groups, responded by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona alleging that the Forest Service had failed to comply with the federal laws pertaining to the mine operations, sought to halt further development of the mine until the Forest Service complied with their legal responsibilities, and requested an injunction to stop the development.  The District Court denied their motion.

In response, the Plaintiffs filed an appeal with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit because the lower court in Arizona denied their motion for an emergency injunction to stop the drilling.  The parties then reached an agreement to suspend operations pending a decision in the District Court of Arizona, or until December 31, 2014.

Energy Fuels cited “business reasons” for its decision to place the mine in non-operational, standby status.  Again, the price of uranium has dropped to a five-year low.

Roger Clark, with the Grand Canyon Trust, said, “The Canyon Mine threatens irreversible damage to the Havasupai people and Grand Canyon’s water, wildlife, and tourism economy, so this closure is very good news.  The closure is temporary. Under current policy, federal agencies will permit this mine — like other “zombie mines” across the region — to reopen next year, or 10 or 20 years from now without any new environmental analysis or reclamation. That needs to change.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To make an end of the year tax-deductible contribution, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org.
 

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 12/13/13 through 12/20/13

(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:

• Area G Resolution Unanimously Passed by Santa Fe City Council

The Santa Fe City Council unanimously approved a resolution at its December 11^th meeting requesting that the New Mexico Environment Department consider alternatives to leaving radioactive, toxic and hazardous waste buried at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Area G dump.  LANL has proposed to the Environment Department that the installation of a “cap and cover” over the 63-acre dump will protect the ground water beneath it.  The dump is estimated to contain a million cubic meters, or approximately 35 million cubic feet, of toxic waste.

Mayor David Coss introduced the resolution.  He is also the chair of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities.  He said that public comments at the monthly meetings consistently indicate that people don’t want Area G to become a permanent nuclear waste dump.  At the City Council meeting, more than a dozen people spoke in support of the resolution.  They stated that the dump must be excavated in order to protect groundwater.

Area G began operations in the late 1950s before there were laws protecting the land, air and water from pollution.  None of the disposal areas, dug out of the volcanic tuff, are lined.  Plumes of solvents and radioactive tritium have been found in the shallow water bodies below Area G.  Pollution also has been found in the regional aquifer below the dump.

Santa Fe has a special concern because two of its water supplies are located just five miles east of the dump.  Councilor Ron Trujillo declared, “This resolution has relevance for the City of Santa Fe.  That nuclear waste is close to the Rio Grande.  Should something catastrophic happen there I don’t want that hitting the Buckman [wells and diversion project].”

Communities downwind and downstream of LANL also have special concerns.  Mayor Coss encouraged communities up and down the Rio Grande to pass similar resolutions.  He said, “Santa Fe is the first but Santa Fe should not be the last” community to voice its concerns.

Teresa Chavez, of the Tewa Women United Environmental Justice Group, based in Espanola, supported the resolution.  She said that cleanup would “result in a tremendous positive impact.  Passing this resolution would be a step toward allowing the land and our people to heal.”

CCNS, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, and Independent Registered Geologist Robert H. Gilkeson worked many hours to refine the resolution.  They inserted protective wording that requires LANL to conduct field studies of the ground water below the dumps, as well as conduct seismic field studies of the LANL site, both as required by the hazardous waste laws and Department of Energy orders.  They will continue to monitor the journey of the resolution.

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

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 11/15/13 through 11/22/13

(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:

• Proposed City of Santa Fe Area G Resolution Circumvents Public Process

At the November 13^th Santa Fe City Council meeting, Mayor David Coss introduced a resolution requesting that alternatives to leaving nuclear waste buried at Area G at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be considered.  As an alternative, it urges the reburial of low-level wastes at an unknown location.  Unless the draft resolution is withdrawn, the full City Council will vote on Wednesday, December 11^th.

While the draft resolution appears to be benign, the content raises more questions than it answers.

Area G is the 63-acre operating dump for hazardous, toxic and low-level radioactive wastes.  It began operation in the late 1950s before there were laws protecting the soils, air and water from pollution. None of the pits, trenches and shafts used for waste disposal, dug out of the volcanic tuff, are lined. Pollution has been found in the water bodies below Area G, including in the regional aquifer.

The New Mexico Environment Department is responsible for the permitting of hazardous waste operations at Area G, and the other two dumps there, Areas H and L.  When their first draft of the permit was released for public review and comment in 2007, it did not include closure and post-closure plans for almost 30 operating units.  In these plans, LANL is required to explain what will happen when the units close.  If waste is to be left in place, post-closure plans are required to detail what type of monitoring will be done.  Such information is important now to understand what the future holds.

When the public objected to the lack of plans, the Environment Department required LANL to submit plans for 26 operating units, but not require plans for Areas G, H and L.  The lack of plans for the leaking dumps is one of the issues CCNS raised in its appeal of the permit to the New Mexico Court of Appeals in late 2010.

If the City supports reburial of low-level waste at LANL, then the public process may be by-passed.  Because the Court of Appeals case has not been resolved, the City’s resolution interferes with that process and could lead to the public not being involved in the process.  DOE is self-regulating for low-level waste, which means that under DOE requirements, LANL would submit its closures plans to DOE for approval.  LANL would have to prove to DOE, not the public, that the dumps would not leak for 1,000 years and that the public would not be harmed.

In this case, CCNS agrees with DOE when it acknowledged that the Area G decisions must be made by the state of New Mexico – but only after receiving input from the public.  The draft resolution would bypass that public process.

The draft resolution will be heard before the Public Utilities Committee on Wednesday, December 4^th.

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

Here the sample TA-50 comment addressed to Ryan Flynn, Secretary-Designate of the New Mexico Environment Department:  f TA-50 sample comment 12-6-13

CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 12/6/13 through 12/13/13

(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:

• Public Comment Period for Ground Water Discharge Permit for the LANL Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility ends Thursday, December 12th

The Ground Water Quality Bureau of the New Mexico Environment Department released a draft ground water discharge permit for the 50-year old Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for public review and comment.  The Communities for Clean Water have prepared sample public comments for you to use, which are posted on the websites of CCNS and Amigos Bravos.  Public comments are due on or before Thursday, December 12th.

The Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility has been in operation since 1963 and treats liquid radioactive waste created at the plutonium and tritium facilities located across the LANL site.  The draft permit allows LANL to discharge up to 40,000 gallons a day of treated wastewater into the environment through one of three conveyances.  The first is through a discharge pipe into Mortandad Canyon.  The second is through an indoor Mechanical Evaporator System.  The third is to the outdoor, synthetically lined Solar Evaporation Tanks, consisting of two cells that each hold approximately 380,000 gallons, for evaporating tritium contaminated wastewater into the atmosphere.  Under a plan to eliminate the discharge to groundwater in Mortandad Canyon, LANL has almost stopped use of the pipe, but has increased use of the evaporative systems.

Part of the permit application process requires that LANL submit its plans for what will happen when it’s ready to close and decommission the liquid waste treatment facility.  Then both the application and the closure plans are subject to a public hearing.  In this case, however, the draft permit allows LANL to submit the closure plans six months following the issuance of the permit.  This results in another public comment period on just the closure plans and possibly another public hearing.  CCW objects to this provision and asks you to submit public comments on the issue.

The sample public comment is directed to Ryan Flynn, the Secretary Designate of the Environment Department.  It reads, “By separating the permit process from the closure process, there will have to be two permit proceedings which will cost your agency and the public time and money.  By including the closure and post-closure plans with the draft permit — as required — both public and Environment Department resources are appropriately conserved and a higher level of informed decision-making can be achieved.  That is a benefit to your agency and the public it serves.  Requiring the closure plans now — before permit issuance — will save federal taxpayer money as well because LANL will only have to undergo one groundwater permitting process on this facility.”

This has been the CCNS News Update.  To download the sample public comment and make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit our website at nuclearactive.org.

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CCNS NEWS UPDATE

Runs 11/29/13 through 12/6/13

(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:

*  International Uranium Film Festival in Santa Fe (11/30 – 12/1) and Window Rock (12/2 – 12/4)

The International Uranium Film Festival www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/‎ will be held in Santa Fe on Saturday, November 30^th and Sunday, December 1^st at the Center for Contemporary Arts and in Window Rock from Monday, December 2^nd through Wednesday, December 4^th at the Navajo Nation Museum Theatre.  http://www.ccasantafe.org/ and http://www.navajonationmuseum.org/  The press release for the two and a half day Window Rock event explains that the festival “will be held in the homelands of indigenous communities sacrificed by the United States to produce uranium for the bombs of World War II and the Cold War.  Although the Navajo Nation has a moratorium halting new uranium production, there are nearby uranium mining and milling facilities and local transport of radioactive materials happening today and more being proposed as the push for nuclear energy development continues, despite the dangers exemplified by Churchrock and Chernobyl.”

Film festival founder, Norbert G. Suchanek, will be present at the screenings, as well as producers and directors of the films.   The festival highlights over 40 films from 15 countries, which explore not only the radioactive element “uranium,” but also the nuclear industry and resulting effects on local communities.  There will be documentaries, experimental and animated films, fiction and science fiction films and new comedies.

Films by award-winning New Mexico filmmakers will be shown again this year.  In May, New Mexico filmmaker Adam Jonas Horowitz won the Festival’s Yellow Oscar in the Best Feature Documentary category for his “Nuclear Savage:  The Islands of Secret Project 4.1.”  http://www.nuclearsavage.com/  The film documents the crimes against humanity with the atmospheric testing of atomic bombs in the Marshall Islands and how the local populations were used as guinea pigs.

Other New Mexico films include “The River that Harms“ by Producer Colleen Keane http://www.videoproject.com/riv-365-v.html, “Tailings” by Director Sam Price-Waldman http://tailingsfilm.com/, and “Four Stories about Water” by Deborah Begel, David Lindblom, Johnnye Lewis and Chris Shuey http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/travelling-festival/usa-2013/albuquerque/thursday-28-nov/413-at-8pm/1033-four-stories-about-water.

After the screenings in New Mexico, the festival will travel to New York City and Washington, DC.

Founded in 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, the International Uranium Film Festival seeks to educate and activate the public and inspires an informed discourse about the health and environmental risks of the nuclear cycle, from uranium mining to radioactive waste storage and disposal.

In May, at the third International Uranium Film Festival held in Rio de Janeiro, founder Suchanek said, “Art, Science, Cinema! These are the three elements that the film festival and the nuclear filmmakers are using [to] explain the unexplainable, to show the invisible. Radioactivity is invisible. It has no color, it has no smell, it has no flavor…  We should know about the risks. …  Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Goiânia and Fukushima shall never happen again.”

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