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There is a unique opportunity to provide your comments about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan. The disposal plan describes WIPP’s strategies to keep the disposal site for plutonium-contaminated hazardous wastes open for 60 more years, despite WIPP’s promises to New Mexicans to close in 2024.
Comments are due to WIPP on or before Friday, January 3rd, 2025. Sample public comments you can use are available on the Stop Forever WIPP website. https://stopforeverwipp.org/home You can review comments already submitted on the WIPP website at the third blue box labeled “Legacy TRU Waste Disposal Plan.” https://wipp.energy.gov/
Once the comment period ends on January 3, 2025, WIPP must submit the public’s comments to the New Mexico Environment Department for its review about whether to accept the disposal plan or reject it as inadequate because it does not meet the hazardous waste permit requirements.
This administrative process is being done because the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition’s efforts to hold the Department of Energy, WIPP and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) accountable for the plutonium-contaminated wastes generated since the making of the first nuclear weapons tested in New Mexico and used over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Testing and developing nuclear weapons has been the main work at LANL since 1943. Such work generates plutonium-contaminated waste that must be disposed to prevent exposure to radiation. For that reason disposing of the waste in WIPP 2,100 feet below ground surface is to prevent such exposures. The term “legacy” refers to waste generated before 1999, the year the WIPP disposal site opened.
For New Mexicans, it is important to provide comments about why the plutonium-contaminated legacy waste buried and stored at LANL must be prioritized, packaged, transported and disposed of at WIPP, as required by the state hazardous waste permit. LANL has instead prioritized newly generated waste from nuclear weapons fabrication over legacy waste to the detriment of the needed cleanup to protect public health and the environment.
It is also important that your comments support another new permit condition that requires WIPP to provide a detailed report on progress to site another repository for plutonium-contaminated waste in a state other than New Mexico. By December 31st of each year, WIPP is required to submit the Repository Siting Annual Report to the Environment Department. 240924 NMED WIPP HazWaste Renewal Permit Conditions
Please submit your comments electronically to LTWDP@wipp.doe.gov by Friday, January 3rd, 2025.
TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!
Friday, December 20th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
TWU commissioned two independent technical reports by respected scientists to study impacts of the venting of radioactive tritium. The finding: LANL omitted dose calculations to infants and children in their compliance application.
We are requesting that TWU supporters and everyone concerned about protecting the most vulnerable take these two actions no later than Thursday, December 19, 2024:
1) CALL/EMAIL EPA REGION 6:
Earthea Nance, PhD, PE
Regional Administrator, Region 6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(214) 665-2200
On Friday, November 1st, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) adopted Resolution LV-24-061 opposing the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project “bisecting the Caja del Rio, highlighting the adverse impacts on Tribal cultural resources and sacred sites” to construct and operate a 115 kilovolt- transmission line to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supercomputers. LV-24-061 FINAL SIGNED
On Thursday, November 21st, the All Pueblo Council of Governors unanimously passed Resolution No. APCG 2024-14 Supporting a Request for National Monument Status to Permanently Protect the Caja del Rio Living Cultural Landscape. It states the Council “supports Tesuque Pueblo’s request for a national monument designation to permanently protect the Caja del Rio, its cultural resources, sacred sites, wildlife , and traditional use by Pueblo communities,” and “encourages collaborative efforts with the Pueblo of Tesuque and the Pueblo de Cochiti to advance this monument designation and ensure the protection and preservation of this culturally significant landscape,” among other protective measures. https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/apcg_caja_del_rio_national_monument_resolution_2024.pdf
Building on this momentum, this week began with Senator Martin Heinrich requesting that U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland listen to the voices of New Mexicans calling on the Biden Adminstration to protect the 106,000-acre sacred Caja del Rio Plateau by designating it as a National Monument. Heinrich
On Tuesday, the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners wrote to President Biden, Secretary Haaland and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, to request that they use their power under the Antiquities Act to designate the Caja del Rio as a National Monument. Letter Requesting Caja Del Rio as a National Monument
On Wednesday, New Mexico State Land Commissioner of Public Lands, Stephanie Garcia Richard, issued Executive Order 2024-001 to protect the Caja del Rio Plateau by banning mining, major thoroughfares on state lands, and the construction of large transmission lines of 115 kilovolts or above as proposed by LANL to run its supercomputers. https://www.nmstatelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/EO-Caja-Del-Rio-Plateau.pdf
In further support, the Reverend Andrew Black, public lands field director for the National Wildlife Federation and founder of EarthKeepers 360, stated, “The time is always right to do right. Indeed, the time is right for Secretary Haaland and President Biden to use the power they have to do right by New Mexico’s tribes and local communities, by permanently protecting and promoting the long-term stewardship of the Caja del Rio, through the designation as a national monument.”
Friday, December 13th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
TWU commissioned two independent technical reports by respected scientists to study impacts of the venting of radioactive tritium. The finding: LANL omitted dose calculations to infants and children in their compliance application.
We are requesting that TWU supporters and everyone concerned about protecting the most vulnerable take these two actions no later than Thursday, December 19, 2024:
1) CALL/EMAIL EPA REGION 6:
Earthea Nance, PhD, PE
Regional Administrator, Region 6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(214) 665-2200
Congratulations Nihon Hidankyo for the #NobelPrize! You turned your suffering into a rallying call for action that led to the TPNW (#NuclearBan). Today, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (Santa Fe, New Mexico) celebrates your achievements and vows to stand with you and advocate for a future without nuclear weapons. #HoldtheMemory #NuclearBan #NobelPeacePrize
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the Japanese non-governmental organization, Nihon Hidankyo, for its 68-years of education and advocacy. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee recognized Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Nihon Hidankyo is the Japanese Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. https://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/
The formal ceremony will be held on Tuesday, December 10th, at the Oslo City Hall in Norway beginning at 13:00 Central European Time, or 5 am Mountain Standard Time in New Mexico. It will be broadcasted on YouTube. https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/laureates/2024
Eleven years after the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hidankyo was founded by Hibakusha, “the bomb-affected people,” on August 10, 1956, during the Second World Conference Against A- and H- bombs. The World Conference had formed in 1955 in response to the mounting public outrage against the A- and H- bombs following the largest U.S. hydrogen bomb test, called Castle Bravo, on March 1, 1954 over the Marshall Island Atolls. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2024-02-29/castle-bravo-70-worst-nuclear-test-us-history
After the Castle Bravo test, the U.S. prohibited the Hibakusha from writing or speaking about the bombings. The Hibakusha were deprived of their health by the radiation exposures from the bombs and suffered serious discrimination.
Nihon Hidankyo persisted and sent delegations of Hibakusha to international conferences and events to provide testimonies about the damage and human sufferings caused by the use of nuclear weapons. A core principle of their work is to ensure no more Hibakusha would be created anywhere in the world. They call for a nuclear weapons-free world.
In 1957, the Japanese Council Against A- and H- bombs organized a visit for Hidankyo to the former Soviet Union, China and Mongolia. Hidankyo sent its own delegations on speaking tours to the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, India and Sri Lanka.
Fast forward to 1975 when Hidankyo petitioned the United Nations (UN) to conclude an international treaty for a total ban on nuclear weapons. In support, Hidankyo submitted “A Report to the UN Secretary General: The Damage and Aftereffects from the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” and asked for the UN to hold an international sumposium in Japan. The request was not granted but in 1978 the First UN Special Session on Disarmament was held in New York followed by other Special Sessions on Disarmament. https://www.ne.jp/asahi/hidankyo/nihon/english/about/about2-01.html
In summary, Nihon Hidankyo have been an instrumental force to prevent the use of nuclear weapons and the creation of new Hibakusha.
Friday, December 6th at noonat the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
JUST RELEASED ON YOU TUBE: “Tom Clements of Savannah River Site Watch: Profiteering from Planning for Nuclear War,” presented on Nov. 19th in Columbia, SC, to Carolina Peace Resource Center (CPRC) gathering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APooraLgzo
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 1 pm MT on zoom – Hanford Watch’s Scholar Series – with Jim Werner about Long-term Stewardship of Nuclear Materials & Other Contaminated Sites. register here Even if you can’t make it, register for a link to the recording.
Jim Werner has worked for more than 40 years as a field environmental engineer; a policy analyst; in leadership positions for state and federal agencies, and an environmental NGO (NRDC); as a consultant for states, DOE, and EPA; and on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS).
As Director of the Strategic Planning and Analysis Office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Jim led efforts to publish Linking Legacies, Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom and From Cleanup to Stewardship, as well as the Baseline Environmental Management Report and Plutonium: The First Fifty Years. At CRS, Jim was awarded a fellowship at the Library of Congress Kluge Center to study long-term stewardship issues.
Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th – The Second Atomic Age Cinema Fest in Hollywood at the Crescent Theater, co-presented by the “Kat Kramer’s Films That Changed the World” and the “International Uranium Film Festival.” The Second Atomic Age Cinema is the final destination of the 2024 International Uranium Film Festival tour across North America that began in March 2024 in Window Rock at the Navajo Nation Museum. For more information: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/atomic-age-cinema-fest-in-hollywood-2025
In an embarrassing turn of events, independent scientists Bernd Franke and Dr. Arjun Makhijani have provided Tewa Women United and the public with the analyses that the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Environmental Protection Agency would not – that the four flanged waste tritium containers may not need to be vented because they may not contain explosive materials. DOE, NNSA and LANL did not follow the regulations to determine whether the venting was necessary and EPA, as a regulatory agency, did not either. Community members downwind and downstream of the proposed venting have been traumatized by four years of maybe yes, maybe no, mixed DOE messages whether it would vent the tritium containers to be able to move them to a safer location.
Tritium is a complex and dangerous radionuclide that, depending on changing conditions, may be found in various forms ranging from radioactive hydrogen and radioactive water to tritiated water. Without knowing the exact contents of the four tritium containers, DOE’s application to EPA stated it wanted to vent an enormous amount of trititum immediately, about three times more tritium than Japan was proposing to dump into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster. Depending upon the weather conditions, the harm of such venting to much smaller watersheds, for instance, the Rio Grande watershed, would be tremendous.
Further, in his paper, Out of Order: An evaluation of the regulatory aspects of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal to vent tritium from waste containers, Dr. Makhijani stated his finding that tritium “is the most ubiquitous radioactive pollutant associated with nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Tritium, once in the body in the form of water, pervades every cell. It crosses the placenta and impacts the embryo and the fetus at every stage, producing risks of early failed pregnancies, organ malfunctions, and neurological damage.”
DOE continued its long-standing practice to ignore the significantly greater harm to infants and children from trititum exposures.
Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “DOE, NNSA, LANL and EPA have not done their due diligence to prevent the harm. I keep seeing the little red wagons and tricycles on the driveways and sidewalks of the new housing developments downwind and downstream of Area G, where the tritium containers are stored in a metal shed.
‘We are eternally grateful to Tewa Women United, Franke and Dr. Makhijani for their excellent scientific work to protect infants, children and families of Northern New Mexico.”
Friday, November 29th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
Monday, December 2, 2024 at 6 pm – Community Meeting & Celebration of Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen at the Nancy Rodriguez Community Center, One Prairie Dog Loop, Santa Fe, NM
The Agua Fria Village Association invites you to a special community meeting and celebration honoring Commissioner Anna Hansen. This will be Commissioner Hansen’s last meeting representing District 2 at the Agua Fria Village Monthly meeting.
Join the Association as they celebrate Commissioner Hansen’s dedication and service to our community. Light refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 ALL DAY – GIVING TUESDAY!If you appreciate receiving the weekly CCNS News Update and the Did You Know? listings of events, please financially support CCNS’s work.
In 2024, we uncovered DOE’s hidden strategies and untruths. As one important example that others missed:
Last fall, when DOE released the draft Environmental Assessment for the 173 MW Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project across the Caja del Rio for a third electrical line, DOE was secretly negotiating for a 170 MW Foxtail Flats Solar + Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project at or near the former coal-fired San Juan Generating Station. The renewable solar energy would be transmitted on the existing lines LANL has used for decades to receive power from the now defunct San Juan Generating Station.
CCNS discovered the plan by attending the Los Alamos Board of Public Utilities and Los Alamos County Council zoom meetings. Our comments to DOE and objections to the USFS documented what we learned about the Foxtail Flats Solar + BESS project and was publicly revealed through a series of CCNS News Updates.
We are awaiting word from the USFS whether CCNS and our colleagues will be invited to the negotiating table about the proposed Caja del Rio line and the Foxtail Flats Solar + BESS line.
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 1 pm MT on zoom – Hanford Watch’s Scholar Series – with Jim Werner about Long-term Stewardship of Nuclear Materials & Other Contaminated Sites. register here Even if you can’t make it, register for a link to the recording.
Jim Werner has worked for more than 40 years as a field environmental engineer; a policy analyst; in leadership positions for state and federal agencies, and an environmental NGO (NRDC); as a consultant for states, DOE, and EPA; and on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS).
As Director of the Strategic Planning and Analysis Office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Jim led efforts to publish Linking Legacies, Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom and From Cleanup to Stewardship, as well as the Baseline Environmental Management Report and Plutonium: The First Fifty Years. At CRS, Jim was awarded a fellowship at the Library of Congress Kluge Center to study long-term stewardship issues.
Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th – The Second Atomic Age Cinema Fest in Hollywood at the Crescent Theater, co-presented by the “Kat Kramer’s Films That Changed the World” and the “International Uranium Film Festival.” The Second Atomic Age Cinema is the final destination of the 2024 International Uranium Film Festival tour across North America that began in March 2024 in Window Rock at the Navajo Nation Museum. For more information: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/atomic-age-cinema-fest-in-hollywood-2025
On Monday, Tewa Women United released two independent scientific reports about the harm that would be done to public health and the environment should Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be allowed to vent radioactive tritium from four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at LANL’s Area G radioactive and hazardous waste dump. It is another important step taken by Tewa Women United to hold LANL and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accountable to the law.
The two new reports reveal that the proposed venting of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, into the environment would not meet the current EPA or Department of Energy (DOE) regulations.
Tewa Women United collaborated with German scientist Bernd Franke, a Director of the Institute für Energie und Umweliforschung (IFEU), and Dr. Arjun Makhijani from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. The first report, Review of LANL Radiation Dose Assessment for the Venting of Flanged Tritium Waste Containers (FTWC) at TA-54 at LANL, authored by Franke, contains results from computer models used to assess the possible range of radiation doses to the public across various weather scenarios.
Dr. Makhijani stated, “According to the EPA regulatory radiation standards, Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61 Subpart H, require[s that] the radiation dose to ‘any member of the public’ should be less than 10 millirem per year.” Dr. Makhijani noted, “EPA allowed LANL to ignore children and infants in its dose calculations.”
Further, the second report, authored by Dr. Makhijani and titled Out of Order: An evaluation of the regulatory aspects of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal to vent tritium from waste containers, similarly assessed LANL’s compliance with the Clean Air Act regulations and DOE Order 458.1 to keep public exposure to “as low as reasonably achieveable.”
Over the past four years DOE and EPA have ignored repeated requests from Tewa Women United to release their 53 alternatives to the proposed venting.
Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, member of Pueblo de San Ildefonso and one of Tewa Women United’s co-founders, said, “Tritium makes water, our sacred source of life, radioactive. We were shocked to learn that LANL’s compliance calculations did not take infants and other children into account.”
Talavi Cook, the Environmental Justice Program Manager at Tewa Women United, explained: “…Tewa Women United believes … radiation protection should extend to pregnant women due to fetuses comprising of 70% – 90% water; pregnant members of the public are not currently protected by the Clean Air Act or any other radiation protection regulation…. It is a matter of simple environmental justice for future generations.”
Friday, November 22nd at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
Friday, November 22nd from 3 to 5 pm, in NAS Classroom MVH 3080 –Tommy Rock (Diné) and Dr. Jonathan Credo (Diné/Filipino) as they share their groundbreaking work on the critical study of Uranium and Oil and Gas Contamination in the Navajo Nation. An Environmental Justice Speaker Series, “What You Do to the Earth, You Do to the People,” hosted by the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group (NASIRG).
Friday, December 6, 2024 at 1 pm MT on zoom – Hanford Watch’s Scholar Series – with Jim Werner about Long-term Stewardship of Nuclear Materials & Other Contaminated Sites. register here Even if you can’t make it, register for a link to the recording.
Werner has worked for more than 40 years as a field environmental engineer; a policy analyst; in leadership positions for state and federal agencies, and an environmental NGO (NRDC); as a consultant for states, DOE, and EPA; and on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS).
As Director of the Strategic Planning and Analysis Office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Jim led efforts to publish Linking Legacies, Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom and From Cleanup to Stewardship, as well as the Baseline Environmental Management Report and Plutonium: The First Fifty Years. At CRS, Jim was awarded a fellowship at the Library of Congress Kluge Center to study long-term stewardship issues.
Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th – The Second Atomic Age Cinema Fest in Hollywood at the Crescent Theater, co-presented by the “Kat Kramer’s Films That Changed the World” and the “International Uranium Film Festival.” The Second Atomic Age Cinema is the final destination of the 2024 International Uranium Film Festival tour across North America that began in March 2024 in Window Rock at the Navajo Nation Museum. For more information: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/atomic-age-cinema-fest-in-hollywood-2025
In support of the study were 144 countries, France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom voted no. Thirty countries abstained, including the United States.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres will appoint a panel of 21 scientific experts tasked to ““engage and receive inputs from the widest possible range of stakeholders, including civil society, affected communities, and peoples from around the world” to truly understand the effects of a nuclear war at different scales, including global, regional, individual levels.
While there is already a wealth of robust research on the effects of nuclear weapons, it has not been brought together in 35 years. During this time, there has been major progress in climate and scientific modeling. There have also been major societal and planetary changes, and the resolution recognizes “today’s level of interconnectedness and the likelihood of global events having complex, cascading impacts on global systems and societies,” as well as “the fragility of those systems and our planetary boundaries.”
The UN-mandated panel will be tasked with “examining the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale, including, inter alia, the climatic, environmental and radiological effects, and their impacts on public health, global socioeconomic systems, agriculture and ecosystems, in the days, weeks and decades following a nuclear war.”
Having passed the First Committee, the resolution will pass to the Fifth Committee for a review of its budgetary implications. In December, the resolution will be submitted again to the full United Nations General Assembly for a vote. Once the panel is appointed, work will be carried out during 2025 and 2026 with a final report expected in 2027.
Melissa Parke, Executive Director for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) welcomed the study. She said, “This new study is an opportunity to bring our understanding of the impact of nuclear war out of the 1980s and into the 21st century. As the world becomes increasingly more interconnected, we need to make sure that policy decisions are based on science- not dogma and scaremongering. This study is a chance to bring that science together and guide us towards the future we want.” https://www.icanw.org/un_approves_new_study_on_effects_of_nuclear_war
Friday, November 15th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
Wednesday, November 13th through Friday, November 15th – The International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) has been invited by the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro to present films during the meetings. Its involvement will also be part of a documentary covering the summit that is being shot by Academy Award-nominated David Lynch as executive director.
Friday, November 15th beginning at 8:30 am to 5 pm – NM Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee meeting at State Capitol, Room 317, in Santa Fe. See agenda at:https://www.nmlegis.gov/agendas/RHMCageNov15.24.pdf LANL topics to be covered include plutonium pit production, off-site plutonium migration, chromium plume cleanup and other env’l issues, uranium reclamation, Radioactive Waste Consultation Task Force, State Emergency Response Commission Report, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (nuclear facility infrastructure and projects), Weapons-Grade Plutonium Transport, and Public Comment.
During the 8:35 am to 10:15 am session, Joni Arends, of CCNS, will present about the LANL Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility.
Thursday, November 21st from 3 to 5 pm at UNM SUB Santa Ana A&B – Gail Evans, Esq. will lead an enlightening Teach-In about the profound impact of the Indigenous Peoples led Atencio et al. v. The State of New Mexico constitutional lawsuit. An Environmental Justice Speaker Series, “What You Do to the Earth, You Do to the People,” hosted by the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group (NASIRG).
Friday, November 22nd from 3 to 5 pm, in NAS Classroom MVH 3080 – Tommy Rock (Diné) and Dr. Jonathan Credo (Diné/Filipino) as they share their groundbreaking work on the critical study of Uranium and Oil and Gas Contamination in the Navajo Nation. An Environmental Justice Speaker Series, “What You Do to the Earth, You Do to the People,” hosted by the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group (NASIRG).
Friday, November 22nd by 5 pm Mountain Time – Public Comments and Suggestions due to DOE/WIPP about the annual Community Relations Plan. The Plan is designed to inform communities and interested members of the public about the New Mexico Environment Department Hazardous Waste Facility Permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) activities and opportunities for public participation in those activities. To assist you in preparing your comments, please visit https://stopforeverwipp.org/ A sample public comment letter you can use will be posted over the weekend.
8. Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th – The Second Atomic Age Cinema Fest in Hollywood at the Crescent Theater, co-presented by the “Kat Kramer’s Films That Changed the World” and the “International Uranium Film Festival.” The Second Atomic Age Cinema is the final destination of the 2024 International Uranium Film Festival tour across North America that began in March 2024 in Window Rock at the Navajo Nation Museum. For more information: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/atomic-age-cinema-fest-in-hollywood-2025
The title of the new film may make you think it is about Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) located in northern New Mexico. But you would be wrong. “Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory,” a film by Jeff Gipe, is about the dangerous legacy of the Rocky Flats atomic bomb factory, located near Denver, Colorado. The world premiere will take place in early November at the Denver Film Festival. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TbsTy1KcbQ ; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33308692/
You would be right that both LANL and Rocky Flats fabricated the plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. But the numbers from each are staggeringly different.
Over its four decades of secret operations, Rocky Flats fabricated 70,000 triggers costing many workers their lives. Radioactive and hazardous waste was illegally dumped, released in deadly fires at the site, and contaminated the Denver metro area with long-lived radioactive toxins that continue to spread through the air, water, soils and bodies.
For nearly 80 years, radioactive and hazardous waste at LANL has been released into the canyons whose waters flow to the Rio Grande. It has been buried in unlined dumps.
In 2011, LANL fabricated a total of 11 plutonium triggers – a high point in production. LANL is currently tasked with fabricating 30 triggers a year.
The main thrust of Gipe’s film exposes the dark past and enduring impact of the Rocky Flats operations. The filmmaker observes, “The [Department of Energy] does not want to acknowledge the history of the plant. Colorado instead wants to create a success story out there.” Similarly, DOE is working to create a LANL story of success. https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2024/10/27/new-film-tackles-the-dangerous-legacy-of-rocky-flats/
The interpretation of the Rocky Flats story is critical right now because of the nation’s renewed nuclear weapons buildup and the ongoing expensive construction of a new plutonium trigger factory at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. https://srswatch.org/
Many of the newcomers to the Denver metro area are not aware that continuing dangers exist at the Rocky Flats site. Reporter Monte Whaley began his October 27, 2024 article with a quote from longtimers there: “One of the biggest ailments caused by the abandoned Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant is a dangerous form of amnesia, say residents and government officials.” https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/2024/10/27/new-film-tackles-the-dangerous-legacy-of-rocky-flats/
Friday, November 8th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
Friday, November 8th from 4 to 5 pm, the New Mexico Peace Fest will gather at the corners of St. Michael’s Drive and Pacheco in Santa Fe in preparation for Armistice Day. The location is below the LANL on-boarding offices for new employees and workspaces. Bring your flags, signs and banners.
Monday, November 11th from 10:30 am to noon on the Santa Fe Plaza – Armistice Day. Join Veterans for Peace to celebrate Armistice Day. There will be singing and speakers.
Over one hundred years ago, in 1918, the world celebrated peace as a universal principle. The first World War had just ended and nations mourning their dead collectively called for an end to all wars. Armistice Day was born and was designated as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated.”
This week Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, individuals and NGOs submitted comments opposing the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to approve a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) proposal to install a companion electric transmission line through the heart of the Caja del Rio traditional cultural landscape, an area sacred to Pueblos. wo addresses CCNS et al. Objections to USDA USFS re DOE NNSA f EPCUP (1)
Progression of events and supportive documentation:
From the Caja, located in southwest Santa Fe, the line would follow the path of two existing electric lines above the Rio Grande and connect to Department of Energy (DOE) electric substations on the Pajarito Plateau to the west. LANL’s proposed project is called the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project and would carry 173 megawatts per day. https://environment.lanl.gov/resources/epcu/
The big questions are: Why is the line needed? Why is LANL tripling its capacity? For the last 30 years, LANL energy use has remained steady at 90 megawatts per day. Is the extra energy needed to fabricate 30 plutonium pits, or the triggers, for nuclear weapons? https://discover.lanl.gov/news/1002-diamond-stamps-plutonium-pit/ LANL is not saying.
The National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, requires federal agencies to prepare analyses of the alternatives to its preferred project. In this case, DOE said there were two choices: build the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project or do nothing.
In February 2024, CCNS discovered that Los Alamos County was pursuing construction and operation of a 170 megawatt solar project located in the area of the now defunct coal-burning San Juan Generating Station. For decades, the coal-fired energy from the northwest corner of New Mexico flowed across existing electricity lines to LANL.
Even though DOE has been involved in the Foxtail Flats Project through a 1985 energy pooling agreement with Los Alamos County (the Los Alamos Power Pool), DOE neglected to include the Foxtail Flats Project in its NEPA analyses as a valid alternative to the Caja line. That omission is one of the topics addressed in the objections CCNS submitted to the Forest Service.
Further, the Honorable Mary Geiger Lewis, a US District Court Judge in South Carolina, recently ruled in the NEPA plutonium pit case that “an ‘agency’s elimination of an alternative from detailed study . . . [is] arbitrary and capricious [when] its explaination for doing so [is] inconsistent with its stated purpose.”
Similarly, DOE eliminated the alternative of the Foxtail Flats Project from detailed study in its Caja line NEPA documents in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
See NEPA plutonium pit case: Savannah River Watch, Tom Clements, The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment v. United States Department of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, in her Official Capacity as the Secretary; the National Nuclear Security Administration; and Jill Hruby, Administrator.
Friday, November 1st at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
Sunday, November 3rd – Daylight Savings Time ends.
Tuesday, November 5th – Election Day. If you haven’t voted, CCNS urges you to go to the polls to vote.
Monday, November 11th from 10:30 am to noon on the Santa Fe Plaza – Armistice Day. Join Veterans for Peace to celebrate Armistice Day. There will be singing and speakers.
Over one hundred years ago, in 1918, the world celebrated peace as a universal principle. The first World War had just ended and nations mourning their dead collectively called for an end to all wars. Armistice Day was born and was designated as “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated.”
Caja Peace and Prayer Pilgrimage on Friday, October 25th at Noon
You are invited to participate in a transformative walk in downtown Santa Fe beginning at noon on Friday, October 25th. Organized by the Caja del Rio Coalition, the walk will begin at the Santa Fe County Administration Building, located at 240 Grant Avenue, and go to the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office, located at 104 North Guadalupe Street. https://cajadelrio.org/
The walk will show opposition to the U.S. Forest Service’s recent proposed approval of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project (EPCU). https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=63199 A 115-kilovolt electric transmission line would be constructed through the heart of the Caja del Rio traditional cultural landscape, an area sacred to Pueblos. From the Caja, the line would follow the path of two existing electric lines above the Rio Grande and connect to DOE electric substations on the Pajarito Plateau.
Submit Your Objections to Proposed LANL Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project by Monday, October 28th
At the DOE office, the Coalition will hand-deliver its formal objections to the Forest Service’s proposed approval and hold a press conference urging the permanent protection of the sacred Caja del Rio.
You can also submit your objections to the Forest Service’s proposed approval. A sample objection letter is available below.
PLEASE USE AND SHARE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AND SAMPLE LETTER WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
The Forest Service rules state that unless you were one of the 22,000 people who submitted comments previously, you are not eligible to submit objections – UNLESS there is new information that was not available during an earlier comment period.
Objections to the draft decision on the Special Use Permit or to the Forest Plan amendments will only be accepted from those who have previously submitted timely and specific written comments regarding the project during any designated opportunity for public comment period, unless based on information not available during an earlier comment period.
The EPCU Project would bring 173 megawatts into LANL. Under the 1985 Los Alamos Power Pool (LAPP) Agreement, all available energy is shared by DOE at 80 percent and Los Alamos County at 20 percent.
On February 21, 2024, the day AFTER the EPCU comment period ended, Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities (BPU) considered a proposal for a 170 megawatt solar project, called Foxtail Flats Solar + Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), in San Juan County. Later, the BPU and Los Alamos County Council approved the Foxtail Flats proposal. Agenda Item 7.C. https://losalamos.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6518240&GUID=00184A75-3E8D-4C09-B2EB-2C2D5AA1154C
During the first EPCU Project comment period, on December 11, 2023, the LAPP Operating Committee approved the Foxtail Flats Solar + BESS as LAPP Approved Resources, pending additional approvals by the new Electric Coordination Agreement (ECA), the Board of Public Utilities, Los Alamos County Council and DOE/NNSA. See p. 3 of A – DESRI Foxtail Flats Presentation for LAC For more information, A – DESRI Foxtail Flats Presentation for LAC
The Board declared:
“Alternatives
There are currently no identified carbon-free generation alternatives at similar power and energy levels, or planned operational date. DPU has been and will continue to pursue generation resources to achieve the 2040 carbon neutral electricity provided goal[,]. If these agreements are rejected, then DPU will pursue a larger power capacity of alternative generation resources, at unknown terms.”
The Board voted 4 to 1 to approve it. Planned delivery of energy would begin in Fall 2026.
Six days later, on February 21, 2024, the seven member Los Alamos County Council, under Agenda Item 10.C, p. 5 of 7, considered
Approval of the Power Purchase Agreement between Foxtail Flats Solar, LLC, and the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, New Mexico, and approval of the Energy Storage Agreement between Foxtail Flats Storage, LLC, and the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, New Mexico
The Los Alamos County Council unanimously approved the Power Purchase Agreement and the Energy Storage Agreement. Minutes, pp. 5 and 6.
In conclusion, DOE, through the Los Alamos Power Pool Agreement, did not disclose in the EPCU draft Environmental Assessment that it was negotiating for similar amounts of power (approximately 170 megawatts) from the Foxtail Flats project.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), DOE was required to include the Foxtail Flats project as an alternative to the proposed EPCU Project Caja Line.
Thursday, October 17th – Sunday, October 27th – stream the documentary Dark Circle on its 40th Anniversary! MORE INFO HERE.WATCH the trailer.
Dark Circle covers what Oppenheimer left out—both the beginnings and its aftermath of nuclear weapons R&D and production, providing a scientific primer on the catastrophic power of nuclear energy and weapons while also relating tragic human stories detailing the devastating toll radioactive toxicity has taken on people and livestock—focusing in large part on Rocky Flats, Colorado, whose plutonium processing facility infamously contaminated the surrounding area.
“Dark Circle is one of the most horrifying films I’ve seen, and also sometimes one of the funniest (if you can laugh at the same things in real life that you found amusing in Dr. Strangelove). Using powers granted by the Freedom of Information Act, and sleuthing that turned up government film the government didn’t even know it had, the producers of this film have created a mosaic of the Atomic Age. It is a tribute to the power of the material, and to the relentless digging of the filmmakers, that the movie is completely riveting. Four Stars!” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Thursday, October 24th from 4 to 6 pm at Highlands University, Student Union Building, Room 320, 800 National Avenue, Las Vegas, NM – WIPP Community Forum and Open House. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors will host an in-person and virtual meeting to provide a short update on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Following the updates, an extended question and answer period will be held. An open house is scheduled following the meeting to allow stakeholders to spend one-on-one time with the WIPP Leadership Team. https://wipp.energy.gov/Library/documents/2024/Oct24CommunityForum.pdf
You may ask: Why did DOE schedule two meetings one after the other in two different locations – one about WIPP in Las Vegas, NM, and the other about LANL in Los Alamos, NM – on the same day?
CCNS commentary. CCNS has asked DOE on more than one occasion to establish a public electronic event calendar for its three sites in NM (LANL, Sandia and WIPP) so that DOE staff and contractors can check it to before booking an event to ensure that another DOE site has not scheduled a public event. It is embarrassing that DOE is not more together and coordinated in its efforts to host and invite the public to its events.
Friday, October 18th at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
There is a unique opportunity to provide your comments about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan. The disposal plan describes WIPP’s strategies to keep the disposal site for plutonium-contaminated hazardous wastes open for 60 more years, despite WIPP’s promises to New Mexicans to close in 2024.
This administrative process is being done because the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition’s efforts to hold the Department of Energy, WIPP and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) accountable for the plutonium-contaminated wastes generated since the making of the first nuclear weapons tested in New Mexico and used over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Testing and developing nuclear weapons has been the main work at LANL since 1943. Such work generates plutonium-contaminated waste that must be disposed to prevent exposure to radiation. For that reason disposing of the waste in WIPP 2,100 feet below ground surface is to prevent such exposures. The term “legacy” refers to waste generated before 1999, the year the WIPP disposal site opened.
at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!
