This week’s so-called public meeting about the proposed venting of radioactive tritium into the air from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) showed once again how LANL silences communities while fast-tracking nuclear weapons projects.

In-person attendees were allowed three minutes to speak. Over 100 online participants—including many land-based community members who were not able to travel to the meeting in Los Alamos for health, distance or work reasons—were blindsided to find they were barred from giving verbal comments and limited to submitting just one emailed question. LANL gave no prior notice of this change.

Marissa Naranjo, with Honor Our Pueblo Existence, said, “This is not meaningful participation. It is deliberate exclusion.”  https://shuffle.do/projects/honor-our-pueblo-existance-h-o-p-e

The stakes could not be higher. Tritium —used in nuclear weapons development — is a radioactive gas that travels quickly through air, water, soil, and food. It can cause cancer, genetic damage, and health impacts across generations.  LANL insists venting is the only safe path forward—but their own “independent” technical review – one of four requirements ordered by the New Mexico Environment Department before it would review LANL’s request – exposed that claim as problematic. 250820 FTWC Public Mtg. la-ur-25-28603_1c11f

The LANL review admitted major gaps: no real-time monitoring, no container-specific risk analyses, and no serious study of safer alternatives like filtration or storage until decay. https://cdn.lanl.gov/files/nnsa-ftwc-independent-technical-report-20250812-final_2f154.pdf

Community members ask: How can a review be independent when LANL controlled the process, hired the one named reviewer, and defined the scope? This is not independence—it’s a conflict of interest.

And with LANL’s plutonium pit production expansion, even more tritium will be produced.  Talavi Denipah Cook, with Amigos Bravos, asked, “How many times will our communities be told to accept radioactive releases into our air and water? How much more trauma, sickness, and sacrifice will be demanded of us in the name of national security?”  https://www.amigosbravos.org

In particular, local community leaders noted LANL has repeatedly ignored four technical reports commissioned by Tewa Women United on the dangers of tritium. These reports document exposure pathways unique to Pueblo communities, including impacts on women, children, and traditional farming lifeways. By silencing this research, LANL once again dismissed Indigenous voices and lived experience—further eroding trust and perpetuating environmental racism.  https://tewawomenunited.org/2024/11/press-release-new-report-reveals-lanl-tritium-venting-could-have-triple-the-radiation-exposure-to-infants-compared-to-adults and https://tewawomenunited.org/2025/08/aug-20-public-hearing-on-tritium-venting-at-lanl-and-talking-points

Elder Kathy Sanchez declared, “The violence of building the world’s most destructive weapons in our backyard has desecrated our lands, our waters, and our Indigenous land-based religions since the Manhattan Project. That violence continues today with projects like tritium venting, plutonium pit expansion, the electrical transmission line project, and the WIPP oversubscription.”  https://tewawomenunited.org/sayain-circle-of-grandmothers

No one spoke in support of LANL.

1. Friday, August 22^nd from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14-year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.  https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/   

3. Tuesday, September 2, 2025 – Public Meeting of the NM Legislature’s Interim Radioactive & Hazardous Materials Committee in Albuquerque. More details will be available soon at https://www.nmlegis.gov/Committee/Interim_Committee?CommitteeCode=RHMC

4. Wednesday, September 10th from 5 to 7 pm at the SALA Theatre in Los Alamos – EM-LA, N3B To Discuss Legacy Waste Program Overview – Environmental Management Cleanup Forum. For meeting information, including login details, visit: https://n3b-la.com/emcf-9-10-2025/.

5. Thursday, September 18^th at 6 pm at the SALA Event Center in Los Alamos – Black Hole Museum Initiative meeting, film screenings and discussion panel and Q&A with filmmakers and the Grothus family. THINK PEACEFUL REUSE!  https://blackholemuseum.blogspot.com/2025/08/save-date-thursday-september-18th.html

 For more background information, see:  https://losalamosreporter.com/2025/06/29/black-hole-museum-a-new-idea-for-the-los-alamos-community/

6. Sunday, September 21, 2025 – International Day of Peace: End Racism; Build Peace.  https://internationaldayofpeace.org/

7. Thursday, November 13^th and Friday, November 14^th – International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo National Museum in Window Rock. For more information, visit: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/

Over 24,000 people provided public comments to the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in opposition to the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade (EPCU) Project during a convoluted multi-federal agency and multi-year review process to expand electric power to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  Nevertheless, on Wednesday, DOE and NNSA issued its Finding of No Significant Impact, or a FONSI. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/fonsi-decision-notice-ea-2199-epcu-2025-08_2.pdf

The FONSI approves LANL’s plans to upgrade the electrical power supply system by installing a third line across the sacred and historical Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande.  LANL is the sole facility in the U.S. with the capability to fabricate plutonium pits, or cores, for nuclear weapons.

While DOE and NNSA state that they need more power for plutonium pit production, the annual electrical needs of LANL and Los Alamos County have remained steady at 90 megawatts for the past 25 years. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/draft-ea-2199-epcu-project-2023-11_0.pdf, p. 13 of pdf.

DOE and NNSA find support for the third line in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, in which Congress required the rebuilding of LANL infrastructure for plutonium pit production.  Unfortunately, there has been limited information available to the public about the passage of that provision.

Further, the FONSI may be supported by a significantly revised document called “Global 2017,” which supports statements found in the draft November 2023 EPCU Environmental Assessment (EA) that more electrical power would be needed by LANL by 2027.   https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-11/draft-ea-2199-epcu-project-2023-11_0.pdf, p. 10 of pdf.

In preparing comments for the draft EA, CCNS carefully reviewed the Global 2017 Integrated Resource Plan Report and found that it was prepared for the Caribbean Utilities Company, and dated July 28, 2017.  Surprisely, the Department of Energy, DOE, Los Alamos County, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LANL, National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA are not mentioned in the Global 2017 report, but it is cited to support the EPCU.  https://www.ofreg.ky/viewPDF/documents/energy-publications/2021-05-12-03-10-01-PACECUCIRPFinalReport1547843767.pdf

In our extensive public comments on the draft EA, CCNS questioned LANL’s unsupported statements that it could run out of energy by 2027.

Now, CCNS found in the final EA that the Global 2017 Integrated Resource Plan Report referenced there is not the same report as referenced in the draft EA.  The final EA version of the 2017 Integrated Resource Plan Report was prepared for Los Alamos County and dated June 30, 2017.  It was not provided for public review for the draft EA process.  https://www.losalamosnm.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/departments/utilities/documents/integrated-resource-plan-irp-2017-final-report.pdf

Why is this important?  It is important because LANL substituted a rewritten report in the final EA for one referenced in the draft EA – all without public notice.  CCNS questions:  What else has been changed?  How have those changes impacted the FONSI determination?

In related news this week, NNSA has completed an “independent” technical review of its plans to “depressurize” four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at Area G.  On Wednesday, August 20th from 5:30–7:30 p.m., NNSA will host a hybrid public meeting.  See NNSA post below:

NNSA completes Independent Technical Review of proposed depressurization of four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers at LANL

The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration’s (DOE/NNSA) Los Alamos Field Office has completed and posted the Flanged Tritium Waste Container Depressurization Independent Technical Report at https://cdn.lanl.gov/files/nnsa-ftwc-independent-technical-report-20250812-final_2f154.pdf

It’s now the first document listed under the “Downloads” section at https://www.lanl.gov/engage/environment/ftwc

The Report is in response to New Mexico Environment Department’s request, outlined in a June 2025 letter to DOE/NNSA, to conduct an independent, third-party technical review of alternative options for the depressurization of the four flanged tritium waste containers.

Also, at the request of NMED, the Los Alamos Field Office and experts from Los Alamos National Laboratory are hosting a hybrid public meeting to discuss the depressurization process and the report.

The public meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 20, from 5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Sala Event Center, 2551 Central Ave., Los Alamos, NM.

A virtual dial-in option is available for those who cannot participate in-person. Virtual access information is as follows:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85989515275?pwd=PSiYLhJroaa7TRwUnGZTikeLsJ0auO.1

Meeting ID: 859 8951 5275

Passcode: 693831

For more information about the depressurization of the four flanged tritium waste containers process and to view the video walkthrough demonstration, please visit: https://www.lanl.gov/engage/environment/ftwc

1. Friday, August 15^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14-year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.

 Special reception for the artist on Thursday, August 14^th from 5 to 8 pm.

https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/   

3. Wednesday, August 20^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm – NNSA public meeting about the proposed venting of radioactive venting of tritium from four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers.  For more details, please see this week’s Update.

4. Thursday, November 13^th and Friday, November 14^th – International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo National Museum in Window Rock. For more information, visit: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/

Dr. Ghasson Shahrour, a medical expert and a Campaigner with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, wrote the following piece.

“Every August 6, the world is asked to pause—for memory, for reflection, for conscience. We remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki: two cities reduced to ash in seconds.

Tens of thousands lost. Generations marked by invisible wounds. I still carry the voices of the Hibakusha—the survivors I met in Japan—etched in my memory. Their quiet pain. Their fierce plea for peace. Their insistence: Never again.

“But when I look at Gaza today, I ask: Did we ever truly listen?

“Nearly 80 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and after Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and now Gaza—another catastrophe has unfolded before our eyes.

“In Gaza, children are pulled from the rubble. Entire families erased. Homes, hospitals, community centers, schools—obliterated.

“And still, the selective outrage. Still, the silence. Still, the complicity. This is precisely when international humanitarian law must speak loudest.

“It prohibits attacks on civilians. It demands distinction between combatants and non-combatants, proportionality in response, and humanity even amidst war.

“The Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute, the UN Charter—these are not relics of diplomacy. They are collective promises, born from the blood and conscience of history. And they are being tested now, perhaps more than ever.

“Yet law alone is not enough.

“Without the courage to enforce it—and the will to apply it universally—the law becomes a hollow shield: one that protects some lives, but not others. When that happens, justice erodes, trust collapses, and the very fabric of shared humanity is torn.

“Gaza is not just another battlefield. It is a litmus test for the world’s moral integrity.

“Are indiscriminate bombings being investigated and condemned?

“Are siege tactics that deny water, food, and medical care being challenged as violations of international law?

“Is the international community fulfilling its duty to protect civilians—not just in statements, but in concrete actions?

“It is not enough to condemn atrocities after the fact. The real challenge lies in prevention, accountability, and deterrence.

“Civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and international legal bodies—from the UN to grassroots NGOs—have a critical role. Their work is a lifeline for truth, for memory, and for justice. But they need more than mandates—they need political will and meaningful support.

“Yes, we must recognize that we cannot stop future Hiroshimas if we’ve allowed today’s Gazas to burn.

“The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), was a landmark—a triumph of international humanitarian law and human conscience over mass annihilation.

“But disarmament is not only about dismantling weapons. It is about upholding the same legal and moral principles—protecting civilians, prohibiting indiscriminate violence, and ensuring accountability—that are being violated today in Gaza.

“Because we have failed to uphold humanitarian law in Gaza, we are betraying the very principles that led to nuclear disarmament in the first place.

“We cannot claim to honor the laws that ban nuclear weapons while turning a blind eye to war crimes committed with conventional ones.

“From the ashes of Hiroshima to the flames of Gaza, the geography changes—but the grief does not. A mother burying her child in Japan in 1945 felt the same unspeakable sorrow as one doing so in Palestine today. The pain is universal. The injustice, unmistakable.

“What is happening in Gaza is not merely a conflict—it is the collapse of legal norms, the erosion of accountability, and the betrayal of humanitarian principles. When hospitals become battlegrounds, when homes, refugee camps, and cities become graves, and when human rights are stripped away by siege and fire—killing more than sixty thousand people, thirty percent of them children—the world must not simply watch. It must act.

“Let this Hiroshima Day be not only a memorial to the past, but a mirror to the present—and a call to action:

“For equal enforcement of humanitarian and human rights law, everywhere.

“For international solidarity that transcends political calculations.

“For justice that restores—not only punishes.

“For a culture of peace that replaces cycles of destruction.

“Let this be the day we finally hear the voices of victims—from Hiroshima to Gaza.

“Let it be the day we say, with unwavering clarity:

“No peace without justice.

“No security without law.

“No future without shared humanity.”

1. Friday, August 8^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. 80^th Anniversary Events: Remembering Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki – July 16, August 6, and August 9, 2025.  Physicians for Social Responsibility provide a listing of commemoration events around the country.  Check for an event or events in your area at https://psr.org/get-involved/80th-anniversary-events/

3. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14-year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.

 Special reception for the artist on Thursday, August 14^th from 5 to 8 pm.

https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/   

4. Wednesday, August 6^th – “A Message to Humanity” – watch the Nobel Peace Conference and Festival 2025, in Oslo, Norway. Many presentations and learning opportunities.  https://www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en/nobel-peace-conference-and-festival

5. Saturday, August 9^th from 10 am to 3 pm – Nagasaki – Japan – 80^th Anniversary Commemoration in Los Alamos, NM. At two locations:  Manhattan Project National Historic Park (Ashley Pond) and SALA Event Center.  Vigil and Protest, March, Viewing Two Documentaries with Q&A with filmmakers, March, and Refreshments.  Please see July 24, 2025 CCNS News Update for details:  https://nuclearactive.org/join-us-on-saturday-august-9th-for-nagasaki-commemoration-events-in-los-alamos/

To prepare for a public meeting with the U.S. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (“the Board”) in Santa Fe on Monday evening, CCNS followed its policy of reviewing at least the last eight weeks of the Board’s reports for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and used that as a basis for questions and comments to present to the Board.  What we found:

In its May 2^nd, 2025 report, the Board looks at the status of the proposed venting of radioactive tritium from up to four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at Area G. It states that a team completed the Contractor Readiness Assessment that resulted in six pre-start findings that were being reviewed.  It is unknown whether the pre-start findings were resolved.  https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/Los%20Alamos%20Week%20Ending%20May%202%202025.pdf

The Board’s May 16^th report reveals that the next level of review, called a Federal Readiness Assessment, was done.  Its purpose was to find out whether the LANL contractors, Triad and N3B, were capable of safely venting the tritium containers and whether the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration would provide effective oversight.

As part of the assessment, a mock venting of a tritium container was staged at LANL’s Technical Area 49.

The Board reported:  “During the out-brief, the assessment team discussed six pre-start and one post-start finding. [In] three of the pre-start findings related to procedure quality and compliance, including instances where procedures could not be performed as written, steps were signed off as completed despite being incorrect or not fully understood, and steps were signed off as completed without being performed.”  https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/Los%20Alamos%20Week%20Ending%20May%2016%202025.pdf

Shockingly, the following weekly reports did not reveal what happened as a result of DOE not following procedures, signing off on tasks that were not completed or performed.   Yet, LANL claims:  “The main objective of radioactive waste management is to protect workers, the public and the environment from the potential harmful effects of radioactive waste and to minimize the burden for future generations.”  https://www.lanl.gov/engage/environment/ftwc

Joni Arends, of CCNS, reflected, “It is unconscionable that DOE signed off on essential steps to protect public health and the environment from exposure to tritium without performing the necessary tasks.  How can the public possibly believe what DOE says about the proposed venting when it misrepresents completing key steps in its process?  It’s time to go back to square one.”

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent oversight organization, was created in 1988 to provide advice and recommendations to the DOE Secretary regarding public health and safety at defense nuclear facilities, such as LANL.  https://www.dnfsb.gov/

1. Friday, August 1^st from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. 80^th Anniversary Events: Remembering Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki – July 16, August 6, and August 9, 2025.  Physicians for Social Responsibility provide a listing of commemoration events around the country.  Check for an event or events in your area at https://psr.org/get-involved/80th-anniversary-events/

3. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14-year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.

 Special reception for the artist on Thursday, August 14^th from 5 to 8 pm.

https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/   

4. Tuesday, August 5^th from 7 am to 9 am PDT and from 5 pm to 7 pm PDT – Two Virtual Celebrations of the Life of Joanna Macy, hosted by the Work That Reconnects Network.

“With full hearts, we invite you to gather in love and remembrance of Joanna Macy – our beloved root teacher, mentor, friend and now… ancestor.

“Joanna’s life was a profound gift to the world. Through her workshops, writings, teachings and mere presence – she gave us new ways to hold grief, cultivate resilience and to act with courage and tenderness in a complex world. The Work That Reconnects – possibly her greatest offering – continues to pulse through every one of us.

“Join us to celebrate her life, her legacy and the Great Turning she named and nurtured.”

To register for one or both celebrations, go to:  https://mailchi.mp/workthatreconnects/joanna-macy-celebrations?e=6bda6997d8

5. Wednesday, August 6^th from 11 am to 1 pm – Hiroshima Day Anti-War Rally in Taos. Gather on the corner of Paseo del Pueblo and Albright.  Sponsored by Taoseños for Peaceful and Livable Futures.  For more information:  eototos@gmail.com

* Remember:  U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, Japan *

* Halt Nuclear Warhead Core Production at LANL*

* It Started Here! Let’s Stop It Here! *

* Fund Human Needs not WAR! *

* Halt the Genocide! *

* Never Again!

6. Wednesday, August 6^th at 5:30 pm MT – 80^th Anniversary of the Hiroshima Atomic Bombing at 1420 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM. Sponsored by:  Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, Up in Arms.  For more information and a link for online viewing, go to https://nukewatch.org

 Note:  Park in back of the building, via Taos Street, one block east of Cerrillos Road.

7. Saturday, August 9^th from 10 am to 3 pm – Nagasaki – Japan – 80^th Anniversary Commemoration in Los Alamos, NM. At two locations:  Manhattan Project National Historic Park (Ashley Pond) and SALA Event Center.  Vigil and Protest, March, Viewing Two Documentaries with Q&A with filmmakers, March, and Refreshments.  Please see last week’s CCNS News Update for details:  https://nuclearactive.org/join-us-on-saturday-august-9th-for-nagasaki-commemoration-events-in-los-alamos/

All are welcome to join peacemakers and activists on Saturday, August 9^th at 10 am in Los Alamos to commemorate the 80^th year since the U.S. bombing of Nagasaki, Japan on that day in 1945.

At 10 am, a vigil and protest will begin in the Manhattan Project National Historic Park at Ashley Pond.  We’ll come together to sing songs of peace and against nuclear weapons, to honor the victims and survivors of nuclear bombs development, testing and use around the world.  We’ll vow to never allow another nuclear atrocity.

At 11 am we’ll march to the SALA Theater, located at 2551 Central Avenue.  https://sala.losalamos.com/  Two documentaries, Nagasaki Journey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_3Xs1iALx8 , followed by Dark Circle, https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/darkcircle/ , created by filmmakers Christopher Beaver and Judy Irving will be shown. The filmmakers will be present for Q & A sessions.

At 2:30 pm we’ll march back to the Manhattan Project National Historic Park for refreshments and an open mike session for anyone who wishes to say a few words.  We’ll end with a closing song.

Please note:  The seating at the SALA theatre is limited.  You may reserve your seat for five dollars.  Please visit the theatre’s website at https://sala.losalamos.com/ .  Click on “Tickets,” then scroll down to August 9^th and find the sponsor’s name:  NM Peace Festival.

Veterans For Peace, New Mexico Peace Festival, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Taos Environmental Film Festival are organizing the events.

The organizers are focused on the Nagasaki bombing, which was prepared for by the United States first testing a plutonium implosion bomb, named “The Gadget,” at the Trinity Site in south central New Mexico on July 16, 1945.  The second plutonium implosion bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki near the end of World War Two.  Both plutonium implosion bombs were fabricated at Los Alamos.

It has been 80 years since those atrocities occurred.  Now some world leaders are saying the quiet part out loud and urging the use of nuclear weapons to resolve conflicts.

In response, we’ll display Veterans for Peace flags, banners that declare, “Nuclear Weapons are Illegal,” that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is in force, and quote Pope Francis stating that nuclear weapons are immoral.  Please bring your signs and banners.

1. Friday, July 25^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week about nuclear war shown on television during the Reagan administration.  Watch the trailer to learn more.

3. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14 year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.

 Special reception for the artist on Thursday, August 14^th from 5 to 8 pm.

https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/

The Red Water Pond Road Community Association and the Pipeline Road Community invite you to attend the historic 46th commemoration of the Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill on Saturday, July 19th beginning at 6 am near the tailings spill location, 12 miles north of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566. Free t-shirts will be available for the first 100 participants.  https://swuraniumimpacts.org/red-water-pond-road-community-association/ , https://www.visitgallup.com/things-to-do/outdoors/red-rock-park/

Breakfast will begin at 6 am, followed by opening prayers. There will be a walk to the tailings spill site starting at 6:30 am.  The group will return to the shaded arbor for lunch.  There will be speakers, educational tables, a kid’s corner, and a silent auction.  At 4 pm, the event will end with a closing prayer.

Food and drink donations are welcomed.

In 1968, the United Nuclear Corporation began mining operations in the largest underground uranium mine in the United States. Mining wastes were disposed of in three lined lagoons behind a dam that United Nuclear Corporation and the state and federal agencies knew was subject to failure.  When, on July 16th, 1979, the dam was breached, 1,100 tons of uranium tailings waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water flowed into and contaminated about 80 miles of the Rio Puerco.  Many Navajos relied on the Rio Puerco for their daily needs and watering livestock.  Uranium workers, their families and others have suffered for decades because of the unremediated radioactive and chemical tailings spill.  https://www.vice.com/en/article/church-rock-americas-forgotten-nuclear-disaster-is-still-poisoning-navajo-lands-40-years-later/

The organizers said, “This historic event is open to all ages and will share the struggles people face in their daily lives, the healing yet to come for our people and Mother Earth, and the awareness and education required in the local area, tribally, statewide and on the national level.

“We would like the younger generation to be present, advocate and carry on these traditions of caring for Mother Earth…

“Let’s collaborate to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth and to provide a life of balance and harmony for our people now and for the future generations.”

For more information about the tailings spill, please visit https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

1. Friday, July 18^th from noon to 1 pm –

   Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week about nuclear war shown on television during the Reagan administration.  Watch the trailer to learn more.

3. Wednesday, July 23^rd from 5 pm – 6:30 pm MT – A virtual event at which Timmon Wallis will discuss his new book, Nuclear Abolition: A Scenario.  Sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action.   Register here:  https://masspeaceaction.org/event/nuclear-abolition-a-scenario/

4. Friday, August 1^st through Friday, August 29^th – Anti-Uranium Mapping Project Opening with photographer and activist Shayla Blatchford who documents her 14 year journey to expose the hidden truths of extractive mining practices on the Navajo Nation. CENTER, 1570 Pacheco St., Unit B1, Santa Fe, NM.

Special reception for the artist on Thursday, August 14^th from 5 to 8 pm.

https://www.antiuraniummappingproject.com/   

5. Saturday, August 9^th from 10 am to – 3 pm – Nagasaki Commemoration in Los Alamos, NM, sponsored by NM PeaceFest, Veterans for Peace, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

As you may know, the recent federal reconciliation bill increased the budget for expanded plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site, located in South Carolina, by one billion dollars.  Yes, one billion dollars in one year!  A “pit” is the plutonium core of a nuclear weapon.  The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to fabricate 50 plutonium pits per year there.  https://www.srnl.gov/research-areas/national-security/plutonium-pit-production-program/

The nuclear weapons budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has increased to over five billion dollars!  LANL is tasked with the fabrication of  30 pits per year, but has never fabricated more than 11 in a year since its founding in 1943.

Both DOE sites would fabricate the pits, consume lots of water and electricity, and challenge surrounding communities with increased emissions into the air, ongoing storage and disposal of radioactive and hazardous waste, as well as continuing toxic contamination and worker exposures.

Four non-governmental organizations challenged the proposed expansion in federal court.  In 2024, the federal judge ordered that DOE is required to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, or PEIS, to examine the interconnections of the site operations, transportation, waste, etc.  https://nuclearactive.org/today-virtual-workshop-about-does-plans-for-expanded-plutonium-pit-production-at-lanl-for-the-next-50-years-public-meetings-next-week/

The first steps require DOE to provide a public notice, an opportunity for the public to tell DOE what the “scope” of the statement should be and to describe its concerns.  Surprisingly, DOE has stated in the public notice that, “For analytical purposes, this PEIS will evaluate potential impacts over a fifty-year period, through approximately 2075.”  DOE’s Notice of Intent to Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production, published in the Federal Register.  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/05/09/2025-08140/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-programmatic-environmental-impact-statement-for-plutonium-pit

What are your concerns about 50 more years of LANL operations?  You have the opportunity to express them now and ask DOE to fully respond to your comments in the draft PEIS that is scheduled for release in February or March 2026.

You could ask questions such as:  Does DOE plan to use the PEIS to cover fifty years of continuing operations?  If so, what is DOE’s vision for LANL over the next fifty years?  Will it be cleaned up by 2075?  Will the buried waste be removed from the volcanic tuff?  When will the groundwater and surface water be clean? When will the contaminated soils in the Rio Grande and Cochiti Lake be removed?

If you need to get your comments in earlier, please visit CCNS colleagues’ websites listed below for sample public comments and additional information.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico – https://nukewatch.org/home/

PeaceWorks KC Opinion by Ann Suellentrop, a member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, in The Kansas City Star – https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/readers-opinion/guest-commentary/article310244080.html

Savannah River Site Watch –  https://srswatch.org/please-submit-comments-by-july-14-2025-on-environmental-review-of-new-plutonium-bomb-factories/

Tewa Women United – https://tewawomenunited.org/2025/07/action-alert-july-14-deadline-to-submit-comments-on-lanl-plutonium-pit-production

Tri-Valley CAREs – https://trivalleycares.org/2025/public-comment-period-open-and-virtual-hearings-scheduled-in-the-court-ordered-plutonium-pit-production-plan-programmatic-environmental-review

Union of Concerned Scientists – New Report:  Plutonium Pit Production: The Risks and Costs of US Plans to Build New Nuclear Weapons –  https://www.ucs.org/resources/plutonium-pit-production

1. Friday, July 11^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week during about nuclear war during the Reagan administration.

3. Friday, July 11^th from 6 pm to Saturday, July 12^th at 6 pm Mountain Time, World Beyond War will host the Fourth Annual 24-hour Peace Wave, which addresses the need to abolish nuclear weapons. Peace Wave is a 24-hour long Zoom that moves around the globe with the sun and features live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, including rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installations of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety. To sign up, visit org

4. On Saturday, July 12^th from 6:30 to 8 pm Mountain Time, Back from the Brink will host its New Mexico Hub Kickoff at the Congregation Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. Northwest, in Albuquerque. This free, hybrid community-wide event marks the official launch of New Mexico’s involvement in the national Back from the Brink campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. Doors open at 6 pm. All are welcome.

 Speakers include: Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Dr. Ira Helfand, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester.  Together, they will highlight the urgent need for action and the power of communities to create a world free of nuclear threats.

To register, visit    https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/804539/

5. Sunday, July 13^th at 2:30 to 5 pm Mountain Time, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and others host an Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test: 80 Years and Still Waiting, at St. Pius X School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, in Albuquerque. For more information, visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/single-post/interfaith-remembrance-of-the-tirnity-test and https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/806202/

 Free event — all are welcome, pre-registration is encouraged. RSVP here.

6. Monday, July 14^th – public comments due to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production at Multiple Locations. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/english-scoping-presentation-eis-0573-plutonium-pit-production-2025-05.pdf

7. Wednesday, July 16^th – 80^th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico. See “80 Years of Struggle” to learn about the three events:

*    Sign dedication at the Stallion Gate Entrance to the Trinity Test at 11 am;

*    Mass and Dinner Reception at St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa at 6 pm; and

*    16^th Annual Candlelight Vigil at the Tularosa Veterans Park at 8:30 pm. 

For more information at https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/single-post/80-years-of-struggle-1   

8. Wednesday, July 16^th at 5 pm MT – Trinity Day 80^th Anniversary Zoom Event, hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Disarm Committee and the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee – for a teach-in on Trinity Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test.  Register here: https://bit.ly/Trinity80thPanelists include: Hideko Tamura, a Hiroshima survivor and a leader of WILPF; Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium; Mary Yakaitis, a leader of the Downwinders; Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research; and Professor Peter Kuznick, Director of the American University Nuclear Studies Institute. Following the presentations there will be a general discussion.

   Trinity laid the groundwork for the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for the ensuing nuclear arms race that has repeatedly, and once again, brought the World to the precipice of nuclear annihilation.

   As we face yet another nuclear crisis, we will discuss the meaning of the Trinity Test and its implications for today.

   Please distribute this invitation widely. As the Anti Nuclear Movement again mobilizes to meet this latest crisis, it is important that we be fully informed.

   In Peace and Solidarity,
   John Steinbach & Ellen Thomas  https://www.wilpf.org/

9. Saturday, July 19^th from 6 am to 4 pm – 46th Annual Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration at the Red Water Pond Road Community, 12 miles North of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566.

 YOU ARE INVITED to join the community on this journey to heal our Diné and Mother Earth and restore the Hozho’.  We begin at 6 am with breakfast and opening prayers in the teepee. The walk to the spill location will begin approximately at 6:30 am. We will return to lunch and speakers in our shaded arbor. There will be educational tables and a silent auction. Free t-shirts!

This historic event is open to all ages and will share the struggles people face in their daily lives, the healing yet to come for our people and Mother Earth, and the awareness and education required in the local area, tribally, statewide and on the national level. We would like the younger generation to be present, advocate and carry on these traditions of caring for Mother Earth.

Let us come together again and share these issues and concerns, collaborate and strategize, to push for clean up of these contaminated environments among our Diné people. Let’s collaborate to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth and to provide a life of balance and harmony for our people now and for the future generations.

It is said that The Four Sacred Mountains say to us,

“My child, I will feed you, give you good health, and I will give you strength and courage.  My child, I will give you clean air and clean water to drink. I am your Life.  My child, get ready now and educate yourself.  Improve yourself and don’t forget who you are. My child, what I am dressed with, is what you are dressed with. I am your home and your mother and father.”

For more info contact RWPRC Executive members: Edith Hood 505-728-9350, Terry Keyanna 505-979-0552, Jackie Jefferson Bell 505-728-7935
RSVP – Early Registration, Donations, Questions to email:
redwaterpondroad@gmail.com

10. Saturday, August 9^th – Nagasaki Day – New Mexico PeaceFest is planning a commemoration in Los Alamos, NM. It is developing and if you would like to help with the planning and publicizing, please join the planning meeting on Tuesday, July 8^th at 5 pm MT on zoom.  For more information, please email ccns@nuclearactive.org. 

In anticipation of the 80th anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings in the USA and Japan, a number of hybrid educational events will be held next week.

On Thursday, July 10^th from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm Mountain Time, the Arms Control Association and Win Without War will host a hybrid event, “From Trinity to Today: Nuclear Weapons and the Way Forward,” to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the atomic age.  Three panels will highlight the impacts of the bomb and showcase the role citizen campaigns have had in changing the course of nuclear history.  They are:

• Toxic and Radioactive Legacy of Nuclear Use, Production, Testing
• The Role of Citizens in Reducing the Nuclear Danger
• Today’s Nuclear Dangers/Consequences of Nuclear War

To register, go to https://www.armscontrol.org/From_Trinity_to_Today

On Friday, July 11^th from 6 pm to Saturday, July 12^th at 6 pm Mountain Time, World Beyond War will host the Fourth Annual 24-hour Peace Wave, which addresses the need to abolish nuclear weapons. Peace Wave is a 24-hour long Zoom that moves around the globe with the sun and features live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, including rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installations of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety.

To sign up, visit https://worldbeyondwar.org/wave/

On Saturday, July 12^th from 6:30 to 8 pm Mountain Time, Back from the Brink will host its New Mexico Hub Kickoff at the Congregation Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. Northwest, in Albuquerque.  This free, hybrid community-wide event marks the official launch of New Mexico’s involvement in the national Back from the Brink campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. Doors open at 6 pm. All are welcome.

Speakers include: Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Dr. Ira Helfand, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility; and Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester.  Together, they will highlight the urgent need for action and the power of communities to create a world free of nuclear threats.

To register, visit https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/804539/

On Sunday, July 13^th at 2:30 to 5 pm Mountain Time, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and others host an Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test: 80 Years and Still Waiting, at St. Pius X School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, in Albuquerque.  Doors open at 2 pm.  The event will also be live streamed.  Pre-registration is encouraged at https://www.jotform.com/form/251126623369053.  For more information, visit https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/806202/

1. Friday, July 4^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week during about nuclear war during the Reagan administration.

3. Monday, July 14^th – public comments due to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production at Multiple Locations. https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-05/english-scoping-presentation-eis-0573-plutonium-pit-production-2025-05.pdf

4. Wednesday, July 16^th – 80^th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico. See “80 Years of Struggle” to learn about the three events:

*    Sign dedication at the Stallion Gate Entrance to the Trinity Test at 11 am;

*    Mass and Dinner Reception at St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa at 6 pm; and

*    16^th Annual Candlelight Vigil at the Tularosa Veterans Park at 8:30 pm. 

 For more information at https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/single-post/80-years-of-struggle-1   

5. Wednesday, July 16^th at 5 pm MT – Trinity Day 80^th Anniversary Zoom Event, hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Disarm Committee and the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee – for a teach-in on Trinity Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test.  Register here: https://bit.ly/Trinity80thPanelists include: Hideko Tamura, a Hiroshima survivor and a leader of WILPF; Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium; Mary Yakaitis, a leader of the Downwinders; Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research; and Professor Peter Kuznick, Director of the American University Nuclear Studies Institute. Following the presentations there will be a general discussion.Trinity laid the groundwork for the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for the ensuing nuclear arms race that has repeatedly, and once again, brought the World to the precipice of nuclear annihilation.

   As we face yet another nuclear crisis, we will discuss the meaning of the Trinity Test and its implications for today.

   Please distribute this invitation widely. As the Anti Nuclear Movement again mobilizes to meet this latest crisis, it is important that we be fully informed.

   In Peace and Solidarity,
   John Steinbach & Ellen Thomas  https://www.wilpf.org/

6. Saturday, July 19^th from 6 am to 4 pm – 46th Annual Uranium Tailings Spill Commemoration at the Red Water Pond Road Community, 12 miles North of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566.

 YOU ARE INVITED to join the community on this journey to heal our Diné and Mother Earth and restore the Hozho’.  We begin at 6 am with breakfast and opening prayers in the teepee. The walk to the spill location will begin approximately at 6:30 am. We will return to lunch and speakers in our shaded arbor. There will be educational tables and a silent auction. Free t-shirts!

This historic event is open to all ages and will share the struggles people face in their daily lives, the healing yet to come for our people and Mother Earth, and the awareness and education required in the local area, tribally, statewide and on the national level. We would like the younger generation to be present, advocate and carry on these traditions of caring for Mother Earth.

Let us come together again and share these issues and concerns, collaborate and strategize, to push for clean up of these contaminated environments among our Diné people. Let’s collaborate to restore, preserve and protect our Mother Earth and to provide a life of balance and harmony for our people now and for the future generations.

It is said that The Four Sacred Mountains say to us,

“My child, I will feed you, give you good health, and I will give you strength and courage.  My child, I will give you clean air and clean water to drink.

  I am your Life.  My child, get ready now and educate yourself.  Improve yourself and don’t forget who you are. My child, what I am dressed with, is what you are dressed with. I am your home and your mother and father.”

For more info contact RWPRC Executive members: Edith Hood 505-728-9350, Terry Keyanna 505-979-0552, Jackie Jefferson Bell 505-728-7935
RSVP – Early Registration, Donations, Questions to email: redwaterpondroad@gmail.com

7. Saturday, August 9^th – Nagasaki Day – New Mexico PeaceFest is planning a commemoration in Los Alamos, NM.  The plans are developing and if you would like to help with the planning and publicizing, please join the planning meeting on Tuesday, July 8^th at 5 pm MT on zoom.  For more information, please email ccns@nuclearactive.org. 

In this week’s Update CCNS provides information about the upcoming commemorations of two harmful atomic events that both occurred in New Mexico on July 16th. The first is the 80th commemoration of the plutonium bomb test at the Trinity Test Site on July 16, 1945 at the White Sands Missile Range.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, a group seeking justice for the harms downwinders have suffered through the generations from exposures to the Trinity Test, is sponsoring three occasions of commemoration on Wednesday, July 16th.  The day begins with the dedication of a permanent sign at the Stallion Gate Entrance to the White Sands Missile Range; then there will be a mass and dinner reception at the St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa; and last comes the 16th Annual Candlelight Vigil at the Tularosa Veterans Park.

The Candlelight Vigil will be livestreamed.  The link will be posted closer to the July 16th date.

For more information, please visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/

The second event is the 46th anniversary of the Church Rock Uranium Tailings Spill on July 16th, 1979 on the Navajo Nation.  The Red Water Pond Road Community invites you to attend a historic commemoration on Saturday, July 19th from 6 am to 4 pm, 12 miles north of Red Rock State Park on State Highway 566.   Breakfast and lunch will be provided under a shaded arbor.  After opening prayers, a walk to the spill location will take place.  There will also be speakers, educational tables, and a silent auction.

In 1968, the United Nuclear Corporation began mining operations in the largest underground uranium mine in the United States. Mining wastes were disposed of in three lined lagoons behind a dam that United Nuclear Corporation and state and federal agencies knew was subject to failure.  When, on July 16th, the dam was breached, 1,100 tons of uranium waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water flowed into and contaminated about 80 miles of the Rio Puerco.  Many Navajos relied on the Puerco River for living and watering livestock.  Uranium workers, their families and others have suffered for decades because of the unremediated radioactive and chemical spill.

For more information, please visit https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

These are but two of the many upcoming commemorative events to remember those harmed by the atomic industries.

1. Thursday, June 26th from 4 to 5 pm MT – Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a training webinar on how to submit a comment to ensure NNSA fully considers the public and environmental risks that come with planned expanded plutonium pit production.

Comment periods help increase transparency to the public, and it is crucial that the NNSA and the US Department of Energy hear from scientists, experts, and community members like you.  See UCS’s 4-page fact sheet at:  https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Plutonium%20Pit%20Production_ES.pdf

Training webinar registration at:  https://secure.ucs.org/a/2025-6-26-peis-comment-training-2

2. Friday, June 27^th from noon to 1 pm – Join your neighbors and friends at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

3. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week during about nuclear war during the Reagan administration.

4. Thursday, July 10^th from 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm ET; 10:30 am to 3:30 pm MT – From Trinity to Today: Nuclear Weapons and the Way Forward, a hybrid event hosted by the Arms Control Association and Win Without War.   Registration is required to attend. You can register to attend in-person or on-line

The Arms Control Association and Win Without War invite you to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the atomic age through a three panel series that highlights the impacts of the bomb and showcases the role citizen campaigns have had in changing the course of nuclear history.

Join one or all the three panel series:

• • Toxic and Radioactive Legacy of Nuclear Use, Production, Testing
  • The Role of Citizens in Reducing the Nuclear Danger
  • Today’s Nuclear Dangers/Consequences of Nuclear War

For more information and registration:  https://www.armscontrol.org/From_Trinity_to_Today

5. Friday, July 11^th from 6 pm MT to Saturday, July 12^th to 6 pm – Fourth Annual 24-hour Peace Wave – addressing the need to abolish nuclear weapons. Peace Wave is a 24-hour long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. The Peace Wave visits dozens of location around the globe and includes rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installations of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety.

 To sign up to watch Peace Wave, to embed the sign-up on your website, to watch the past three years’ peace waves, and to answer most questions, go to https://24hourpeacewave.org   To discuss including your live event in the Peace Wave, email info@worldbeyondwar.org

6. Saturday, July 12^th at 6:30 pm at Congregation Nahalat Shalom, 3606 Rio Grande Blvd. NW, Albuquerque. – Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub Kickoff.  This free, community-wide event marks the official launch of New Mexico’s involvement in the national Back from the Brink campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. Doors open at 6:00 pm. All are welcome.

The evening will feature compelling speakers dedicated to nuclear disarmament and justice, including:

• • Eddie Laiche, steering committee member of Students for Nuclear Disarmament, a national, non-partisan, student-led organization seeking to develop the grassroots nuclear abolition movement through high school and college students
  • Ira Helfand, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Immediate Past President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
  • Myrriah Gomez, UNM professor and author of Nuclear Nuevo Mexico: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos
  • Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and tire less advocate working to secure healthcare coverage and partial restitution for the people of New Mexico who have suffered from the negative health effects of overexposure to radiation since 1945.

Together they will highlight the urgent need for action and the power of communities to create a world free from nuclear threats.

Registration – https://www.mobilize.us/backfromthebrink/event/804539/

7. Sunday, July 13^th – Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test: 80 Years and Still Waiting – doors open at 2 pm and event starts at 2:30 to 5 pm, at St. Pius X School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM. 80 year ago the U.S. government did not warn New Mexicans about the atomic bomb Trinity Test. To this day, downwinders of the first atomic bomb test have never been acknowledged or compensated. Today we are locked in a second nuclear arms race and again New Mexico plays a crucial role. It is long overdue that the nuclear powers honor their promises in international treaties to rid the world of the most dangerous weapons.

 Free event — all are welcome, pre-registration is encouraged. RSVP here.

8. Monday, July 14^th – public comments due to NNSA about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production.

9. Wednesday, July 16^th – 80^th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico. Visit https://www.trinitydownwinders.com/ for more information. 

10. Wednesday, July 16^th at 5 pm MT – Trinity Day 80^th Anniversary Zoom Event, hosted by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Disarm Committee and the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee – for a teach-in on Trinity Day, marking the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear test.  Register here: https://bit.ly/Trinity80th

    Panelists include: Hideko Tamura, a Hiroshima survivor and a leader of WILPF; Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium; Mary Yakaitis, a leader of the Downwinders; Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy & Environmental Research; and Professor Peter Kuznick, Director of the American University Nuclear Studies Institute. Following the presentations there will be a general discussion.

    Trinity laid the groundwork for the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and for the ensuing nuclear arms race that has repeatedly, and once again, brought the World to the precipice of nuclear annihilation.

    As we face yet another nuclear crisis, we will discuss the meaning of the Trinity Test and its implications for today.

    Please distribute this invitation widely. As the Anti Nuclear Movement again mobilizes to meet this latest crisis, it is important that we be fully informed.

    In Peace and Solidarity,
    John Steinbach & Ellen Thomas  https://www.wilpf.org/

11. Saturday, July 19^th – 46^th Anniversary of United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill. For more information, visit https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

This week, a coalition of 13 attorneys general issued Multistate Guidance affirming the necessity and legality of environmental justice initiatives to ensure a healthy environment for all people to live, play, learn, work and worship.  Despite attempts by the Trump administration to eliminate this critical work by businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations as illegal through the use of Executive Orders, the attorneys general are pushing back.

The coalition of attorneys general issued its Multi-State Guidance Affirming the Importance and Legality of Environmental Justice Inititative.  https://www.mass.gov/doc/multi-state-guidance-affirming-the-importance-and-legality-of-environmental-justice-initiatives/download

In part, they write:

The federal actions attacking environmental justice have created concerns about – but do not impact – the continued legality and importance of environmental justice efforts. These actions include several executive orders issued by President Trump, as well as memoranda issued by United States Attorney General Pam Bondi. These federal actions inaccurately label environmental justice and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility activities as “illegal discrimination.” They rescind prior executive orders embedding environmental justice principles throughout federal administrative programs. They discontinue enforcement actions aimed at addressing disproportionate environmental burdens and terminate federal environmental justice programs and funding.  The recent federal actions also direct the United States Department of Justice to de-prioritize environmental justice in its enforcement work and to take actions to stop the enforcement of state environmental justice laws that the United States Attorney General deems illegal. These actions cloud the meaning of environmental justice and the legality of the work itself. But the limited effect of these actions is clear: the President cannot alter the laws passed by Congress, nor can his executive orders or agency memoranda change the protections afforded by the Constitution or state law. Additionally, while complementary, environmental justice is a distinct concept that addresses distinct challenges from diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Like the best practices for workplace diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility addressed in the February 2025 guidance from multiple state attorneys general, the advancement of environmental justice is not only lawful but also benefits the public.

The Attorneys General of California, Massachusetts and New York led the effort to issue the multi-state guidance.  The Attorneys General of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont joined to form the 13-member coalition.  Together, they stand “committed to pursuing environmental justice and enforcing related laws in our jurisdictions.”

1. Join your neighbors and friends on Friday, June 20th from noon to 1 pm at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. Join with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. Watch the “Television Event” 2:13 minute trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5RGRsTwjM It is about the television movie of the week during about nuclear war during the Reagan administration.

3. Thursday, June 26th from 4 to 5 pm MT – Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a training webinar on how to submit a comment to ensure NNSA fully considers the public and environmental risks that come with planned expanded plutonium pit production.

Comment periods help increase transparency to the public, and it is crucial that the NNSA and the US Department of Energy hear from scientists, experts, and community members like you.  See UCS’s 4-page fact sheet at:  https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2025-05/Plutonium%20Pit%20Production_ES.pdf

Training webinar registration at:  https://secure.ucs.org/a/2025-6-26-peis-comment-training-2

4. Thursday, July 10^th from 12:30 pm to 5:30 pm ET; 10:30 am to 3:30 pm MT – From Trinity to Today: Nuclear Weapons and the Way Forward, a hybrid event. Registration is required to attend. You can register to attend in-person or on-line

The Arms Control Association and Win Without War invite you to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the atomic age through a three panel series that highlights the impacts of the bomb and showcases the role citizen campaigns have had in changing the course of nuclear history.

Join one or all the three panel series:

• • Toxic and Radioactive Legacy of Nuclear Use, Production, Testing
  • The Role of Citizens in Reducing the Nuclear Danger
  • Today’s Nuclear Dangers/Consequences of Nuclear War

For more information and registration:  https://www.armscontrol.org/From_Trinity_to_Today

5. Friday, July 11^th from 6 pm MT to Saturday, July 12^th to 6 pm – Fourth Annual 24-hour Peace Wave – addressing the need to abolish nuclear weapons. Peace Wave is a 24-hour long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. The Peace Wave visits dozens of location around the globe and includes rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installations of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety.

 To sign up to watch Peace Wave, to embed the sign-up on your website, to watch the past three years’ peace waves, and to answer most questions, go to https://24hourpeacewave.org   To discuss including your live event in the Peace Wave, email info@worldbeyondwar.org

6. Sunday, July 13^th – Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test: 80 Years and Still Waiting – doors open at 2 pm and event starts at 2:30 to 5 pm, at St. Pius X School, 5301 St. Josephs Drive NW, Albuquerque, NM. 80 year ago the U.S. government did not warn New Mexicans about the atomic bomb Trinity Test. To this day, downwinders of the first atomic bomb test have never been acknowledged or compensated. Today we are locked in a second nuclear arms race and again New Mexico plays a crucial role. It is long overdue that the nuclear powers honor their promises in international treaties to rid the world of the most dangerous weapons.

 Free event — all are welcome, pre-registration is encouraged. RSVP here.

7. Monday, July 14^th – public comments due to NNSA about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production.

8. Wednesday, July 16^th – 80^th Anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico. See Chapter 10, “The Trinity Test,” in the Final Report of the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment (LAHDRA) Project at https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/131522  Chapter 10 provides one of the most comprehensive reports of the Trinity Test written by the scientists who reviewed actual LANL documentation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

9. Wednesday, July 16^th – 46^th Anniversary of United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill. For more information, see  https://ananuclear.org/church-rock-uranium-spill-july-16-1979/

10. SAVE THE DATE – SATURDAY, JULY 19^TH at 7:30 am – 46^TH ANNUAL URANIUM MILL TAILINGS SPILL COMMEMORATION HELD IN RED WATER POND ROAD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION. https://swuraniumimpacts.org/

 Each year, the community of Red Water Pond hosts a commemoration of the uranium mill tailings spill that took place 46 years ago and continues to impact local community members. These gatherings include speakers, tabling, a silent auction, and a walk commemorating the spill.  https://swuraniumimpacts.org/red-water-pond-road-community-association/