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The last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia will expire on Wednesday, February 4th. Without this treaty, there will be nothing stopping a new, dangerous and wasteful nuclear arms race. Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to Save New START.
Defuse Nuclear War, a coalition of more than 200 organizations and organizers dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear war, has created a great toolkit for you to use. It contains resources for one-on-one conversations, key messages, great graphics, social media posts, letters to the editor, and op-eds calling on the United States and Russia to preserve the limits established by a treaty. https://defusenuclearwar.org/ and https://defusenuclearwar.org/save-new-start/
Now is the time for your advocacy to Save New START. Five key messages that you can use are:
On February 4, 2026, New START – the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia – will expire. Without these limits, there will be nothing to impede a new arms race, which would further increase the risk that nuclear weapons will be used again.
Nuclear weapons built by the United States and Russia are already more than capable of destroying civilization as we know it. Together, the countries hold around a 90 percent share of the world’s nuclear arsenals.
This is a small, easy step in the right direction. Both President Trump and leading Russian government officials have expressed willingness to extend this treaty’s limits.
We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. An extension of New START would be an easy, mutually beneficial step at a moment when the United States and Russia see their interests as opposed across the board.
The path to peace is taking concrete steps toward making conflict less likely, not the endless pursuit of global military dominance.
If you feel more comfortable writing about the need to extend New START, Defuse Nuclear War has a sample letter to the editor for you to use with a focus on sharing local issues and concerns. Please adjust as needed for your community. https://defusenuclearwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/New-START-toolkit.pdf, see p. 4.
For example, did you know that the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in fiscal year 2026 is $6 billion dollars? And of that amount, $5 billion dollars, or 84 percent of LANL’s budget, is dedicated to nuclear weapons? And LANL is the only place where plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear weapons are fabricated? https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FY26-Lab-Table-spreadsheets-Chart-1.pdf
Thursday, January 22nd from noon to 1 pm –Commemoration of the Fifth Year of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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. Bring your signs, banners, etc.
Friday, January 23rd from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Friday, January 23 from 11 am to noon MT –Join informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS to learn how to respond to the White House’s Executive Order to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow more radiation exposure to communities, workers and the whole of the living planet EARTH. For more information and additional opportunities to participate in the informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS: https://www.radiationproject.org/online, https://www.nirs.org/radiation,https://beyondnuclear.org/health-impacts/
and
Tuesday, January 27th from 5 pm to 6 pm MT – INFO on the President’s Executive Order and the NRC Rulemaking; Story of Three Mile Island. Join Diane D’Arrigo NIRS; Cindy Folkers BEYOND NUCLEAR, and Eric Epstein THREE MILE ISLAND ALERT.
In Santa Fe, on Thursday and Friday, January 22nd and 23rd from noon to 1 pm, we’ll be gathering on the corners of West Alameda and Sandoval to peacefully commemorate the fifth year of the Treaty. Join us!
In 2017, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, for its work to bring the Treaty to fruition. https://www.icanw.org/nobel_prize
ICAN continues its work. Currently most countries support the nuclear weapons ban treaty because they understand that any use of nuclear weapons carries extreme risks – by design, miscalculation or accident – causing catastrophic humanitarian consequences. We must continue to demand policy reform to debunk the myths of nuclear deterrence and defund the costs of continuing down that road.
In 2026, ICAN will work closely with states parties to the Treaty to make sure that diplomatic efforts reduce the risks of nuclear weapons and build towards nuclear disarmament. https://www.icanw.org/
Did you know about some of the changes have happened since the Treaty went into effect? In the last five years over $4.7 trillion dollars have been divested from nuclear weapons and the majority of the world refuses to accept doomsday as our destiny. https://www.icanw.org/take_action_now
Also, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, or IPPNW, another Nobel Prize winner, has launched an online social media campaign called – 5 years, 5 reasons – to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of the Treaty’s entry into force and to mark the work ahead. Go to https://www.ippnw.org/ to learn more and contribute your thoughts, photos and videos. Tag them on social media. Tag 5 friends and encourage them to join you in sharing their 5 reasons for supporting the Treaty. https://www.ippnw.org/?s=nobel+peace+prize
Five reasons could include health, peace, security, justice and democracy. A different five could be that the majority of the world supports the Treaty; the Treaty challenges deterrence; it reframes global security; nuclear weapons threaten everything we know and love; and emerging generations deserve a future without the threat and trauma of living with nuclear weapons.
Be sure to reach out to your elected officials, local governments and others to ask them whether they support the manufacture of plutonium triggers, or the pits, for nuclear weapons, at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Do they know that nuclear weapons are illegal? Post what you discover. Here are links to county commissions and city and town councils:
Friday, January 16th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Saturday, January 17th – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March in Albuquerque. Meet at the intersection of Dr. MLK Avenue and University Blvd. Lineup begins at 9:30 am. March will start at 10 am. The 1.5-mile march will end at Civic Plaza. Dress warmly.
The New Mexico MLK Jr. Commission encourages your participation. “We march to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for justice, equality and dignity for all through peaceful collective action. In that same spirit, communities across New Mexico will come together to continue his legacy. In additional to the flagship march in Albuquerque, marches will take place statewide.” A schedule of commemorations is available at https://nmmlksc.org/2026-king-holiday-2/ The January 17th march will be live streamed on Facebook @NMMLKJRC. For more information, email info@mlkjrc.nm.gov
Tuesday, January 20th at 10:30 am – Gathering at the Santa Fe Plaza for a march to the Roundhouse for a powerful rally and mutual aid fair on the opening day of the New Mexico Legislature.
Join the We Got Us Mass Mobilization where thousands of New Mexicans will march on the State Capitol to show the State what it looks like when New Mexico’s movements move together as one.
Thursday, January 22nd from noon to 1 pm –Commemoration of the Fifth Year of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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. Bring your signs, banners, etc.
The last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia will expire on Wednesday, February 4th. Without this treaty, there will be nothing stopping a new, dangerous and wasteful nuclear arms race. Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to save New START.
Defuse Nuclear War, a coalition of more than 200 organizations and organizers dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear war, has created a great toolkit for you to use. It contains resources for one-on-one conversations, key messages, great graphics, social media posts, letters to the editor, and op-eds calling on the United States and Russia to preserve the limits established by a treaty. https://defusenuclearwar.org/save-new-start/ and https://defusenuclearwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/New-START-toolkit.pdf
Now is the time for your advocacy to Save New START. Five key messages that you can use are:
On February 4, 2026, New START – the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia – will expire. Without these limits, there will be nothing to impede a new arms race, which would further increase the risk that nuclear weapons will be used again.
The United States and Russian nuclear weapons are already more than capable of destroying civilization as we know it. Together, the countries hold around a 90 percent share of the world’s nuclear arsenals.
This is a small, easy step in the right direction. Both President Trump and leading Russian government officials have expressed willingness to extend this treaty’s limits.
We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. An extension of New START would be an easy, mutually beneficial step at a moment when the United States and Russia see their interests as opposed across the board.
The path to peace is taking concrete steps toward making conflict less likely, not the endless pursuit of global military dominance.
For example, did you know that the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in fiscal year 2026 is $6 billion? And of that amount $5 billion, or 84 percent of LANL’s budget, is dedicated to nuclear weapons? And LANL is the only place where plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear weapons are fabricated? https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FY26-Lab-Table-spreadsheets-Chart-1.pdf
Friday, January 9th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Sunday, January 11 at 11 pm –Bombshell: They Created the Bomb. Then Created Its Story will air on PBS – KNME-HD 5.1. It explores the bombings of Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Bombshell sheds light on the efforts of a group of intrepid reporters to let the world know the truth. watch preview here
Sunday, January 11th at 1 pm – at Albuquerque Liberation Center, 225 San Pedro Dr. NE, Albuquerque – Public information and work session on PROJECT RANGER, a proposed missile production facility being constructed NOW less than three miles from a Rio Rancho neighborhood. For more information, https://commongroundrising.org/castelions-project-ranger-solid-rocket-motor-plant/
Wednesday, January 14 from 5:30 pm to 7 pm – hybrid meeting at Cities of Gold, Tribal Room, 10 Cities of Gold Road, Pojoaque, NM – NMED and EM-LA Public Meeting about the Annual Planning Process for the 2016 [Cleanup] Consent Order between the New Mexico Environment Department and LANL, with Q&A. Connection info available at https://www.energy.gov/em-la/events/annual-planning-process-2016-compliance-order-consent
Thursday, January 22nd – Fifth Anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons becoming international law – TPNW: Changing Nuclear History. Get your letters to the editor in NOW about how the TPNW has changed the world! Ideas, actions, talking points, graphics, etc. at https://www.icanw.org/5years_tpnw and https://warheadstowindmills.org/5-year-banniversary/
Join the nuclear disarmament community on the corners of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe from noon to 1 pm that day! Bring signs, banners, etc.
For over eighty years, the People of New Mexico have borne the burden of the 1943 establishment of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Through the Congressional continuing resolution process, LANL may receive an additional $1 billion dollars to support expansion of the number of plutonium triggers, or plutonium pits, fabricated for nuclear weapons. The people of northern New Mexico are unaware of the effects that this potentially may have on nearby communities. The effects of eight decades of nuclear weapons development has had a cumulative impact on New Mexico, especially in Rio Arriba County, which borders Los Alamos County to the north and west.
During the Bush II and Obama Administrations, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed three new weapons systems: the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW), and the Interoperable Warhead (IW). Grassroots organizations networked, educated each other, spoke at public meetings, wrote informed public comments, and worked with technical experts, elected officials and the media to understand how increased weapons development would impact frontline communities, which are mostly comprised of Indigenous and Hispanic people. With leadership from New Mexico and colleagues and NGOs throughout the world and through active organizing and public engagement in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, those proposed weapons systems were defeated and eventually canceled.
Note: Through the NEPA processes during the 2000s, the following occurred: the defeat of the Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Stockpile Stewardship and Management for a Modern Pit Facility (aka “The Bombplex”) (2006) – additional references and details at https://www.nuclearactive.org/docs/MPFindex.html; challenges to the Complex Transformation Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to produce 80 pits per year at LANL (2008); challenges to the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; and the defeat of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the (Super Walmart-sized) Nuclear Facility Portion of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico (2011).
New possibilities for similar successful public opposition are now available in the face of the on-going NEPA processes for the draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico and scoping for the Programmatic Environment Impact Statement (PEIS) for Plutonium Pit Production at LANL and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Under the leadership of CCNS Board Member Myrriah Gómez, CCNS will develop an educational program titled Nuclear Literacy: Educating Nuevomexicano Communities on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production to engage northern New Mexicans. Gómez is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico Honors College.
A curriculum specifically designed for frontline communities in Northern New Mexico will be used to engage community members, with a focus on youth engagement, about how to prepare comments about the scope of the PEIS and then how to read and respond to the forthcoming draft PEIS document.
We are honored and excited at the prospect of bringing this educational series to New Mexicans in the New Year!
Friday, January 2nd from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
SAVE THE DATES – April 4th – 11th, 2026: Shut Down Drone Warfare at Alamogordo and Holloman AFB. For more information, email nmvetsforpeace@gmail.com
If you appreciate our work, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to CCNS before the end of the year.Or sign-up to contribute monthly! We’re on Paypal or mail your contribution to: CCNS, POB 31147, Santa Fe, NM 87594-1147. Thank you!!!
Please allow us to state the obvious: 2025 has been a busy year in terms of addressing proposals for MORE to support the growing nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico. From Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration have big plans. Specifically, we’ll continue to oppose them.
From a proposed LANL electrical line across the Caja del Rio, to venting of radioactive tritium from containers that had been in storage for decades, to the discovery of the expansion of the chromium plume to Pueblo de San Ildefonso, the harm continues.
In 2026 new proposals for expanded plutonium pit production are on the table. In the spring, we’ll have the opportunity to provide comments about the scope of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production at LANL and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Presidential Executive Orders may well be used to change and obliterate the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, limiting the public scoping comment period to 30 days. And inevitably, it will be scheduled during Holy Week or other traditional spring holidays.
There will be educational trainings about the nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico and how to prepare effective scoping comments.
CCNS will continue the fight for proper regulation of LANL’s Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility (RLWTF). It is a key facility that handles, treats and stores plutonium-contaminated and low-level wastewaters from the Plutonium Facility, or PF-4. Underground pipes and trucks deliver contaminated waters to the RLWTF.
There is one discharge pipe from the RLWTF into Effluent Canyon. For nearly a decade, LANL used a mechanical evaporator system to dispose of the treated liquids into the air. Then LANL began discharging through the pipe again.
That one discharge pipe is regulated by both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department. The federal and state discharge permitting processes generally run in tandem, which doubles the work for small grassroots organizations, like CCNS.
Currently, EPA and LANL’s nuclear weapons contractor, Triad National Security, LLC, are challenging our standing before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. And Triad is challenging our standing before the New Mexico Supreme Court. Our filings are due to both courts in early January.
Your financial support is needed more than ever. Please consider signing up to make a monthly contribution on our website at nuclearactive.org. Together we are making a difference!
Friday, December 26th from noon to 1 pm –Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
SAVE THE DATES – April 4th – 11th, 2026: Shut Down Drone Warfare at Alamogordo and Holloman AFB. For more information, email nmvetsforpeace@gmail.com
If you appreciate our work, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to CCNS before the end of the year.We’re on Paypal, or mail your contribution to: CCNS, POB 31147, Santa Fe, NM 87594-1147. Thank you!!!
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or the New START Agreement, is set to expire on Thursday, February 5th, 2026 – in less than 50 days. The New START Agreement is the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation.
It was signed in 2010. It limits the number of strategic long-term nuclear warheads and launchers that the United States and Russia can deploy.
And, without any New START Agreement, there would be no limits on United States and Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles.
This is where you come in. The Treaty must be extended for at least one year. Engage your social media contacts, make calls and texts to friends, family and talk shows, pray, write letters to the editor. Contact your Congressional members and urge them to do everything they can to extend the New START Agreement. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard Line is (202) 224-3121.
Indeed, we are in dark times. Under the existing Treaty, Russia and the United States have roughly 10,000 nuclear weapons, or 87 percent of the global inventory. According to the Federation of American Scientists, China possesses about 600 warheads.
The Treaty sets caps on the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, land- and submarine-based missiles, and delivery vehicles that the United States and Russia may deploy in the event of nuclear war. In doing so, the Treaty increases and strengthens verification measures, transparency, encourages increased communication, and reduces the risk of miscalculation.
Reports from congressional offices tell us that when they receive a sustained number of phone calls in a short time, it helps to raise issues on legislators’ priority lists. Always mention that you are a constituent of the legislator you are calling and remind them that diplomacy is far superior to a dangerous new arms race and should be vigorously pursued.
A successor to the New START Agreement can, and should, serve as a stepping-stone to further reductions in the nuclear weapons stockpiles of both countries and hold open the door to future negotiations.
Peace is Possible.
Friday, December 19th from noon to 1 pm –Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Saturday, December 20th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza – The Santa Fe Raging Grannies invite you to sing along with them on your favorite holiday “carols” turned into protest songs. Join us, won’t you?
Sing along to songs like:
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fascism
Auld Lang Syne for Freedom
Walking in a Nuclear Wasteland
I’m Dreaming of a Kind Christmas … and many more.
SAVE THE DATES – April 4th – 11th, 2026: Shut Down Drone Warfare at Alamogordo and Holloman AFB. For more information, email nmvetsforpeace@gmail.com
If you appreciate our work, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution before the end of the year.We’re on Paypal (see button on top right of page) or mail your contribution to: CCNS, POB 31147, Santa Fe, NM 87594-1147. Venmo coming soon! Thank you!!!
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, is set to expire on Thursday, February 5th, 2026. In late September, President Putin proposed to extend the treaty for one year. President Trump has yet to formerly respond. On October 5th, he said, “[It] sounds like a good idea to me.”
This is where you come in. The Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation must be extended for one year. Engage your social media contacts, make calls and texts to friends, family and talk shows, pray, write letters to the editor. Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to do everything they can to extend New START. https://armscontrolcenter.org/understanding-new-start-agreement/
Extending it would allow the only remaining bilateral nuclear weapons treaty to continue. The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) describes the Treaty as “the centerpiece of global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.” https://www.iaea.org/publications/documents/treaties/npt
Granted we are in dark times. Under the Treaty, Russia and the United States have roughly 10,000 nuclear weapons, or 87 percent of the global inventory. According to the Federation of American Scientists, China has about 600 warheads.
The Treaty sets caps on the numbers of strategic nuclear warheads, land- and submarine-based missiles, and delivery vehicles that the United States and Russia may deploy in the event of nuclear war. Even so, the Treaty increases and strengthens the verification measures and transparency between them. It encourages increased communication. It reduces the risk of miscalculation.
On November 9th, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to Russian news service RIA Novosti. In response to a question about the pending expiration of New START, he said, “The constructive initiative put forward by President Vladimir Putin in the post-New START context speaks for itself. It contains no hidden agenda and is perfectly clear for understanding. Its practical implementation would not require any special additional efforts. Therefore, we do not consider it necessary to hold in depth discussions on this proposal…. So far, there has been no substantive response from Washington.” https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2025-12/features/getting-most-out-new-start-it-expires
Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to save the Treaty.
It is not complicated.
No negotiations are needed.
Agree to extend the Treaty for one year.
Stop a new arms race.
Peace is Possible.
Friday, December 12th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Saturday, December 13th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza – The Santa Fe Raging Grannies invite you to sing along with them on your favorite holiday carols. The lyrics, of course, are revised as only the Raging Grannies can do! Join us, won’t you?
As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.
Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.
Wednesday, December 17th from 5 to 7 pm at SALA Event Center and Via Microsoft Teams – EM-LA and N3B to Present a Year-in-Review and Discuss Hexavalent Chromium Plume – LANL Environmental Management Cleanup Forum – with public Q&A. For more information and virtual meeting links: https://n3b-la.com/emcf-12-17-2025/
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Dec 2 2025 (IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency) – In a Truth Social post that reverberated around the world, on October 29 President Donald Trump wrote: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis.”
A month later, it remains unclear what “testing programs” Trump had in mind. Other than North Korea, which last tested in 2017, no country has carried out nuclear-explosive testing since 1998.
Some commentators speculated that Trump was referring to tests of nuclear weapons delivery systems, since Russia had just carried out tests of innovative systems, a long-range torpedo and a nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Perhaps to underline that the United States too tests delivery systems, in an unusual November 13 press release Sandia National Laboratories announced an August test in which an F-35 aircraft dropped inert nuclear bombs.
It appears, though, that the testing in question concerns nuclear warheads. In what was clearly an effort to contain the implications of Trump’s announcement, on November 2, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said regarding US plans that “I think the tests we’re talking about right now” involve “noncritical” rather than “nuclear” explosions. The Energy Department is responsible for development and maintenance of the nuclear arsenal.
In contrast, Trump’s remarks in an interview taped on October 31 point toward alleged underground nuclear-explosive testing by Russia, China, and other countries as the basis for parallel US testing. His remarks perhaps were sparked by years-old US intelligence assessments that Russia and China may have conducted extremely low-yield experiments that cannot be detected remotely.
The prudent approach is to assume that Trump is talking about a US return to nuclear-explosive testing. That assumption is reinforced by the fact that a few days after Trump’s social media post, the United States was the sole country to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
The Russian government is taking this approach. On November 5, President Vladimir Putin ordered relevant agencies to study the possible start of preparations for explosive testing of nuclear warheads.
US resumption of nuclear-explosive testing would be a disastrous policy. It would elevate the role of nuclear arms in international affairs, making nuclear conflict more likely. Indeed, nuclear tests can function as a kind of threat.
It likely would also stimulate and facilitate nuclear arms racing already underway among the United States, Russia, and China. Over the longer term nuclear-explosive testing would encourage additional countries to acquire nuclear weapons, as they come to terms with deeper reliance on nuclear arms by the major powers.
Resumption of nuclear test explosions would also be contrary to US international obligations. The United States and China have signed but not ratified the CTBT. Russia is in the same position, having withdrawn its ratification in 2023 to maintain parity with the United States. Due to the lack of necessary ratifications, the CTBT has not entered into force. Since the CTBT was negotiated in 1996, the three countries have observed a moratorium on nuclear-explosive testing.
That posture is consistent with the international law obligation, set forth in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, of a signatory state to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty.
The object and purpose of the CTBT is perfectly clear: to prevent and prohibit the carrying out of a nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.
The CTBT is a major multilateral agreement with an active implementing organization that operates a multi-faceted world-wide system to verify the testing prohibition. It stands as a precedent for a future global agreement or agreements that would control fissile materials used to make nuclear weapons, control missiles and other delivery systems, and reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals.
The sidelining or evisceration of the CTBT due to an outbreak of nuclear-explosive testing would reverse decades of progress towards establishing a nuclear-weapons-free world.
A return to nuclear-explosive testing would similarly be incompatible with compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Its Article VI requires the negotiation of “cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date.”
Nuclear-explosive testing has long been understood as a driver of nuclear arms racing. The preamble to the NPT recalls the determination expressed in the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits above-ground nuclear tests, “to seek to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time and to continue negotiations to this end.”
In 1995, as part of a package enabling the NPT’s indefinite extension, a review conference committed to completion of negotiations on the CTBT by 1996, which was accomplished. In 2000 and 2010, review conferences called for bringing the CTBT into force.
To resume nuclear-explosive testing though a comprehensive ban has been negotiated, and to support design and development of nuclear weapons through such testing, would be a thoroughgoing repudiation of a key aim of the NPT, the cessation of the nuclear arms race.
That would erode the legitimacy of the NPT, which since 1970 has served as an important barrier to the spread of nuclear arms. The next review conference will be held in the spring of 2026. Resumption of nuclear-explosive testing, or intensified preparations to do so, would severely undermine any prospect of an agreed outcome.
It is imperative that the United States not resume explosive testing of nuclear weapons. It would be a very hard blow to the web of agreements and norms that limit nuclear arms and lay the groundwork for their elimination, and it could even lead toward the truly catastrophic consequences of a nuclear conflict. https://www.ipsnews.net/2025/12/resumption-of-nuclear-explosive-testing-a-dangerous-path/
Dr John Burroughs is Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. https://www.lcnp.org/
Friday, December 5th from noon to 1 pm –Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Friday, December 5th from 3 to 5 pm – Healing Sacred Relations: Counter-Mapping Nuclear Colonialism in New Mexico for launch of the Story Map in the Frank Waters Room in UNM’s Zimmerman Library. A cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental collaboration between Faculty and Students in UNM Department of Art [Art & Ecology RAVEL Spring 2025, lead by Kaitlin Bryson and Rachel Bordeleau] and UNM Geography & Environmental Studies Department [Critical Cartography Fall 2025, lead by Tybur Casuse].
Students and Faculty from both courses worked closely and collaboratively with our community partners: Communities for Clean Water, Tewa Women United, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and the Northern New Mexico College and Northern Stewards Program. Refreshments provided.
Monday, December 8th – Last Day to register for YUCCA’s We Got Us Bootcamp or Youth Summit.In January, YUCCA will host We Got Us –a weekend of training, solidarity and collective action that will culminate in a mass mobilization at the State Capitol on the Opening day of the 2026 Legislative Session. https://www.yuccanm.org/post/we-got-us-train-up-and-take-action-with-us-in-january
Wednesday, December 10th from noon to 1:30 pm MT, Sovereign Tea Community Conversations on Environmental Justice on Zoom. Learn how to support New Mexico Environmental Justice movements. SovereignTea Dec 2025 flyer We’ll hear about:
the recent Water Quality Control Commission vote
updates in the NM LAWS case
new information on the growing hexavalent chromium plume
As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.
Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.
8. Wednesday, December 17th from 5 to 7 pm at SALA Event Center and Via Microsoft Teams – EM-LA and N3B to Present a Year-in-Review and Discuss Hexavalent Chromium Plume – LANL Environmental Management Cleanup Forum – with public Q&A. https://n3b-la.com/emcf-12-17-2025/
In October, hexavalent chromium contamination was found beneath Pueblo de San Ildefonso while LANL was drilling a new well on the Pueblo, called San Ildefonso Regional Monitoring Well 3, or SIMR-3, in Mortandad Canyon. The Pueblo and LANL share borders in the area of Mortandad Canyon.
In Friday’s letter, the Environment Department wrote to LANL that “[S]ince 2021, DOE has neither complied with [the Environment Department’s] regulatory directives nor made substantial progress towards ensuring the protection of the regional aquifer. The latest sampling results from SIMR-3 prove that DOE’s refusal to take appropriate steps to ensure that contamination does not migrate further in the regional aquifer or offsite has created the harm to the environment that [the Environment Department] sought to prevent.”
Further, “DOE’s actions, as well as its inactions, in ignoring [the Environment Department’s] years-long insistence that DOE comply with regulations, look at the alarming contaminant trends, and take actions to reduce and reverse the contaminant trends, show that DOE apparently does not value preservation of the sole source regional aquifer, and instead prioritizes costs and effort minimization to the detriment of the environment and human health.”
The Environment Department’s strong language enforces why we must raise our voices in support of thorough cleanup of LANL watersheds and the dumps located near or in them. The contaminant pathways to the regional aquifer have been established. They cannot be ignored. They must be addressed now.
The New Mexico Environment Department permit that allows LANL to extract contaminated waters from the aquifer for treatment and to inject the treated waters back into the aquifer is called Discharge Permit 1835, or DP-1835.
CCNS led the Communities for Clean Water (CCW) effort for a more protective DP-1835 permit. Together we participated in the early negotiations, in public meetings and provided public education materials. We argued for lower chromium standards. The permit requires LANL to comply with chromium standards that are less than 90 percent of New Mexico’s numeric standard of 0.05 milligrams per liter(mg/l) – or set at or less than0.045 milligrams per liter (mg/l). We celebrate the change as it sets a precedent for more protective chromium standards for other water quality permits. 2016-08-21 – WPD GWQB DP-1835 Final DP
Thursday, November 27th from 10 am to 3 pm – Thanksgiving Potluck at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard Drive SE, Albuquerque at the intersection of Harvard and Silver. https://www.abqpeaceandjustice.org/events/at-the-center
Friday, November 28th from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Friday, December 5th from 3 to 5 pm – Healing Sacred Relations: Counter-Mapping Nuclear Colonialism in New Mexico for launch of the Story Map in the Frank Waters Room in UNM’s Zimmerman Library. A cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental collaboration between Faculty and Students in UNM Department of Art [Art & Ecology RAVEL Spring 2025, lead by Kaitlin Bryson and Rachel Bordeleau] and UNM Geography & Environmental Studies Department [Critical Cartography Fall 2025, lead by Tybur Casuse]. Students and Faculty from both courses worked closely and collaboratively with our community partners: Communities for Clean Water, Tewa Women United, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and the Northern New Mexico College and Northern Stewards Program. Refreshments provided.
Monday, December 8th – Last Day to register for YUCCA’s We Got Us Bootcamp or Youth Summit.In January, YUCCA will host We Got Us –a weekend of training, solidarity and collective action that will culminate in a mass mobilization at the State Capitol on the Opening day of the 2026 Legislative Session. https://www.yuccanm.org/post/we-got-us-train-up-and-take-action-with-us-in-january
As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.
Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.
For over 25 years, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) has fought to protect surface and groundwater from radioactive, toxic and hazardous contamination from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In 2004, that campaign expanded to contain the co-located perchlorate and chromium plume – contamination that migrated into the top of the 1,000 foot deep aquifer below LANL, Pueblo de San Ildefonso and the Española Basin Sole Source Drinking Water Aquifer. https://www.epa.gov/dwssa/overview-drinking-water-sole-source-aquifer-program#What_Is_SSA Despite federal assurances and repeated promises of a solution, the plume remains unresolved.
That history should be a flashing red warning light for every Rio Rancho and Sandoval County resident now facing Project Ranger, a proposed hypersonic rocket motor and detonation facility approved without baseline science, transparency, or lawful process. https://www.castelion.com/news/castelion-announces-project-ranger/The same patterns that delayed accountability at LANL are reappearing on the West Mesa—only this time the risks include perchlorate, hazardous propellants, explosive residues, and the wildfire threats of a high-hazard industrial site.
For more information, visit the informative website of Common Ground Rising. https://commongroundrising.org/ Its mission is to to educate, organize, and implement community grassroots committees to take action that protects our environment against the drivers of climate change, that impacts watershed, air, public health and safety.
Project Ranger Claims: “The site is 1,000 feet above groundwater.” The project’s contractor, Ron Bohannon, has repeatedly used this statement with no scientific meaning to reassure residents.
Being “1,000 feet above groundwater” does not prevent contamination when dealing with PFAS, ammonium perchlorate, explosive waste, or chemical runoff. Decades of Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of Defense research show that perchlorate in arid soils migrates laterally, moving through shallow and intermediate aquifer layers—just as chromium migrated laterally from LANL into Pueblo lands.
And the most critical fact remains: Project Ranger did not provide baseline groundwater, air, soil, or wildfire assessments before the City of Rio Rancho and Sandoval County approved Project Ranger. One cannot declare minimal risk when the science investigation has been deliberately skipped.
We Cannot Repeat the Mistakes of Los Alamos. Once contamination begins, it moves, grows, and becomes exponentially more difficult to contain. CCNS’s decades-long struggle proves this. Project Ranger without scientific review is not national security; it is reckless public endangerment.
The Bottom Line. Before a single rocket motor is mixed or a single detonation occurs, residents must demand full hydrology studies, wildfire analyses, contamination modeling, lawful public hearings, and independent citizen based oversight of Project Ranger.
New Mexico cannot afford another groundwater disaster.
Friday, November 21st from noon to 1 pm – Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Thursday, November 27th from 10 am to 3 pm – Thanksgiving Potluck at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, 202 Harvard Drive SE, Albuquerque at the intersection of Harvard and Silver. https://www.abqpeaceandjustice.org/events/at-the-center
As part of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX), Diné artist Will Wilson invites participants with lived, inherited, or visionary relationships to nuclear culture—uranium mining, atomic testing, environmental cleanup, and speculative futures—for a portrait session using the historic wet plate collodion process.
Created on-site at SITE SANTA FE, these tintype portraits become a living archive of those who have been affected by, have resisted, or continue to dream through the legacy of nuclear colonialism. Wilson’s process foregrounds Indigenous visual sovereignty and ecological witnessing, positioning photography as a relational act and a tool for historical redress.
The last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia will expire on Wednesday, February 4th. Without this treaty, there will be nothing stopping a new, dangerous and wasteful nuclear arms race. Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to Save New START.
Defuse Nuclear War, a coalition of more than 200 organizations and organizers dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear war, has created a great toolkit for you to use. It contains resources for one-on-one conversations, key messages, great graphics, social media posts, letters to the editor, and op-eds calling on the United States and Russia to preserve the limits established by a treaty. https://defusenuclearwar.org/ and https://defusenuclearwar.org/save-new-start/
For example, did you know that the budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in fiscal year 2026 is $6 billion dollars? And of that amount, $5 billion dollars, or 84 percent of LANL’s budget, is dedicated to nuclear weapons? And LANL is the only place where plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear weapons are fabricated? https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/FY26-Lab-Table-spreadsheets-Chart-1.pdf
Commemoration of the Fifth Year of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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. Bring your signs, banners, etc.
Join the nuclear disarmament community at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval in Santa Fe for the weekly peaceful protest in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 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.
Join informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS to learn how to respond to the White House’s Executive Order to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow more radiation exposure to communities, workers and the whole of the living planet EARTH. For more information and additional opportunities to participate in the informal INFO/ORGANIZING SESSIONS: https://www.radiationproject.org/online, https://www.nirs.org/radiation, https://beyondnuclear.org/health-impacts/
Doomsday Clock Announcement by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. https://thebulletin.org/2026/01/join-us-for-the-2026-doomsday-clock-announcement/
New Mexico Acequia Association Day and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Day at the New Mexico State Capitol.
