Call to Action! Stop LANL Tritium Venting and Protect the Most Vulnerable

On Monday, Tewa Women United released two independent scientific reports about the harm that would be done to public health and the environment should Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be allowed to vent radioactive tritium from four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at LANL’s Area G radioactive and hazardous waste dump.  It is another important step taken by Tewa Women United to hold LANL and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accountable to the law.

The two new reports reveal that the proposed venting of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, into the environment would not meet the current EPA or Department of Energy (DOE) regulations.

Tewa Women United collaborated with German scientist Bernd Franke, a Director of the Institute für Energie und Umweliforschung (IFEU), and Dr. Arjun Makhijani from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. The first report, Review of LANL Radiation Dose Assessment for the Venting of Flanged Tritium Waste Containers (FTWC) at TA-54 at LANL, authored by Franke, contains results from computer models used to assess the possible range of radiation doses to the public across various weather scenarios.

Dr. Makhijani stated, “According to the EPA regulatory radiation standards, Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 61 Subpart H, require[s that] the radiation dose to ‘any member of the public’ should be less than 10 millirem per year.” Dr. Makhijani noted, “EPA allowed LANL to ignore children and infants in its dose calculations.”

Further, the second report, authored by Dr. Makhijani and titled Out of Order:  An evaluation of the regulatory aspects of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal to vent tritium from waste containers, similarly assessed LANL’s compliance with the Clean Air Act regulations and DOE Order 458.1 to keep public exposure to “as low as reasonably achieveable.”

Over the past four years DOE and EPA have ignored repeated requests from Tewa Women United to release their 53 alternatives to the proposed venting.

Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, member of Pueblo de San Ildefonso and one of Tewa Women United’s co-founders, said, “Tritium makes water, our sacred source of life, radioactive. We were shocked to learn that LANL’s compliance calculations did not take infants and other children into account.”

Talavi Cook, the Environmental Justice Program Manager at Tewa Women United, explained:  “…Tewa Women United believes … radiation protection should extend to pregnant women due to fetuses comprising of 70% – 90% water; pregnant members of the public are not currently protected by the Clean Air Act or any other radiation protection regulation….  It is a matter of simple environmental justice for future generations.”

For more information, please visit https://tewawomenunited.org/2024/11/press-release-new-report-reveals-lanl-tritium-venting-could-have-triple-the-radiation-exposure-to-infants-compared-to-adults

1. Friday, November 22^nd at noon at the intersection of West Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners!

2. Friday, November 22^nd from 3 to 5 pm, in NAS Classroom MVH 3080 – Tommy Rock (Diné) and Dr. Jonathan Credo (Diné/Filipino) as they share their groundbreaking work on the critical study of Uranium and Oil and Gas Contamination in the Navajo Nation. An Environmental Justice Speaker Series, “What You Do to the Earth, You Do to the People,” hosted by the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group (NASIRG).

Join Zoom Meeting https://unm.zoom.us/j/98709571676

Meeting ID: 987 0957 1676

3. Friday, December 6, 2024 at 1 pm MT on zoom – Hanford Watch’s Scholar Series – with Jim Werner about Long-term Stewardship of Nuclear Materials & Other Contaminated Sites. register here Even if you can’t make it, register for a link to the recording.

Werner has worked for more than 40 years as a field environmental engineer; a policy analyst; in leadership positions for state and federal agencies, and an environmental NGO (NRDC); as a consultant for states, DOE, and EPA; and on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS).

As Director of the Strategic Planning and Analysis Office for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, Jim led efforts to publish Linking Legacies, Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom and From Cleanup to Stewardship, as well as the Baseline Environmental Management Report and Plutonium: The First Fifty Years. At CRS, Jim was awarded a fellowship at the Library of Congress Kluge Center to study long-term stewardship issues.

4. Saturday, December 7^th and Sunday, December 8^th – The Second Atomic Age Cinema Fest in Hollywood at the Crescent Theater, co-presented by the “Kat Kramer’s Films That Changed the World” and the “International Uranium Film Festival.” The Second Atomic Age Cinema is the final destination of the 2024 International Uranium Film Festival tour across North America that began in March 2024 in Window Rock at the Navajo Nation Museum.  For more information:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/atomic-age-cinema-fest-in-hollywood-2025

Tags: a Director of the Institute für Energie und Umweliforschung, Area G, Bernd Franke, Co-founder of Tewa Women United, Department of Energy, DOE, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, EPA, Flanged Tritium Waste Containers, FTWC, IEER, IFEU, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Out of Order: An evaluation of the regulatory aspects of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposal to vent tritium from waste containers, Review of LANL Radiation Dose Assessment for the Venting of Flanged Trititum Waste Containers (FTWC) at TA-54 at LANL, Talavi Cook, Tewa Women United, Tewa Women United Environmental Justice Program Manager, TWU, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, undisclosed 53 alternatives to venting