DOE, NNSA and Environmental Management Officials Host Town Hall at Buffalo Thunder Monday, July 22nd

A follow-up to the Department of Energy (DOE) town hall in April 2023 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center that nearly 500 people attended in-person or virtually, will be held Monday, July 22^nd from 6 pm to 7:30 pm at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder, 13 miles north of downtown Santa Fe on U.S. 84 / 285.  http://nuclearactive.org/nnsa-and-doe-officials-will-be-in-santa-fe-on-tuesday-april-4th-to-answer-your-questions/, and  https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/Town%20Hall%20Flyer_WebFinal%20%282%29.pdf

The National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/person/jill-hruby and the DOE head of the Office of Environment Management, Candice Robertson, https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/em-announces-new-leadership-environmental-cleanup will host this year’s town hall.  You are invited to attend either in-person or virtually. The virtual links will be available closer to the event.  It is essential that the federal agencies hear your concerns!

Our top concerns are the intricately linked expansion of nuclear weapons production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the increase in plutonium-contaminated waste for disposal Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).  Both are DOE sites in New Mexico.  As more information is revealed about the very expensive expansion plans at both sites, it is clear that DOE’s proposed doubling of the size of the WIPP underground disposal site is needed to support the proposed expansion of nuclear weapons production at LANL – all to fuel a new nuclear arms race.

In the 1970s through the 1990s, DOE promised the People of New Mexico that if WIPP were opened, it would be able to cleanup and dispose of all the plutonium-contaminated waste at its sites across the country in 25 years, and then close in March 2024.  But that did not happen because DOE now needs WIPP to stay open until at least 2083 for disposal of waste produced at LANL.  WIPP was not designed to operate for at least 59 more years.

None of DOE’s plans present a responsible alternative.  For example, they say that over the next 50 years, nuclear weapons production will generate an estimated 57,550 cubic meters of radioactive and hazardous waste.  This volume constitutes more than half of the estimated expansion capacity at WIPP and does not account for LANL’s buried plutonium-contaminated waste from the last nuclear arms race.  DOE plans to keep that waste buried in unlined pits, trenches and shafts in volcanic tuff, even though radioactive and hazardous contaminants have been detected in the regional drinking water aquifer 1,000 feet below ground surface.

What we know about the Monday, July 22^nd town hall: 

*  It will be held at Buffalo Thunder from 6 pm to 7:30 pm.  

*  Each commenter will have three minutes to make comments.  For the 90-minute town hall, fewer than 30 people will have the opportunity to speak. 

*  CCNS is checking whether there will be a link to submit written comments for those who will not have any opportunity to speak. 

*  Details to attend virtually will be provided in upcoming print notices in local publications and via email. 

* Any additional questions regarding the town hall can be submitted in advance to: external.engagements@nnsa.doe.gov.

Some possible questions for Hruby and Robertson: 

• • How much water will be needed for expanded pit production?
  • Why is DOE/NNSA/LANL/EM resisting removing buried waste from the LANL disposal pits, trenches and shafts?
  • What emissions will be released into the air from LANL operations, along the transportation routes, and at WIPP from expanded operations?
  • What climate change analyses have been done for these extricably linked operations in New Mexico?
  • What efforts are being made to find other disposal sites in states other than New Mexico?
  • Why are DOE, NNSA, LANL and Env’l Management disregarding the commitments made to New Mexicans for a 2024 closure of WIPP?

Please bring your questions to the virtual and in-person town hall.  There are many on-line resources to help you develop your comments at http://nuclearactive.org/ ; StopForeverWIPP.org https://stopforeverwipp.org/ ; and nukewatch.org https://nukewatch.org/home/

1. Friday, July 12th at noon – Join the weekly peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament on the four corners of Alameda and Sandoval in downtown Santa Fe with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others.

2. Thursday, July 11^th in Taos, Friday, July 12^th in Santa Fe, and Saturday, July 13^th in Albuquerque (see details below) – Justin Nobel speaks about his new book Petroleum 238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret about how a powerful industry spreads harm across the land and sickens the American people, especially their very own workers.  https://www.truthdig.com/articles/it-could-be-oil-field-waste-making-you-sick/  

 Why this is important to folks opposing nuclear weapons and power: 

“With fossil fuels, essentially what you are doing is taking an underground radioactive reservoir and bringing it up to the surface where it can interact with people and the environment.”

“Almost all materials of interest and use to the petroleum industry contain measurable quantities of radionuclides that reside finally in process equipment, product streams, or waste.”

Readings:

Thursday July 11 from 5 to 6:30 pm in TAOS at at Somos, 108 Civic Plaza Drive.  Hosted by New Energy Economy and other groups.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YlLVVxWcd5BubRQnV-Pjk6jISOnvAC8F/view?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a5c7eead-4b9c-46e9-a099-c1de1042c5e6

Friday July 12 at 6 pm: Book event at Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Galisteo, Santa Fe, NM, hosted by New Energy Economy, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, NM No False Solutions.  Register for Zoom Event Here

Saturday July 13 at 4 pm: Book event at Albuquerque Center for Peace & Justice, 202 Harvard Drive SE, hosted by New Energy Economy, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, NM No False Solutions.  RSVP Here

3. Saturday, July 13^th – 45^th Annual Uranium Spill Commemoration – see last week’s Update at http://nuclearactive.org/july-13th-45th-annual-uranium-spill-commemoration-and-july-14th-archbishop-wester-hosts-commemoration-of-trinity-test/

4. Sunday, July 14^th – Archbishop Wester Hosts Commemoration of Trinity Test – see last week’s Update at http://nuclearactive.org/july-13th-45th-annual-uranium-spill-commemoration-and-july-14th-archbishop-wester-hosts-commemoration-of-trinity-test/

5. Monday, July 15^th at noon Mountain Time – zoom Congressional Briefing Notice – Radioactive Contamination of US Food and Water, sponsored by the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network and others. Registration and additional information:  https://nislappdc.org/ffan-congressional-briefing/

You are invited to attend a groundbreaking webinar with Congress and leading experts about an under-recognized but growing problem we need to confront.

6. Thursday, July 18th 5 to 7 pm – KAFB Bulk Fuels Facility Project – KAFB Groundwater Treatment System facility open house and site tours of the facility.   For additional information on this event, please contact 377th Air Base Wing/Public Affairs at (505) 846-5991 or by email – pa@us.af.mil.

Also, community members may review Air Force Environmental Restoration Program documents by visiting the Kirtland AFB website at https://www.kirtland.af.mil/Home/Environment/ or the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center Administrative Record website at http://afcec.publicadmin-record.us.afmil/Search.aspx.

Tags: broken DOE promises, Candice Robertson, Department of Energy, DOE, EM, groundwater contamination, Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder, Jill Hruby, LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administration, new nuclear arms race, NNSA, Office of Environmental Management, regional drinking water aquifer, waste from old nuclear arms race, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)