In its report “Squandered: 2021 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows in 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.4 billion on their nuclear weapons, more than $156,000 per minute, an inflation-adjusted increase of $6.5 billion from 2020.
The $82.4 billion spent on nuclear weapons was split between governmental departments and private companies. Companies in France, the United Kingdom and the United States were awarded $30 billion in new contracts (some spanning decades into the future), twice as much as they received in 2020.
This is the third annual report documenting massive investments in global nuclear weapons spending. Through an ever changing and challenging security environment, from security threats of climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons spending has steadily increased, with no resulting measurable improvement on the security environment.
As companies throw money at lobbyists and researchers to assert the continued relevance and value of nuclear weapons, the record shows the inutility of weapons of mass destruction to address modern security challenges – and the legitimate fear that they can end civilization as we know it.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is the multilateral response to the irresponsible behavior of all nuclear-armed states to pour money down their nuclear weapons drains. It is the normative barricade against threats to use nuclear weapons. All countries should join this landmark international instrument to prohibit the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons and prevent their eventual use by ensuring their elimination.
While you may not be able to travel to Vienna, Austria for the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), you can sign the online Statement on the Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons. It supports the Treaty and encourages the media to include the Treaty in all nuclear weapons coverage. The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative created the Statement. https://nuclearbantreaty.org/
To save you some time and pique your interest, the Statement’s text reads:
STATEMENT ON THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND ON THE TREATY ON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
“The power to initiate a global apocalypse lies in the hands of the leaders of nine nations.
“As 122 nations of the world indicated when they adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July, 2017, this is unacceptable.
“As concerns about the threat of nuclear weapons re-enter the public consciousness, it is important to know that humankind is not without an answer to the nuclear threat. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on January 22, 2021, provides a clear pathway to the elimination of the nuclear threat.
“We call on all nuclear armed states to take immediate steps to:
“engage the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,
“attend the First Meeting of States Parties, and
“sign, ratify and implement the Treaty.
“We also call on the US media to recognize the existence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to include the Treaty in discussions, articles, and editorials regarding the nuclear threat and methods available to address it.”
Already over 150 non-governmental organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. as well as by hundreds of individuals have signed the Statement. A full list can be found at https://nuclearbantreaty.org/ . Join them!
After signing the Statement, please share it with your networks, encourage sign ons, join in the Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative campaign, and watch the virtual Nuclear Ban Week Vienna, Saturday, June 18th through Thursday, June 23rd.https://vienna.icanw.org/
The First Meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty, hosted by the United Nations, will take place Tuesday, June 21st through Thursday, June 23rd. https://meetings.unoda.org/meeting/tpnw-msp-1-2022/ and https://vienna.icanw.org/msp [The full programme will be made public by the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in the lead up to the event. Accessed June 9, 2022.]
Prior to the three-day UN meeting, several civil society meetings will take place. Go to the websites to register. There are cut off registration dates for each event.
Saturday, June 18th and Sunday, June 19th, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and ICAN Austria co-host the Nuclear Ban Forum.https://vienna.icanw.org/forum The full two-day program is available at https://vienna.icanw.org/program
Tuesday, June 21st, a Youth Meeting of States Parties, for those between ages 18 and 30 from across five continents. https://vienna.icanw.org/youth-msp
Sunday, June 12th – Defuse Nuclear War virtual 2 ½ hour event at 2 pm MDT; 4 pm ET. Live presentations from a wide range of speakers including Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Mandy Carter, Khury Petersen-Smith, David Swanson and Katrina vanden Heuvel. To register: https://www.codepink.org/defuse_nuclear_war06122022 World premiere of a video featuring Daniel Ellsberg on “defusing the threat of nuclear war,” produced by Oscar-nominated director Judith Ehrlich. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jhUM5ClzQJGAQysfNUeO2A
Saturday, June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC – Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls – Promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a critical part of the wider movement for peace and justice in this country and beyond. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/
Saturday, June 18th through Thursday, June 23rd is Nuclear Ban Week Vienna.For more information about all of the live and FREE virtual events taking place, visit: this week’s CCNS News Update at http://nuclearactive.org/ and the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons at https://vienna.icanw.org/ Get your registrations in now as there are cut off dates!
Decisions being made by federal and state agencies about the plutonium-contaminated waste stored at the Waste Control Specialists facility located on the Texas-New Mexico border may foreshadow how non-compliant waste may be stranded in the future. Instead of coming up with a plan to expeditiously remove the waste, the Department of Energy (DOE) wants to design and build a radiologically controlled enclosure to process the waste before shipping it off-site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Texas has had enough and wants the waste out of Texas, but cannot force the removal.
This story begins eight years ago. On February 14, 2014, an explosion of one or more drums of plutonium-contaminated waste occurred in the deep geologic disposal facility at WIPP. Nearly 8,000 feet of the underground mine was contaminated, along with 22 workers. WIPP was shut down for nearly three years at a cost to taxpayers of $2 billion. http://nuclearactive.org/plutonium-leaks-from-wipp-while-plans-to-expand-the-sites-capacity-proposed/
Those exploding drums had been packaged at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). A March 2014 agreement allowed the LANL waste to be temporarily stored at WCS for one year. DOE later reported that some of the stored LANL waste came from the same waste stream as the exploding drums.
After several extensions of the agreement, DOE was charged with creating a plan to remove the LANL waste from Texas. Eight years later 34 shipments have gone from WCS to WIPP, but some of the waste remains at WCS. The most recent agreement expired on May 31, 2022.
On May 10, 2022, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality wrote to DOE stating that if the waste were not removed from the site and transported out of Texas, the Commission would take additional enforcement actions.
As suggested in my August 21, 2019 letter to then Secretary Perry, the disparity between the federal government’s aggressive and timely efforts to treat similarly implicated waste that was in storage at LANL and the material at WCS is notable and remains ‘a significant concern for WCS and our regulator and is an impediment to restoration of normal commercial operations.’ WCS is concerned that the patience of TCEQ will be exhausted absent a greater commitment by DOE to establish date certain milestones as repeatedly requested by the agency, and as most recently committed to by DOE in a March 31, 2020 letter.
In the meantime, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a 30-month extension for storage of 74 standard waste boxes of LANL waste still at the WCS site. NRC prepared an environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact, or a FONSI, which support continued storage until December 31, 2024.
The waste may be stranded at Waste Control Specialists, located five miles east of Eunice, New Mexico. The People rely on specialized government agencies that handle and regulate radioactive materials to take extra care to protect them. In this case, the agencies may fail.
Tuesday, June 7th – Election Day! Get out and Vote!
Sunday, June 12th – Defuse Nuclear War virtual 2 ½ hour event at 2 pm MDT; 4 pm ET. Live presentations from a wide range of speakers including Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Mandy Carter, Khury Petersen-Smith, David Swanson and Katrina vanden Heuvel. To register: https://www.codepink.org/defuse_nuclear_war06122022
Tuesday, June 14th, NM Water Quality Control Commission to consider designating over 100 miles of the Upper Rio Grande, the Rio Hondo and its tributary Lake Fork, and the Jemez River Headwaters (San Antonio Creek, East Fork, Jemez River, and Rodondo Creek) as Outstanding Waters (also known as ONRWs) under the Clean Water Act. Public comments are needed.
Saturday, June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC – Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls – Promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a critical part of the wider movement for peace and justice in this country and beyond. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/
Saturday, June 18th to Thursday, June 23rdis Nuclear Ban Week Vienna.For more information about all of the events taking place, please visit: https://vienna.icanw.org/registration
In November 2021, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin construction of a new radioactive liquid waste treatment facility for transuranic, or plutonium contaminated, liquid waste from the Plutonium Facility. LANL stated in its application, “Current plans are to monitor the [emission] stack only for particulate radioactive material; tritium and other gas- or vapor-phase nuclides do not make up a significant fraction of the potential dose from the [transuranic liquid waste] facility.” LANL Pre-Construction App to EPA RLWTF TLW 11-17-21
EPA is required to approve the application before construction can begin. On April 20th, 2022, EPA approved the application, without changing LANL’s plan to omit tritium monitoring in the emission stack prior to release into the air. EPA RLTWTF-TLW Approval 4-19-22
Tritium is radioactive hydrogen. It travels easily in the air and water, readily binds itself to almost everything and creates tritiated, or radioactive, water. Tritium is used in nuclear weapons to boost the efficiency and destructive yield.
LANL is under pressure to fabricate 30 plutonium pits, or the fissile triggers, for nuclear weapons by 2026 in the Plutonium Facility. In the fabrication process, water is contaminated with radioactive materials, including plutonium and tritium.
The transuranic liquid waste facility is the second construction project to replace the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, which began operations in 1963. The first constructed replacement project was a low-level radioactive liquid waste treatment facility. The old and the two new liquid waste treatment facilities are located directly east of the Plutonium Facility.
On May 5th, the New Mexico Environment Department approved for the first time a groundwater discharge permit for the old facility – a process that began in 1994. It also granted permits to the two new replacement facilities, the Outfall 051, a mechanical evaporator and two large solar evaporators. https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/ , scroll down to Los Alamos County and DP-1132.
After treatment, tritium will be released into the environment from the outfall and the evaporators. It is unclear whether EPA added the potential doses from the outfall and the evaporators to the dose from the emission stack in its analysis before approval.
In 2013, the Department of Energy Inspector General estimated that the replacement facilities could cost taxpayers about $214 million. OAS-L-13-15 Audit Report: The Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory, September 26, 2013. https://www.energy.gov/ig/downloads/audit-report-oas-l-13-15
But President Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2023 budget reveals that the estimated taxpayer money needed for the construction of the transuranic liquid waste facility alone is over $215 million. Operations are expected to begin in late August 2027 and end in 2077 – a planned operation period of 50 years. [Budget line item no. 07-D-220-04, p. 235 – 241 of pdf.] https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2022-04/doe-fy2023-budget-volume-1-nnsa-wa-v2.pdf
Thursday, May 19 – Sunday, May 29, 2022: virtual and live in Rio International Uranium Film Festival. https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
Sunday, June 12th “Defuse Nuclear War” virtual 2 ½ hour event at 2 pm MDT; noon ET. Live presentations from a wide range of speakers including Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Mandy Carter, Khury Petersen-Smith, David Swanson and Katrina vanden Heuvel. World premiere of a video featuring Daniel Ellsberg on “defusing the threat of nuclear war,” produced by Oscar-nominated director Judith Ehrlich. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jhUM5ClzQJGAQysfNUeO2A
Tuesday, June 14th, NM Water Quality Control Commission to consider designating over 100 miles of the Upper Rio Grande, the Rio Hondo and its tributary Lake Fork, and the Jemez River Headwaters (San Antonio Creek, East Fork, Jemez River, and Rodondo Creek) as Outstanding Waters (also known as ONRWs) under the Clean Water Act. Public comments are needed. For more information: WQCC 21-62 (R) – The Outdoor Recreation Division of the NM Economic Development Department Petition to Designate Segments of the Rio Grande … as Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW).https://www.nmoutside.com/our-work
Saturday, June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC – Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/
Plutonium operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area 55 are centered in the middle of the 36-square mile national nuclear weapons facility. LANL is the only U.S. facility with the capabilities to fabricate plutonium triggers, or the fissile pits, for nuclear weapons. However, Technical Area 55, or TA-55, is located within the complex Pajarito Fault Zone between two young, north – south running faults called the Guaje Mountain and Rendija Canyon faults. Visual evidence of faulting can be found in the canyons to the north of TA-55. http://nuclearactive.org/gilkeson/ see Seismic Documents.
The U.S. Department of Energy owns LANL. It has plans for expansion of all things plutonium-pit production at the Plutonium Facility and at least five new support buildings at TA-55. CCNS anticipates that DOE will continue its efforts to conceal and ignore the reality of the growing seismic threats of the young faults.
Fabricating plutonium pits for nuclear weapons involves many steps – some using aqueous processes that result in water contaminated with radiation and hazardous materials. That water is treated across the street from the Plutonium Facility at the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility and for decades was discharged through an industrial outfall into Effluent Canyon. Since November 2011, though, the treated water has been evaporated into the air at a mechanical evaporator.
Then on May 5th, the New Mexico Environment Department approved for the first time a ground water discharge permit for not only for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, the outfall and Mechanical Evaporator, but for two large solar evaporative tanks, and a new low-level radioactive liquid waste treatment facility. In addition, DOE plans to build a liquid waste treatment facility for the transuranic plutonium liquid waste. https://www.env.nm.gov/public-notices/, go to Los Alamos County, and scroll down to DP-1132 where the draft permit is posted, but not the final permit.
These facilities are all in support of DOE’s plans for expanded plutonium pit production at LANL.
Sunday, June 12th “Defuse Nuclear War” virtual 2 ½ hour event at 2 pm MDT; noon ET.Live presentations from a wide range of speakers including Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Mandy Carter, Khury Petersen-Smith, David Swanson and Katrina vanden Heuvel. World premiere of a video featuring Daniel Ellsberg on “defusing the threat of nuclear war,” produced by Oscar-nominated director Judith Ehrlich. https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jhUM5ClzQJGAQysfNUeO2A
Saturday, June 18, 2022 in Washington, DC – Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/
Recently released Biden Administration budget documents reveal that for Fiscal Year 2023, beginning on October 1st, the Administration is proposing a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) budget of $4.6 billion, an overall increase of 21 percent. This amount is more than double the 2015 LANL budget of $2.2 billion.
LANL is the only U.S. facility with the capabilities to fabricate plutonium pits, the fissile trigger for nuclear weapons. Even though LANL has not fabricated more than 11 pits, which it did in 2011, it is charged with fabricating 30 pits per year by 2030. These pits are for new designs for new weapons systems under the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear weapons modernization program.
During the May 4th hearing of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned members of the Nuclear Weapons Council. [ https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/watch?hearingid=6A0AFAF9-5056-A066-60E4-F8AFEBAAAC19 at 1:23:30. Warren began with the statement that she believes that the nuclear weapons modernization program is “unsustainable and dangerous.” She wanted to see significantly less reliance on nuclear weapons. She praised the Biden Administration for canceling the provocative sea-launched cruise missile.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the modernization program will cost $1.7 trillion, an estimate Warren said “is far too low.”
In the rare unclassified congressional hearing, members of the Nuclear Weapons Council provided stark comments about the inability of the NNSA to produce 80 plutonium pits by 2030.
William LaPlante, under-secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said, “The Nuclear Weapons Council stands by the assessment
… that no additional money will get the pits to 80 per year.”
Jill Hruby, NNSA administrator and member of the Nuclear Weapons Council, concurred with LaPlante’s statement.
In 1946, Congress created the Nuclear Weapons Council under the Atomic Energy Act. It is a joint NNSA and Pentagon group charged with the coordination of civilian and military nuclear weapons procurements.
Senator Angus King, chair of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, stated that the hearing in May was originally scheduled for January. King emphasized that the hearing was not related to the events in Ukraine and should not be interpreted as “somehow nuclear saber rattling on the behalf of the United States.” Id., at 00:36:03.
Senator Warren observed that NNSA is asking the American taxpayers to throw more money at the nuclear weapons modernization program, which “is not going to get us to the original goal of 80 pits per year by 2030.”
Cerro Pelado Wildland Fire now at over 43,000 acres and about 3 ½ miles from LANL backgate. Embers are igniting new fires two miles ahead of the fire. For more information, https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8075/
Thursday, May 19 – Sunday 29, 2022: virtual and live in Rio International Uranium Film Festival. https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
“The Department of Defense currently operates 38 toxic burn sites in the U.S., mostly in low-income, rural communities. At these sites, the military collects excess, obsolete, or unserviceable munitions, including bullets, missiles, mines, and the bulk explosive and flammable materials used to manufacture them, and destroys them by adding diesel and lighting them on fire, or by blowing them up. Last fiscal year, the Department of Defense destroyed 32.7 million pounds of explosive hazardous waste on U.S. soil using these methods, known as open burning and open detonation.”
As of Wednesday evening, May 4th, the Cerro Pelado wildland fire was about five miles from the “back gate” of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). With expected southwesterly winds across the fire to continue the rest of the week and into the weekend, public concerns about wildland fire prevention and protection are running high. LANL’s back gate is located at the intersection of State Roads 4 and 501, near the Ponderosa Group Campground.
CCNS is particularly focused on the Cerro Pelado fire and its proximity to LANL. While the 1996 Dome wildland fire came very close to the laboratory, in 2000 the Cerro Grande fire burned over 7,000 acres across the LANL firing sites, and came close to the Plutonium Facility and the Area G radioactive dump. http://www.nuclearactive.org/docs/CerroGrandeindex.html In 2011, Las Conchas fire burned about 47,000 acres across the Pajarito Plateau on the first day, a rate of about an acre per second. In the end, only one acre burned on LANL. These fires were devastating in themselves and they opened new pathways for LANL’s radioactive and hazardous pollutants to migrate from the burned areas towards and into the Rio Grande. https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2017/05/17/the-heart-of-darkness-a-walk-through-the-scorched-landscapes-where-our-forest-used-to-be-and-a-glimpse-of-our-future-fires-en/
The independent Inspector General found that the LANL contractor responsible for preparing two plans, the 2014 Forest Plan and the 2016 Five-Year Wildland Fire Plan, had failed to fully implement the activities designed to reduce wildland fire impacts. It also found that there was a lack of federal oversight and formality in meeting the plans’ goals. DOE and LANL stated to the Inspector General that follow-up to the two plans would be done. But a search for the follow-up documents was unsuccessful, so it is difficult to determine if the follow-up plans were properly implemented.
Currently the incident commanders and foresters are reporting that the Cerro Pelado fire is low-intensity and burning like a prescribed burn across the Las Conchas fire burn scars. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/article/8075/68450/ But given the history of wildland fires on the Pajarito Plateau, anything could happen.
Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “Our hearts are with those impacted by the 20 wildfires burning in New Mexico. During the Dome fire, forester Bill Armstrong called the crown fire ‘a wakeup call that nobody woke up to.’” The DOE Inspector General’s report, the lack of follow-up to the two plans, and the Cerro Pelado fire are yet more wake-up calls.
DHSEM says it is the most reputable, up-to-date site for anything related to the wildfires. The department encourages everyone to go to use this site as their primary and most accurate wildfire source of information.
See the website to access Ready. Set. Go! New Mexico program.
Tarak Kauff and Santa Fe resident Ken Mayers: “Two elderly American anti-war activists described as ‘the nicest and most courteous protesters’ have each been fined €5,000 by an Irish court for interfering with operations at Shannon airport, which hosts US military flights. “A Dublin circuit criminal court judge issued the penalties on Wednesday a day after Tarak Kauff, 80, and Ken Mayers, 85, were convicted of interfering with the operation, safety or management of an airport by entering the runway area and causing the airport to close.” More at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/04/two-courteous-us-anti-war-veterans-in-their-80s-fined-for-interfering-at-an-irish-airport
Tuesday, May 10th from 11am to 12:30 pm MDT, virtual Women of the World Call for Peace Now, with Mairead Maguire, Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez (Costa Rica) and Dr. Paula Garb. Presented by Women Transforming Our Nuclear Legacy in co-sponsorship with The Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at UC Irvine and The Center for Peacemaking Practice at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Register at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__jd9s-g7SKqmyZo2o41jiQ
Thursday, May 19 – Sunday, 29, 2022: virtual and live in Rio International Uranium Film Festival. https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/
Nearly 30 years ago, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board began communications with the Department of Energy (DOE) about ventilation systems in nuclear facilities, saying that they must contain or confine radioactive materials during an accident or seismic event that might be followed by a fire. https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/9286/TECH-34_0.pdfWhile DOE has taken steps to install systems, called safety class active confinement ventilation systems, at its nuclear weapons facilities located across the U.S., it has resisted installation of an active confinement ventilation system at the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Over the decades, DOE indicated that it would install the active confinement ventilation system in the Plutonium Facility. But delays, LANL shutdowns, and the development of new standards and procedures have resulted in continuing reliance on a non-compliant passive ventilation system.
As far back as 2004, the Board described a passive confinement ventilation system as “not necessarily capable of containing hazardous materials with confidence because they allow a quantity of unfiltered air contaminated with radioactive material to be released from an operating nuclear facility following certain accident scenarios.” Id., Recommendation, p. 1.
By contrast, the Board described safety [class] active confinement ventilation systems as continuing “to function during an accident, thereby ensuring that radioactive material is captured by filters before it can be released into the environment.” Id.
What does this mean to you? It means that DOE is not following the applicable laws, regulations and its own nuclear safety orders and standards and as a result is threatening your health and safety.
DOE is renovating the 1970s era Plutonium Facility on a 24/7 schedule, installing new equipment, and attempting to increase the fabrication of plutonium pits, the cores of nuclear weapons, from 10 to 30 annually. These multiple activities exacerbate the threats to workers and the public. This is exactly the time when a safety class active confinement ventilation system should be installed.
dhanson@abqjournal.com
CCNS urges you to contact your elected officials to ask for an investigation into why DOE is not complying with the applicable nuclear safety laws and regulations that require a safety class active confinement ventilation system in the Plutonium Facility.
In 2004, the Board restated its concerns that it appeared that DOE was “using the evaluation guideline of 25 rem exposure at the site boundary as a design criterion and an allowable dose to the public.” The Board continued:
This is contrary to the Board’s July 8, 1999 letter to the Deputy Secretary of Energy that states “the 25 rem evaluation guideline is not to be treated as a design acceptance criterion nor as a justification for nullifying the general design criteria relative to defense-in-depth safety measures.”
It is also contrary to DOE-STD-3009 that states that the 25 rem evaluation guideline “is not to be treated as a design acceptance criterion.” However, the Board continues to see 25 rem at the site boundary used as an acceptance criterion for the performance of confinement systems. The Board is concerned that in these examples DOE and its contractors are underestimating the significance of the performance requirements for a confinement ventilation system and are relying on questionable calculations of offsite doses to evaluate performance. [Emphasis added.]
The Board reiterates that the 25 rem evaluation guideline is solely to be used for guidance for the classification of safety controls, and not as an acceptable dose to the public for the purpose of designing or operating defense nuclear facilities.
Recently-released Biden Administration budget documents indicate that for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY 2023), beginning on October 1, 2022, the Administration is proposing a budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory of $4.6 billion, an overall increase of 21 percent. This compares with smaller figures for every year from 2015 through 2021: for FY 2021, the Congressional Budget Request for LANL was $3.68 billion; for FY 2020, $2.83 billion; for FY 2019, $2.78 billion; FY 2017, $2.4 billion; for FY 2016, $2.5 billion; and for FY 2015, $2.2 billion.
In a mere seven years, the budget requests for LANL have more than doubled. Nevertheless DOE has not prioritized the health and safety needs of the workers and the public to upgrade the Plutonium Facility passive ventilation system to a safety class active confinement ventilation system.
Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “It is irresponsible for a federal agency set to receive nearly one billion taxpayer dollars for plutonium operations at LANL in Fiscal Year 2023 will not to transition its ventilation system from passive to a safety class active confinement ventilation system. Our collective health and safety requires a safety class active confinement ventilation system in the LANL Plutonium Facility.”
Thursday, April 28th at 5 pm – virtual Town Hall about the Ten-Year Permit Renewal Application and Request to Permit proposed Panels 11 and 12, submitted by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to the New Mexico Environment Department. The discussion will focus on the request to permit two new panels 11 and 12 to the west of the current underground disposal site. To view the submittal, see https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/, under WIPP News entry for March 17, 2022. To register for the April 28th virtual meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84311281923 For questions regarding this virtual town hall meeting please contact the WIPP Information Center at infocntr@wipp.ws or by calling 1-800-336-9477.
Thursday, April 28th at 6 pm – virtual joint meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB). The purpose of the meeting is to provide information about our environmental programs. The meeting will be held virtually using Microsoft TEAMS. You may join the virtual meeting using the link provided at https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental_management_system/index.html, follow the Public Meeting Link on the left of the page. On mobile devices and Apple devices, you may need to download a free app to join the meeting. DOE/SNL presentations can be reviewed in advance at: https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental_management_system/index.html, follow the Public Meeting link on the left of the page. KAFB presentations can be found at https://www.kirtland.af.mil/Home/Environment/. The federal agencies encourage questions and recommend submitting them in advance by email. Questions will be prioritized and will be addressed as time permits. Attendees may also ask questions via chat during the meeting, and those will be answered as time permits. Emailed questions that are not addressed during the meeting will be answered by email following the meeting. To submit a question, please send an email to envinfo@sandia.gov, please include April 2022 Public Meeting Question in the Subject line.
Friday, April 29 from noon to 1 pm, at the corner of Guadalupe and East Alameda in Santa Fe, please join the weekly peaceful vigil of CCNS, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Veterans For Peace about the increasing presence of LANL in Santa Fe.
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 from 9 am to 10:30 am MT, virtual presentation: “The Threat of Use of Nuclear Weapons and Russia’s War on Ukraine: Meeting the Legal and Political Challenge,” sponsored by the Arms Control Association, the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and the Princeton University Program on Science and Global Security. Register Here
Confirmed speakers and panelists will include:
• Ariana N. Smith (Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy)
• Zia Mian (co-director, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University)
• John Burroughs (Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy)
• Daryl Kimball (Executive Director, Arms Control Association)
• Amb. Alexander Kmentt (Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Exploding Biden Administration budgets for the three Department of Energy (DOE) sites in New Mexico fully support the dangerous trend to develop more provocative nuclear weapons. As a result, there is an urgent need to change course, retire the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 2024 as planned, and find a new site that is not located in New Mexico for the plutonium-contaminated waste generated by weapons manufacturing.
For Fiscal Year 2023, beginning on October 1, 2022, the Administration is proposing a budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory of $4.6 billion, an overall increase of 21 percent.
For the same fiscal year, the Administration is proposing a budget of $3 billion for Sandia National Laboratory, an overall increase of nearly 9 percent.
For WIPP, the deep geologic dump located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, the Administration is proposing a budget of $459 million, a 9 percent increase.
People are becoming sick and tired of the nuclear industry that risks public health and safety and pollutes the air, water and soils. Upon learning about a DOE proposal to ship up to 50 metric tons, or 100,000 pounds of “surplus” plutonium on New Mexico roads for eventual disposal at WIPP, the 285 ALL community group based in the El Dorado area south of Santa Fe, created a petition asking New Mexico Michelle Lujan Grisham to take action against this proposed expansion of WIPP. Over 1,100 petition signatures were gathered from across the state and presented to the Governor’s Office on March 1st. http://nuclearactive.org/why-you-should-care-about-the-expanding-wipp-mission/
Cindy Weehler, a co-founder of 285 ALL, said, ““The Governor’s interest in the concerns of her constituents is so very important. She understands that WIPP was never intended to be the only site for this nuclear weapons waste.”
Friday, April 22 at 11 am at the New Mexico Roundhouse (state capitol), celebrate Earth Day in the open air! Join the Santa Fe Justice Makers and others to rally there. Bring signs for Mother Earth and against nukes. Before noon, the groups will walk to the corner of Guadalupe and Alameda to join the weekly noon vigil of CCNS, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and Veterans For Peace until 1 pm.
Friday, April 22 (Earth Day) at 10 am – Sunday, April 24, 2022 – Taos Environmental Film Festival – important films, a staged reading of a play, a forum and more – at the Taos Community Auditorium. https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/ On Sunday, April 24th from 5 to 7:30 pm, a staged reading of Exposed, a play by Mary Dickson, a Downwinder of the above-ground atomic tests at the Nevada Test Site, will be presented. Mary Dickson will be present.
Friday, April 22nd – Support the Red Water Pond Road Community at 1 pm to hold signs at the junction of Hwy 566 and Frontage Road Hwy 118, near Red Rocks State Park. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is visiting the Red Water Pond Road Community at 2 pm and then hosting a public meeting in Gallup at 6:30. For more information, please see flyer here. April 22 RWPRC Flyer
Friday, April 22nd from 3 to 4 pm, Thomas De Pree, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow, University of New Mexico Health Sciences, will present live and virtually, The Politics of Baselining in the Grants Uranium Mining District of Northwestern New Mexico. To register: https://goto.unm.edu/22
Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 8 am to 5 pm – Symposium on Rocky Flats: Impacts on the Environment and Health. Brought to you by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Colorado and The Colorado Medical Society. This Symposium will span topics ranging from the history of Rocky Flats, contamination issues still plaguing the area, legal issues, critical analyses of epidemiological studies, and effects of radiation on the genome and epigenome. Everyone, regardless of education or career background, is welcome to register. For more information: https://www.psrcolorado.org/
Thursday, April 28th at 5 pm – virtual Town Hall about the Ten-Year Permit Renewal Application and Request to Permit proposed Panels 11 and 12, submitted by the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to the New Mexico Environment Department. The discussion will focus on the request to permit two new panels 11 and 12 to the west of the current underground disposal site. To view the submittal, see https://www.env.nm.gov/hazardous-waste/wipp/, under WIPP News entry for March 17, 2022. To register for the April 28th virtual meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84311281923 For questions regarding this virtual town hall meeting please contact the WIPP Information Center at infocntr@wipp.ws or by calling 1-800-336-9477.
Thursday, April 28th at 6 pm – virtual joint meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB). The purpose of the meeting is to provide information about our environmental programs.
The meeting will be held virtually using Microsoft TEAMS. You may join the virtual meeting using the link provided at https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental_management_system/index.html, follow the Public Meeting Link on the left of the page. On mobile devices and Apple devices, you may need to download a free app to join the meeting.
Please note: if a presentation and associated questions take less time than allotted, we will continue to the next presentation. Therefore, we recommend attending the entire meeting to ensure you do not miss presentation(s) of interest to you.
The federal agencies encourage questions and recommend submitting them in advance by email. Questions will be prioritized and will be addressed as time permits. Attendees may also ask questions via chat during the meeting, and those will be answered as time permits. Emailed questions that are not addressed during the meeting will be answered by email following the meeting. To submit a question, please send an email to envinfo@sandia.gov, please include April 2022 Public Meeting Question in the Subject line.
Eight years after the 2014 explosion of one or more waste containers disposed in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground, on Saturday, April 9th, WIPP announced that one or more waste containers had leaked radioactive liquids while being unloaded from a TRUPACT-II shipping container in the Waste Handling Building. WIPP reported that no contamination was found on the hands and feet of the workers and that “no indication of airborne contamination [was found] at this time.” Workers were first told to remain indoors, but were later evacuated from the Waste Handling Building.
Liquids are prohibited at WIPP unless they are contained in a very limited amount inside of the waste containers. Those liquids must be documented. WIPP and its contractor, Nuclear Waste Partnership, a limited liability corporation, have yet to provide any more information in writing about the release. https://www.nwp-wipp.com/
After the discovery of the radioactive leak, the WIPP Emergency Operations Center was opened for two hours and 39 minutes. All alerts were posted on Twitter. https://twitter.com/WIPPNEWS
According to verbal notices to the New Mexico Environment Department, the waste shipment originated at the Idaho National Laboratory where 55-gallon metal drums containing plutonium-contaminated waste are crushed or supercompacted. The compacted waste containers are not supposed to contain liquids.
After being discovered, the leaking waste container, or containers, was reloaded into the TRUPACT-II shipping container. It is unknown if the shipment will be returned to the Idaho National Laboratory.
The Nuclear Waste Partnership’s contract to operate WIPP expires on September 30, 2022. The Partnership did not reapply to manage the WIPP facility. The Department of Energy’s announcement of a new contractor is anticipated any day now.
In the meantime, the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board monthly reports reveal basic maintenance problems at the site. For instance, three continuous air monitors, or CAMs, located in the underground mine where workers dispose of radioactive and hazardous waste, were inoperable. Corrosion and excess salt built-up was found in the vacuum pump. There are three CAMs so that if one or more malfunctions, there is a backup. In this case there was no backup.
At this point, it is documented that Nuclear Waste Partnership is not taking its worker protection and safety responsibilities seriously. CCNS urges complete documentation of the leaking container and more oversight by federal and New Mexico regulators during the transition from one management contractor to another.
Friday, April 22 (Earth Day) – Sunday, April 24, 2022 – Taos Environmental Film Festival – important films, a staged reading of a play, a forum and more – at the Taos Community Auditorium. https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/ On Saturday, April 23rd from 5 to 7:30 pm, a staged reading of Exposed, a play by Mary Dickson, a Downwinder of the above-ground atomic tests at the Nevada Test Site, will be presented. Mary Dickson will be present.
Friday, April 22nd from 3 to 4 pm, Thomas De Pree, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow, University of New Mexico Health Sciences, will present live and virtually, The Politics of Baselining in the Grants Uranium Mining District of Northwestern New Mexico. To register: https://goto.unm.edu/22
Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 8 am to 5 pm – Symposium on Rocky Flats: Impacts on the Environment and Health. Brought to you by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Colorado and The Colorado Medical Society. This Symposium will span topics ranging from the history of Rocky Flats, contamination issues still plaguing the area, legal issues, critical analyses of epidemiological studies, and effects of radiation on the genome and epigenome. Everyone, regardless of education or career background, is welcome to register. For more information: https://www.psrcolorado.org/
Thursday, April 28th at 6 pm – virtual joint meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB). The purpose of the meeting is to provide information about our environmental programs.
The meeting will be held virtually using Microsoft TEAMS. You may join the virtual meeting using the link provided at https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental_management_system/index.html, follow the Public Meeting Link on the left of the page. On mobile devices and Apple devices, you may need to download a free app to join the meeting.
Please note: if a presentation and associated questions take less time than allotted, we will continue to the next presentation. Therefore, we recommend attending the entire meeting to ensure you do not miss presentation(s) of interest to you.
The federal agencies encourage questions and recommend submitting them in advance by email. Questions will be prioritized and will be addressed as time permits. Attendees may also ask questions via chat during the meeting, and those will be answered as time permits. Emailed questions that are not addressed during the meeting will be answered by email following the meeting. To submit a question, please send an email to envinfo@sandia.gov, please include April 2022 Public Meeting Question in the Subject line.
