In his last proposed budget, President Obama included four projects for modernizing the existing U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal at two key facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). At an estimated cost of $3 billion, the projects support the closure of the old Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building in 2019, along with the final cancellation of the proposed super WalMart-sized Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project Nuclear Facility, which the President put on a five-year hiatus in 2011. See FY17 CBR CMRR Pages from Volume 1_0-2

The two key LANL facilities are the new Radiological Laboratory, Utility and Office Building (RLUOB) at the CMRR and the almost 40-year old Plutonium Facility. The Plutonium Facility is the only Department of Energy (DOE) manufacturing facility capable of producing plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.

In budget terms, the four projects are a “restructuring” of two projects first proposed for Fiscal Year 2016 to install new equipment in the Plutonium Facility and RLUOB.

Now the Obama Administration is proposing four projects that include the two new equipment installations, plus a phase two for installing more equipment in the Plutonium Facility. The fourth project would re-categorize the RLUOB from a Radiological Facility to a high security Hazard Category 3 facility in order to hold more plutonium than it was originally designed and built for. The canceled Nuclear Facility was to be the Hazard Category 2 facility, requiring additional security, seismic reinforcements, and a massive fire control system. The budget request does not state the cost for upgrading the RLUOB.

In 2003, DOE released a draft environmental impact statement about the CMRR Project for public review and comment. It limited the amount of plutonium allowed in the RLUOB to 8.4 grams, or about a third of an ounce.

In a January 2015 supplemental analysis to the CMRR final environmental impact statement, DOE granted itself permission to increase the amount of plutonium in the RLUOB to 38.6 grams, all without public comment and review as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/02/f19/EIS-0350-SA-02-2015.pdf

Then November 25, 2015, DOE gave itself permission to increase that amount to 400 grams, or nearly a pound, without public review and comment as required by NEPA.

Joni Arends, of CCNS, said, “The DOE has once again given itself permission to increase the potential threats and harms to the people living downwind and downstream of LANL without conducting the required NEPA analysis and review. By granting itself permission, DOE has by-passed the public review and comment period, as well as public hearings on the proposed changes.”

She added, “Before beginning any work on the projects, DOE must supplement the final environmental impact statements for LANL and the CMRR. Please contact your congressional representatives and tell them DOE must supplement the environmental impact statements for the proposed projects now.”

CALL TO ACTION! Protect the Land of Enchantment – Comments are due to the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights on Monday, March 14th by 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time about their proposed changes to weaken their procedures and response times.  Please go to http://sacredtrustnm.org/epa-seeks-to-impede-civil-rights/ to find sample comments you can use to submit to EPA

On Monday, March 7^th, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will begin hearings in The Hague, Netherlands, on the preliminary objections raised by the United Kingdom (U.K.), India and Pakistan in the nuclear disarmament cases brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The Court will determine whether any legal obstacles prevent the cases from going forward to consideration of the merits.

On April 24, 2014, the RMI filed the unprecedented lawsuits before the ICJ. They aim to hold the nine nuclear-armed states — the United States, U.K., Russia, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea — accountable for violating international law by failing to respect their nuclear disarmament obligations under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law.

From 1946 to 1958, the Marshall Islands, a tiny island nation in the Pacific, was used by the United States as a nuclear bomb testing area. During the 12-year period, 67 nuclear weapons were detonated. In 1954 the U.S. detonated “Castle Bravo,” a nuclear bomb 1,000 times greater than the bomb that destroyed the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The health, environment and culture of the people have been harmed, and continue to be harmed, by the tests.

Tony de Brum, former Marshall Islands Foreign Minister and Co-Agent in the cases, said, “I have seen with my very own eyes nuclear devastation and know with conviction that nuclear weapons must never again be visited upon humanity. Nuclear weapons are a senseless threat to survival and there are basic norms that compel those who possess them to pursue and achieve their elimination. This is the subject of legal action by my country at the International Court of Justice.”

Because they accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, the U.K., India and Pakistan are appearing before the Court this week. The other countries, the United States, China, Russia, France, Israel and North Korea, have chosen to ignore the cases.

The U.K. case differs from the cases against India and Pakistan in that the U.K. is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is, therefore, bound by Article VI which requires states to pursue negotiations “in good faith” to end the nuclear arms race and achieve total nuclear disarmament. The Marshall Islands contends that India and Pakistan are bound by similar obligations under customary international law.

Phon van den Biesen, an Amsterdam attorney and Co-Agent for the RMI, is leading the international legal team. He said, “From a legal perspective, the issues presented by these cases are ordinary ones, but a positive outcome will, spectacularly, change the world. We are, basically, asking the Court to tell the respondent states to live up to their obligations under international law and to conduct negotiations leading to the required result: nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.”

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is asking the ICJ to follow up on its twenty-year old Advisory Opinion findings about the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. In 1996, the Court considered that the continued international debate on the legality of these deadly weapons threatens the stability of the international order. It added that “the long-promised complete nuclear disarmament appears to be the most appropriate means” to put an end to that untenable situation. See para. 98 at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/95/7646.pdf

World leaders, international non-governmental organizations, world-class experts and Nobel Peace Laureates have offered strong support for the cases, denouncing nuclear weapons as immoral and illegal. http://nuclearzero.org/#lastone

For more information and to receive daily ICJ reports, please visit the California-based Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at https://www.wagingpeace.org/

On February 19^th, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop in Carlsbad to discuss the detailed budget and schedule to re-open the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in December 2016. PMB Workshop – 2-18-16 -final  Despite having spent about $500 million in the two years that WIPP has been shut down, few significant schedule milestones have been met.  5.5.1 – Enclosure 8 – Level 7 Critical Path 2015-12-04 and 5.5.3 – Enclosure 10 – WIPP Schedule Level 7 2015-12-04

The formal budget and schedule document is called the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB).  StakeholderMeeting_Projects_Status_Feb_19_2016_Final  The PMB is for the period of October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2017, which is the time remaining on the management contract for Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP). The total WIPP cost during those two years is $740 million.

The PMB shows that if there were no delays, WIPP could re-open on October 1, 2016. However, the schedule also includes a 73-day “uncertainty buffer” to accommodate delays so that WIPP could commence emplacing waste in the underground on December 12, 2016.

The first PMB major milestone due on February 19^th was to complete the Documented Safety Analysis Implementation Summary, which includes revised safety procedures. At the workshop the contractor admitted that work will be about a month late.

A major limitation on underground activity is the contamination and the need to filter air before it is released into the environment. Since the February 14, 2014 radiation release, filtered airflow is limited to 60,000 cubic feet per minute.

The 2014 WIPP Recovery Plan stated that to approximately double the amount of airflow an “interim ventilation system” would be installed by March 31, 2015. That system is now expected to begin operation in April, more than a year late.

The 2014 Recovery Plan also included “supplemental ventilation” to be operational by December 31, 2015. But that additional ventilation is now not expected until January 2017, and DOE and NWP have decided that it is not necessary to re-open WIPP.

Re-opening would constitute moving the 154 waste containers in the Waste Handling Building into the underground, which could take up to two months. During 2017, the Waste Hoist also will be shut down for upgrades for a few weeks, during which time no waste could go underground.

From which sites and when shipments to WIPP could resume is not provided in the PMB. At the workshop, it was stated that those decisions will not be made for several months. But when shipments begin, they are expected to be no more than five per week. WIPP could not resume full operations until a new exhaust shaft and permanent ventilation system are installed to replace the existing, interim, and supplemental systems. The cost and schedule for that permanent ventilation are unknown, but operation is not likely until 2021.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz recently announced that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) would again dispose of plutonium-contaminated nuclear weapons waste in the deep geologic dump by the end of 2016. WIPP has been shut down for two years following a truck fire and radiation release that contaminated 22 workers and the underground facility. Moniz made his remarks on February 9^th when the Obama Administration released its proposed fiscal year 2017 budget, which includes $266 million for WIPP. At the time of the February 2014 events, WIPP’s annual budget was $216 million. http://energy.gov/articles/president-s-2017-budget-proposal-doe-supports-energy-innovation-national-security-nuclear and http://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/02/f29/FY2017BudgetVolume5_0.pdf, pp. 77 to 115.

The WIPP Recovery Plan and the 2016 budget request stated that WIPP would reopen in March 2016. That date proved unrealistic even for the proposed limited operations of about 200 shipments per year. At the peak rate in 2006, there were 1,128 shipments. Among the reasons that shipments would be limited is that the airflow capacity in the underground to protect workers and to operate equipment is one-seventh of that when the 2014 events occurred. Airflow is reduced because contamination in the underground requires filtering the air before it is released into the environment.

To restore the full airflow capacity, DOE plans to install additional ventilation in three phases.

The “interim” ventilation system would double the amount of filtered air and was to be operational in April 2015, but is about a year late because the system had manufacturing flaws and was damaged during shipment.

Second, the “supplemental” ventilation system would increase airflow in the “clean” part of the facility and not filter the air. The supplemental system was to be operational in December 2015, but is now delayed until March 2017.

Third, the “permanent” ventilation system would require a new 2,150 feet deep exhaust shaft and two underground tunnels. The design is to be done by January 2018 and might be operational by 2021. There is no total estimated cost for the permanent system. The contract for Nuclear Waste Partnership, a limited liability corporation that operates WIPP, has increased by more than $300 million because of the February 2014 events.

In his February 9^th statement, Secretary Moniz also announced a new mission for WIPP – the disposal of up to 13 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, currently stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The plan is to start shipping that waste to WIPP in 2023. http://energy.gov/articles/president-s-2017-budget-proposal-doe-supports-energy-innovation-national-security-nuclear

New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich both expressed concerns about the surplus plutonium decision. http://www.tomudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2235 Senator Heinrich said, “Restoring WIPP to safe operation should be the priority before there is any further discussion of expanding WIPP’s mission to accept additional types of waste.” http://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/statements-and-speeches/heinrich-statement-on-president-obamas-2016-budget-proposal

©Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE), special to SRS Watch.

On February 6, 2016, two armed U.K.-flagged transport vessels on a secret mission to retrieve weapons-grade plutonium in Japan and transport it to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Savannah River Site in South Carolina were located in the Panama Canal. According to the public interest group, Savannah River Site Watch, the spotting of the specialized nuclear transport ships confirms the route to Japan and their mission to transport 331 kilograms, or 730 pounds, of plutonium to the U.S. as part of international nuclear non-proliferation efforts. http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srsw_news_on_plutonim_ships_in_canal_feb_6_2016.pdf and
http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srs_watch_news_japan_plutonium_december_21_2015.pdf

The plutonium was taken to Japan primarily in the 1960s and 1970s to develop sodium-cooled plutonium “breeder” reactors. It was agreed that when Japan no longer needed the plutonium, it would be returned to the U.S. Japanese sources report, however, that approximately 93 kilograms, or 205 pounds, of the plutonium are of U.S. origin; but 236 kilograms, or 520 pounds, are of U.K. origin; and 2 kilograms, or 4.5 pounds, are of French origin.

Savannah River Site Watch, or SRS Watch, rejects amassing French and British plutonium in South Carolina because those countries have their own storage facilities.

Furthermore, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has called on DOE to remove one metric ton of plutonium from SRS by January 1, 2016, which has not been done.

Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch, said, “We strongly object to foreign-origin plutonium coming into South Carolina when DOE’s program to manage surplus weapons plutonium is in shambles. As DOE’s plutonium fuel project has totally failed, it’s time for DOE to live up to its commitment to remove plutonium from South Carolina and not bring in more with no viable disposition path out of the state.”

In 2010, DOE prepared an environmental assessment for the import of 100 kilograms of plutonium to SRS, which was never released for public review and comment. A December 2015 DOE environmental assessment revealed that up to 900 kilograms, or 1984 pounds, of “gap” plutonium should be reviewed for import to SRS. Gap plutonium is plutonium that does not have a return country, such as Sweden. http://www.srswatch.org/uploads/2/7/5/8/27584045/srs_watch_release_draft_ea_gap_plutonium_dec_29_2015.pdf

The ships, the Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron, that were recently located in the Panama Canal are based in Cumbria, UK and are operated by the private company, Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited, which brought plutonium to SRS before via Charleston, South Carolina, including Swedish plutonium in 2012, and Italian and Belgian plutonium in 2014.

For more information about the amount of plutonium already stored at SRS and the lack of a viable disposition plan, please visit the Savannah River Site Watch website at http://www.srswatch.org.

Given the recent Department of Energy (DOE) announcement that it will soon put the management contract out for bid at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Glenn Walp, Steve Doran, and Chuck Montaño renewed their request for U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez to investigate the alleged suicide of a former LANL deputy director and conclude the procurement fraud investigations begun in 2002 by Walp and Doran.

Scandals have been an integral part of LANL’s operations. At the end of the 1990’s, LANL was plagued with scandals, including false accusations that LANL scientist Wen Ho Lee gave nuclear weapons designs to China; missing hard drives containing nuclear weapons designs, which were later found behind a copy machine in a room that had been searched twice; and failing to prevent nuclear materials from being stolen during a mock terrorist attack. These and other scandals, along with the possibility of DOE competing the management contract, pushed LANL in early 2002 to hire former law enforcement officers, Walp and Doran, to investigate fraud and potential security breaches. Once Upon a Time in Los Alamos, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), January 12, 2016 at http://www.pogo.org/blog/2016/02/whistleblowers-call-for-inquiry-into-lanl-employee-death.html

Walp was the Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police. See Glenn Walp’s book, Implosion at Los Alamos, at http://www.implosionatlosalamos.com/ Doran was the police chief of Idaho City, Idaho.

Walp and Doran found many instances of corruption, including fraudulent purchases of hunting, camping and ranching gear and equipment that were stored in a remote Cold War bunker. They were then fired by LANL.

On January 24, 2003, former LANL Deputy Director for Operations, Richard Burick, was found dead in the parking lot of the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, along with a revolver found about a yard past his feet. Within hours, the Los Alamos Police Department determined it was a suicide. Many questions remain unanswered, such as why an unspent round had been ejected from the revolver.

Soon it was discovered that Burick had owned a ranch in southwest New Mexico where he planned to ranch and provide hunting services. As the Walp and Doran investigation heated up, Burick sold the ranch for $1 and other valuable consideration.

Many unanswered questions linger about possible connections between the fraudulent purchases and the alleged suicide.

Chuck Montaño joined Walp and Doran. Montaño is a multi-credentialed auditor and investigator who was employed at LANL for 32 years. After reporting accounting malpractice and abuses Montaño had witnessed for years, he became a federally protected whistleblower. See Chuck Montaño’s recent book, Los Alamos: Secret Colony, Hidden Truths – A Whistleblower’s Diary, at http://losalamosdiary.com

The three wrote to U.S. Attorney Martinez, stating, “It is imperative that decision makers know the full extent of what transpired in order to know how best to proceed with the award of the new contract. Without a deeper understanding and accountability before the award is made, it is possible that the LANL management contract will end up in the hands of those largely responsible for the cover-up of past mismanagement at the Los Alamos Lab, or even worse, the possible obstruction of justice that occurred.” http://nukewatch.org/importantdocs/resources/Letter-NM-US-Attorney-LANL-fraud.pdf

Pastor Ron Smith with his mother Ann Smith, retired teacher and community leader, in Ann’s office at her home near Tallassee, AL.

In July, community and environmental groups from five states sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights over the agency’s failure to take action on civil rights complaints, including one submitted by the Albuquerque-based Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping (CARD) for the proposed Triassic Park hazardous waste facility. Several complaints that allege discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the siting and permitting of polluting facilities have languished for over 20 years.   http://earthjustice.org/cases/2015/challenging-epa-s-failure-to-investigate-civil-rights-complaints

The groups are the Maurice and Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice (complaint filed July 1994 – Genesee Power Station); CAlifornians for Renewable Energy and its President, Michael Boyd (complaint filed April 2000 – Los Medanos Energy Center and Delta Energy Center power plants); Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter (complaint filed April 2000 – Beaumont Refinery); Citizens for Alternatives for Radioactive Dumping (complaint filed September 2002 – Triassic Park hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility); and Ashurst/Bar Smith Community Organization (complaint filed September 2003 – Stone’s Throw Landfill).

Now the groups are calling on the EPA to significantly strengthen a proposed rule to revise the way the agency handles complaints.

In December, EPA began a public comment period about the proposed changes that, among other things, eliminate deadlines for agency action. EPA claims in its Federal Register notice that the proposed amendments, “recognize that the EPA’s current, self-imposed regulatory deadlines are impracticable given the inherent scientific complexity associated with determining which and how populations are impacted by environmental pollutants; the number of discrimination allegations and theories that may be asserted in any one complaint [ ]; and the volume of the complaints received.” Federal Register, Vol. 80, No. 239, Monday, December 14, 2015, Proposed Rules, p. 77285. http://www.epa.gov/ocr – under “External Compliance and Complaints Program – Title VI,” click on New Developments!

The proposed changes actually weaken existing protections by removing deadlines for the agency to respond and investigate complaints. Past performance indicates more accountability is needed, not less.

For example, in September 2002, CARD filed a complaint against the New Mexico Environment Department for permitting the construction of the proposed Triassic Park hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facility, located between Roswell and Tatum. The complaint alleges a pattern of discrimination against Spanish-speaking residents exhibited during the public hearing and throughout the permitting process. To view this article click HERE

Current EPA regulations require acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint within five days. EPA accepted the CARD complaint in 2005, nearly 1,100 days later.

Further, EPA is required to determine if an investigation is needed within 20 days, and if so, it must be completed in 180 days. Twelve years after the initial complaint was filed, EPA contacted Deborah Reade, former CARD Research Director, for additional information. EPA has yet to complete their investigation. Please see Environmental Justice, Denied: “Thirteen years and counting: anatomy of an EPA civil rights investigation: Complaint filed against the New Mexico Environment Department in 2002 remains open, to the exasperation of the complainant” at http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/08/07/17706/thirteen-years-and-counting-anatomy-epa-civil-rights-investigation and http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/thirteen-years-counting-anatomy-epa-civil-rights-investigation-n405201

Last summer, the Center for Public Integrity released the results of its in-depth investigation of the Office of Civil Rights. Now EPA has put forward a proposal to weaken the already flawed process. http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/08/20/17834/how-fix-epas-broken-civil-rights-office

Marianne Engelman Lado, an attorney with Earthjustice who filed suit on behalf of the groups, said, “It is shocking that the EPA would on the one hand acknowledge its failures to properly handle civil rights complaints, decide a revision is necessary and then turn around and remove the only clear basis for holding itself accountable for acting on complaints in a timely fashion.”

Public comments must be received on or before March 11, 2016. Please note: The website says that comments are due February 12, 2016. In response to community requests for additional time, EPA will announce soon the additional of 30 days to the comment period.

Deborah Reade is preparing sample public comments for you to use, which will be available next week on our website.

Please submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OA-2013-0031, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.

In a weekly report for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board revealed that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have given themselves permission to significantly increase the amount of plutonium allowed in the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project radiological laboratory from 8.4 grams to 400 grams, a 46-fold increase, without supplementing their environmental impact statements as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). http://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/Board%20Activities/Reports/Site%20Rep%20Weekly%20Reports/Los%20Alamos%20National%20Laboratory/2015/wr_20151218_65.pdf The increase is substantial and NEPA requires the federal nuclear weapons agencies supplement their environmental impact statement, with opportunity for public review and comment, as well public hearings. 40 CFR §1502.9(c).

The amount of plutonium is measured in weapons grade plutonium-239 equivalents. Eight grams is about one-third of an ounce, whereas 400 grams is equivalent to a little more than 14 ounces, or nearly a pound.

In 2003, the federal agencies proposed the $600 million CMRR Project with the release of a draft environmental impact statement.   Public hearings were held in Northern New Mexico, with the majority of commenters opposing the proposed project that would increase the manufacture of plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons from 20 per year to 50 to 80 per year. Despite public opposition, the federal agencies decided to proceed with construction and operation of two buildings, the Radiological Laboratory, Utility and Office Building (RLUOB) and the Nuclear Facility.

The RLUOB was designed and built as an office and utility building, with radiological labs in the basement for the limited use of 8.4 grams of plutonium. The Nuclear Facility was not built and eventually President Obama put it on a five-year hold when the cost escalated to $6 billion.

The federal agencies designated the RLUOB as a radiological facility. In 2011, DOE and NNSA confirmed this fact in their final environment impact statement. They wrote, “NNSA would not operate RLUOB as anything other than a radiological facility, which would significantly limit the total quantity of [plutonium and other] special nuclear material that could be handled in the building.” http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/EIS-0350-FSEIS_Summary-2011.pdf, at p. S-13.

Moreover, because the Nuclear Facility was not built, the federal agencies now want to raise the RLUOB radiological designation to a hazard category 3 nuclear facility in order to increase the amount of plutonium allowed. Such a designation would create more hazards and require structural modifications as well as additional safety, security and emergency preparedness measures. http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/EIS-0350-FSEIS_Summary-2011.pdf, at p. S-13.

In response, CCNS prepared a sample comment letter that you can use – and modify as you see fit – to demand that the federal agencies supplement their environmental impact statement as required by NEPA. Click HERE to download the PDF file.

In a first of its kind study about the essential role of community participation in developing a health impact assessment, Human Impact Partners will release its report entitled, “Community Participation in Health Impact Assessments: A National Evaluation” later this month. It will also hold a public webinar to share the evaluation’s very exciting and insightful findings on Thursday, January 28^th from noon to 1:30 pm Mountain Standard Time. To register for the webinar, please visit http://www.humanimpact.org.

The Human Impact Partners, based in Oakland, California, are leaders in the field of health impact assessments. Their national study describes the impact of community participation in civic decision-making, which is described as a community’s capacity to act in its own self-interest. The report also discusses the success of health impact assessments and how well the field of health impact assessments is doing at encouraging community participation.

A health impact assessment (HIA) is a useful way to ensure that health disparities are considered in decision-making using an objective and scientific approach that authentically engages community members in the process. Through a six-step process “that systematically judges the potential, and sometimes unintended effects of a proposed project, plan or policy on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within a population,” impacted communities and technical experts can create an HIA. Recommendations are made, as well as suggestions about what measures should be included in the proposed project to mitigate the health effects on the community.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, working with the Human Impact Partners and the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership, began work on an HIA to look at the proposed amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) for those exposed to the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test in south central New Mexico. Working with community members and technical experts, the Trinity Team is gathering data and conducting interviews to inform the report’s findings and recommendations.

In 2000, Congress passed RECA to provide medical care and compensation to those exposed to the aboveground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site who contracted cancers and other radiation related illnesses. Some uranium miners in New Mexico were included. But the first downwinders, those exposed to the Trinity test, have not been included.

The entire New Mexico congressional delegation supports the proposed RECA amendments.

Kathy Tyler, of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, said, “This is an exciting time for our organization. This HIA will enable us to accomplish our main goals with full engagement of the community.”

            For more information, please see the New Mexico Health Equity Partnership website at http://www.nmhealthequitypartnership.org and the website of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium at http://www.nmdownwinders.com.

Urging the New Mexico Environment Department to declare that cleanup has not been completed at Sandia National Laboratories’ Mixed Waste Landfill and require the buried waste be excavated now, Citizen Action New Mexico detailed the similarities of the metallic sodium wastes buried in Sandia’s dump and the U.S. Ecology’s low-level radioactive waste dump in Beatty, Nevada. http://www.radfreenm.org/

On Sunday, October 18^th, 2015, after receiving nearly two inches of rain that seeped into the Beatty dump, heavily corroded 55-gallon drums containing metallic sodium exploded, releasing hydrogen gas and sending buried drums into the air, which landed nearly 200 feet from crater that was created. Plumes of white smoke also were seen coming from the dump. The deflagration was so hot that other waste materials caught fire and burned for two days. http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/fire-rescue/video-shows-blasts-nuclear-waste-dump-site-shut-down-us-95

At the time, officials declared that there was no release of radioactive materials. On December 30^th, 2015, the Nevada State Fire Marshall released its 309-page investigation report that concluded, “[T]he incident was caused by water that made contact with sodium metal in the trench area and formed an exothermic reaction with resulting fire.” Fire Marshal Report, Beatty Industrial Fire Incident Report 12/30/2015 and http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/nov/27/fire-marshal-seeping-water-caused-radioactive-dump/

In a recent email to Environment Department Ryan Flynn, Citizen Action New Mexico detailed the similarities of the dumps and requested, for the protection of the Albuquerque community, that the Mixed Waste Landfill be excavated now.

Both dumps are located in desert environments. Waste disposal began in the early 1960s in unlined trenches. Radioactive and hazardous waste were buried in steel drums, wood crates and cardboard boxes. Both dumps are currently closed and have dirt covers. Over the decades, deterioration of the packaging materials created void spaces, causing collapses and cracking the dirt cover.

Because metallic sodium reacts to water, it is packed in oil. The Nevada State Fire Marshall found that over time, the steel drums corroded allowing the packing oil to leak out, exposing the metallic sodium to the dump’s environment. Further, the rain infiltrated into the dump through the “compromised earth cover … causing an exothermic reaction between the water and metallic sodium.”

Citizen Action New Mexico wrote that Sandia’s “metallic sodium was inseparably combined with high-level fission products from nuclear meltdown testing at Sandia’s [Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR)] nuclear reactor…. The consequences of explosions and fires in Albuquerque could be much greater than at the US Ecology site, which is 11 miles distant from the small town of Beatty, Nevada. Evacuation of I-25, I-40, Isleta Pueblo, the Sunport, Mesa del Sol, the VA Hospital and Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia Labs could be necessary…. Ignoring the problem and denying there is a problem won’t fix the problem.”

Additional information is available in recent ABQ Free Press articles –

“Sandia’s Nuke Dump Next Door,” Pgs. 12 & 14, at http://www.freeabq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Vol-II-Issue-24-December-2-2015.pdf

“Could Sandia’s Nuclear Waste Landfill Blow Up,” pgs.9 & 10 at http://www.freeabq.com/2015/12/30/nuke-dump-explosion-risk/