Sign Electronic Petition to Halt LANL Plans to Vent Radioactive Tritium in Early June

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) plans to vent large quantities of radioactive tritium into the air beginning on or after June 2^nd, 2025.  Tritium is a form of hydrogen that forms radioactive water in the environment.  It can cross the placenta and fetuses, babies and children may receive a radiation dose about three times greater than adults.   

The New Mexico Environment Department is currently reviewing LANL’s request to vent.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, and the Communities for Clean Water have created an electronic Action Network petition you can sign to halt the proposed plan. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/petition-to-deny-lanls-request-to-release-radioactive-tritium-into-the-air

The petition is directed to New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and New Mexico Environment Department Secretary James Kenney.  It reads as follows:

“Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) plans to begin large releases of radioactive tritium gas any time after June 2, 2025. The only roadblock is that LANL needs a ‘Temporary Authorization’ from the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), which could happen soon. Below are the facts:

“Why the rush? LANL has explicitly stated, ‘There is no urgency for this project beyond the broader mission goals to reduce onsite waste liabilities.’
“LANL claims need the need to vent based on modeling, not physical sampling of container headspace.
“LANL proposes to vent up to 3 grams of tritium, [or approximately 30,000 curies] over the span of a few days and possibly over a single day. This is THE SAME AMOUNT of tritium as Japan is dumping into the Pacific Ocean over the span of 30 years from the tsunami and nuclear reactor explosions at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In total, as much as 90,000 curies, three times the Fukushima amount – may be emitted, though not more than 30,000 curies in any single year.
“One teaspoon of tritiated water, [or HTO] can contaminate around 100 billion gallons of water.
   “When calculating the risk, LANL only does so for adults – they are not required to do so for children, infants or pregnant women/fetuses – ignoring the real impact on our communities. The author of one report, Bernd Franke, stated, ‘In the case of tritium, infants and small children get a radiation dose about three times greater than adults, with the same concentrations of tritium in air, water, and food.’”

It is time for action!  Please sign the Action Network petition opposing the proposed venting TODAY!

Please share this Update with your contacts and encourage them to sign the Action Network on-line petition.  https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/petition-to-deny-lanls-request-to-release-radioactive-tritium-into-the-air

1. Join us on Friday, May 9^th from noon to 1 pm at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament and against expanded plutonium pit production at LANL. 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 in support of nuclear weapons disarmament.

2. STREAMING FREE ON PBS – THE VOW FROM HIROSHIMA with Setsuko Thurlow who survived the 1945 atomic destruction of her hometown, Hiroshima, and vowed to help rid the world of those weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). https://www.pbs.org/video/the-vow-from-hiroshima-awxbyw/

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