The First Annual Plutonium Trail Caravan is on Saturday April 6th – Join Us!

Did you know that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was supposed to complete its 25-year waste disposal mission and begin closing on Tuesday, March 26^th?  You may know about it because WIPP officials had a party.  https://www.rdrnews.com/news/state/new-mexico-regulators-worry-about-us-plans-to-ship-radioactive-waste-back-from-texas/article_00e04fb6-ed72-5ec6-aabb-cc35a01d12f0.html   But for those living downwind and downstream of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and along the WIPP transportation routes, the risk of the federal Department of Energy (DOE) operations at both facilities will continue to threaten us, and if DOE has its way, for decades to come.

DOE, which owns both facilities, is not planning to close either site.  LANL is to continue to generate plutonium-contaminated wastes by fabricating the triggers, or pits, for new nuclear weapons.  DOE hopes to leave some of that waste at LANL forever. Some waste would be shipped to WIPP, a journey of 315 miles, for disposal.

Rather than closing WIPP, DOE has no plans for any other repository, so the world’s only operating deep underground facility would also operate forever.

But many New Mexicans oppose “Forever WIPP.”  https://stopforeverwipp.org/

On Saturday, April 6th, the first annual Plutonium Trail Caravan will travel along the WIPP transportation route.  It will begin at Camel Rock and end with a press conference at the Lamy Train Station.  The purpose is to highlight some of the dangers of WIPP and waste transportation and encourage people to join in the effort to Stop Forever WIPP.

The caravan will have literature about WIPP and items for sale. The participants can answer questions about present and future activities. More information is available at https://stopforeverwipp.org/

The caravan will gather at 9:30 am at the Camel Rock geologic formation on the frontage road to U.S. 84/285 in Tesuque for a blessing, a safety briefing, and a group photo.

There will be four stops along the WIPP waste transportation route– in the Tesuque Village, the Solano Shopping Center in Santa Fe, the intersection of Airport Road and the 599 By-pass around Santa Fe, and the Agora Shopping Center in El Dorado.

After the four stops, a press conference will be held at the Lamy Train Station at 3:15 pm.  Speakers include Hank Hughes, Santa Fe County Commission Chair; Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México; Destiny Ray, of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, or YUCCA; and Ashley Schannauer, an activist and concerned citizen.  They will speak about their concerns and suggest ideas for working together to oppose Forever WIPP.  Please join us!

1. Friday, March 29, 2024 from noon to 1 pm MT – 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, Pax Christi, Nonviolent Santa Fe, New Mexico Peace Fests, and others. Join us!

2. Thursday, March 28^th at 6 pm MT – webinar about the new documentary RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island with the director Heidi Hutner and her team: 

• Anna Rondon, who is Diné and founder of the New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute;
• Krystal Curley, who is Diné and director of Indigenous Life Ways;
• Mary Olson, founder of the Gender and Radiation Impact Project; and
• Professor Mark Jacobson, Stanford University.
• Cindy Folkers, of Beyond Nuclear, will moderate.

 The Sierra Club and Beyond Nuclear host the webinar.

3. From Wednesday, March 6 to May 15 (Bi- Weekly) from noon to 1 pm Mountain Time – UNM Climate Change and Human Health ECHO Program: Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health. 

On Wednesday, April 3 (a 90-minute session), Environmental Justice and Nuclear Harms Panel with

• • Douglas Brugge, PhD, MS – UCONN Health, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, environmental and occupational health;
  • Ryan Edgington, PhD – Project ECHO Senior Program Manager – New Mexico Health Program Team, UNM Health Science Center
  • Jacqueline Cabasso – Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Mayors for Peace
  • Marylia Kelley – Senior Advisor for the Livermore Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
  • Tina Cordova, MSc, BSc – Trinity Downwinders, Co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium

For more information and registration: https://iecho.org/echo-institute-programs/climate-change-and-human-health

4. April 4^th at 2 pm MT, the National Council of Elders (NCOE) is hosting the “Breaking the Silence: Generations Uniting & Making Real Peace” live webinar.  In the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the NCOE webinar will commemorate the anniversary of his “Breaking the Silence” Speech in 1967 with an intergenerational live webinar from Philadelphia.  To register:  https://kingandbreakingsilence.org/

Tags: an activist and concerned citizen, author of Nuclear Nuevo México; Destiny Ray, Camel Rock, Department of Energy, DOE, First Annual Plutonium Trail Caravan, Gay Dillingham, Hank Hughes, Internet Archive, Lamy Train Station, LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, new nuclear weapons, of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, or YUCCA; Ashley Schannauer, Penelope Place, press conference, Santa Fe County Commission Chair; Myrriah Gómez, Stop Forever WIPP Coalition, The WIPP Trail documentary, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WIPP