CCNS Update

The Coalition invites you to join the Saturday, April 6 th Caravan in your vehicle at

the Camel Rock geologic formation on the Camel Rock Frontage Road in Tesuque at

9:30 am.

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.

Did you know that on Friday, March 26, 1999, the first shipment of plutonium-

contaminated nuclear weapons waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

reached the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)?

Thursday, March 28 th marks the 45 th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear

power plant accident in Pennsylvania. A new documentary, “RADIOACTIVE: The

Women of Three Mile Island,” tells the harrowing story of the 1979 accident involving

the release of radioactive and toxic materials into the air, soils, water and into bodies

young and old.

For twenty years, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has struggled to contain

the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium plume in the regional drinking water aquifer

below the nuclear weapons site. The horizontal and vertical reach of the deep plume

covers an area of unknown size and the depth of the contamination is unknown.

Members of Indigenous communities provided testimony to the Inter-American

Commission on Human Rights at a historic hearing in Washington, DC this week about

the impacts of uranium exploitation on their human rights.

This week, at the same time as the National Nuclear Security Administrative was

requesting public comments about its need for 173 megawatts (MW) of electricity, the

County of Los Alamos Board of Public Utilities was considering a proposal for 170

megawatts from the proposed Foxtail Flats Solar and Battery Energy Storage System in

San Juan County, New Mexico.

CCNS has prepared talking points and a sample public comment letter you can use

to craft your oral and written comments about the proposed 14-mile long, 115-kilovolt

electrical line across the Caja del Rio before it would cross the Rio Grande to Los

Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Please mark your calendar to attend one or more of these meetings or submit public comments before the deadlines. Links and more information are available under Did You Know? at nuclearactive.org

As promised, a second public meeting on the proposed Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) upgrade project to expand electrical power capacity will begin at 4 pm on Thursday, February 15 th at the Santa Fe Community College. The first virtual and in-person public meeting was held at the same location on January 11 th .

Twenty years ago, the hexavalent chromium plume was discovered in the regional aquifer 1,000 feet below ground surface at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Since then the debate about how to remove the dangerous hexavalent chromium from the regional drinking water aquifer has been ongoing between LANL, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the public.

In July 2022, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the Tularosa Basin Range Services, a Bechtel affiliate, a 10-year, $3 billion dollar management and operating contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to continue the disposal of Cold War radioactive and hazardous wastes from the fabrication of plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

Monday, January 22 marks the third anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This year’s focus is the lie of deterrence. For decades policy makers have declared nuclear weapons necessary to deter enemy attacks, all the while ignoring the humanitarian costs of the nuclear arms race and the global devastation promised by the nuclear weapons should deterrence fail.

In an utterly confusing move, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) released an environmental assessment for public review and comment that claims it contains the final remedy for the cleanup of the hexavalent chromium plume in the regional drinking water aquifer.

On December 19 th , Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) released a draft environmental assessment that would allow the installation and operation of a 14-mile, 115 kiloVolt overhead electrical line basically in parallel to the two electrical lines that already cross the Caja del Rio Plateau and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, where LANL is located. It is named the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade, or EPCU Project. A thirty-day public comment period was announced, ending on Wednesday, January 17 th , 2024.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has a habit of releasing environmental documents requiring public comment during the winter holiday season. That habit continued this winter with not one, but two draft environmental assessments (EA). One involves the hexavalent chromium plume in Mortandad Canyon. The second, and the topic of this Update, is the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project where an approximately 14-mile, 115 kiloVolt overhead electrical line would be added to the two that already cross the Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, where LANL is located.

An on-going David versus Goliath fight occurred last week during a public hearing before the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board, a board charged to prevent or abate air pollution.

For the first time, an agreement was made by the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to challenge the false narrative of nuclear deterrence. It holds that possession of nuclear weapons will prevent another nation with nuclear weapons from attacking.

Since at least 1999 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has proposed running an additional 12-mile, 115 kilovolt electrical line to the two that already cross the Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, claiming it needs the additional power line to run its supercomputers.

You are invited to join the Global Day of Action Against Nuclear Weapons on Sunday, November 26 th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza. Come with your friends, family and colleagues and call for an end to nuclear weapons by bringing attention to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW.

What would happen to the fields of amber waves of grain in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota that feed so many, as well as the area’s population, should a concerted nuclear attack occur in those same fields housing silos of intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs?

From Monday, November 27 th to Friday, December 1 st , the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will meet at the United Nations in New York to review progress on the treaty’s implementation and agree on further action to strengthen it. This will be the second meeting of the States Parties.

Over one hundred years ago, in 1918, the world celebrated peace as a universal principle. The first World War had just ended and nations mourning their dead collectively called for an end to all wars. Armistice Day was born and was designated as "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated.”

Please join the effort to submit public comments in support of the excavation of a 12-acre unlined dump at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Public comments are due to the New Mexico Environment Department by Monday, November 6 th at 5 pm Mountain Time.

Holtec International, a corporation with a license for a consolidated interim storage facility in southeastern New Mexico for 173,600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel from atomic power plants, submitted a secret application to the Department of Energy seeking at least $2 billion dollars to restart Palisades, a closed nuclear reactor in Michigan. Holtec’s request also includes plans to build small nuclear modular reactors, or SMRs, with electric generation capacity of 160 Megawatts, on site.

There are two measurements the Department of Energy (DOE) uses for the waste shipped for disposal in the deep underground repository at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located 26 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The first measurement is the most important, which is the volume of waste measured in cubic meters. A cubic meter fits into a cube measuring 39 inches in width, depth and height. The second measurement is the number of waste shipments.

Increasing numbers of workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory

have tested positive for radiation exposure both at LANL and on

foreign soils.

Six employees and the equipment they used tested positive for

exposures to radioactive Iodine-125 following official foreign travel to an unknown location in March.

They traveled on commercial airlines and in personal vehicles.

The comment period is open for the public to review the New

Mexico Environment Department’s recommendation to excavate

the 11.8 acre unlined dump, called Material Disposal Area C, or MDA

C, at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Public comments are

due Monday, November 6 th .

On Wednesday, September 19 th , the landmark Treaty on the

Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons had been signed by almost half of

all countries in the world after a ceremony at the United Nations

General Assembly in New York where Sri Lanka acceded to the

Treaty and the Bahamas signed it.

Friday, September 22 nd will be the last opportunity to make your public

comments about the changes to the operating permit for the nuclear

waste dump, called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP. WIPP is a

deep geologic repository for plutonium- contaminated radioactive waste

from the production of nuclear weapons, located 26 miles east of

Carlsbad, New Mexico.

In a July 2023 report the federal Government Accountability Office

recommended that a third-party facilitator be brought in to improve the

relationship and build trust between the New Mexico Environment

Department and the Department of Energy (DOE) as they try to resolve

outstanding cleanup issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

CCNS provided the following response to a recent Santa Fe New Mexican Our View:

“In response to Stop Stalling: Clean up chromium plume, no one is stalling.

The plume does need immediate attention and does need to be analyzed

with a computer model that everyone can use. The consequences of

getting the cleanup of the toxic hexavalent chromium plume wrong would

be disastrous.

Did you know that in 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

designated the 3,000 square mile Española Basin System as a Sole Source Drinking Water Aquifer? One ongoing concern is that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) sits on its western edge, near the Valles Caldera. And a recent dispute between the New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy about the LANL hexavalent chromium plume, which is being pushed deeper into the regional drinking water aquifer, highlights the need for state agencies to have the resources to protect it.

Hexavalent chromium is a known human carcinogen.

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 peaceful demonstrators from across the United States of America joined together for the first March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They came together to demand voting rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and to appeal for an end to racial segregation and discrimination.

More than 100 medical journals, including the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the JAMA, have issued a joint call for urgent steps to decrease the growing danger of nuclear war and to move rapidly to the elimination of nuclear weapons. At a time of expanded fighting in Ukraine and increased tensions in Korea, leaders of the global health community underscore that any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for humanity.

Near the end of World War II, on August 6 th , 1945, the United States dropped a uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the United States dropped a plutonium atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. To acknowledge the harm done in the development, testing and use of the atomic bombs by the United States, two events are taking place on Saturday, August 5 th in Albuquerque and one event on

Wednesday, August 9 th in Los Alamos. For more information or to find similar

commemorative events in your area, please see the Physicians for Social Responsibility

website at psr.org.

A delegation from the Archdioceses of Santa Fe and Seattle is embarking on a transformative Pilgrimage of Peace to the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Akita, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, from July 31 to August 12, 2023. The delegation comprises Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, and Most Reverend Paul D. Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle, along with representatives from various organizations and archdiocesan offices dedicated to nuclear disarmament and social justice. Funding for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe delegation is strictly through grants and personal contributions; no funds from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe are being used.

Rain or shine, please join diverse organizations and individuals at the

Inaugural Albu(r)querque Peace Festival on Saturday, August 5 th from 2 to

6 pm at Roosevelt Park for music, speakers, informational tables and food

trucks.. The Albu(r)querque Peace Festival is an effort by multiple

organizations to bring attention to the danger of nuclear weapons, the

horror of nuclear war, and promote efforts toward longstanding peace

locally, nationally, and globally.

You are invited to come to a free in-person and live stream public vigil entitled “From Reflection to Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test” on Sunday, July 16 th from 4 to 6 pm at Santa Maria de la Paz Church at 11 College Avenue in Santa Fe. The vigil will commemorate the 78 th year since the detonation of the first atomic weapon, called The Gadget, at the Trinity Test Site in south central New Mexico and provide you with tools to work for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Doors open at 3:15 pm so you may view exhibits and visit with representatives of local organizations, including CCNS.

To commemorate the 78 th anniversary of the first detonation of an atomic weapon

at the nearby Trinity Test Site, the complete elimination of nuclear weapons must be

prioritized. A free in-person and livestreamed public event entitled “From Reflection to

Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test” will be held at the Santa Maria de

la Paz Community Hall in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Sunday, July 16 th from 4 to 6 pm.

Doors open at 3:15 pm so you may view exhibits on nuclear issues and visit with

representatives of local organizations.

CCNS and five other non-governmental organizations and one individual

successfully negotiated a settlement agreement last week to revise the draft ten-year

hazardous waste renewal permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Also at the

table were the New Mexico Environment Department and the co-Permittees, the U.S.

Department of Energy (DOE) and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, LLC (SIMCO).

Each week you depend on CCNS to provide you with the latest nuclear safety

issues through the radio, on the internet and by email. We’ve been producing the

weekly CCNS News Update for over 35 years! We need your financial support to keep

our programs going.

Los Alamos National Laboratory plans to prepare an environmental assessment

to address the hexavalent chromium contamination in the deep regional drinking water

aquifer. In comments submitted this week, the Communities for Clean Water

recommended that LANL conduct a more detailed environmental impact statement in

order to protect the regional drinking water aquifer and the Environmental Protection

Agency-designated Española Basin Sole Source Aquifer from the migrating

contamination.

You are invited to join the Ohio Nuclear Free Network for its important virtual public forum, Radioactive Contamination, Environment and Public Health and the

Future of the Portsmouth Nuclear Site, on Saturday, June 10 th beginning at 10:45 am Mountain Time. The in-person and virtual forum offers an opportunity to

learn from world-renowned experts about contamination at the Piketon, Ohio site and at

Department of Energy (DOE) sites across the country.

CCNS has prepared sample public comments you can modify about the scope of a new draft site-wide environmental impact statement for Sandia National

Laboratories in New Mexico. Comments may be submitted electronically to SNL-

SWEIS@nnsa.doe.gov through Monday, June 5 th , 2023.

In response to the lack of concrete progress on nuclear disarmament by the G7

leaders in Hiroshima last week, Ivana Nikolić Hughes, Ph.D., and President of the

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, wrote the following op-ed in Common Dreams. We

provide excerpts:

On May 15 th , four Archbishops, including Archbishop John C. Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, sent a letter to the Group of Seven leaders gathering for

a three-day summit in Hiroshima, Japan to urge the leaders to take concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament.

The New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission not only denied Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) and CCNS standing to challenge the groundwater

discharge permit DP-1132, but also denied the public any opportunity to provide comment during

Tuesday’s hearing.

The health of the Rio Grande watershed in the area of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is at stake. The protection of the 3,000 square mile sole source

drinking water aquifer is at stake. LANL has contaminated it with hexavalent chromium and the plume is migrating towards the Pueblo de San Ildefonso, the Rio

Grande, and the Buckman wells and diversion facility. Every drop of water is precious and must be free from contamination. Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE)

and CCNS work to ensure that every drop is protected.

Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) and CCNS will be before the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission on Tuesday, May 9 th at the New Mexico

State Capitol to argue that they have standing to challenge the groundwater discharge permit, DP-1132, for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The Hearing Officer, who reports to the Commission, recommended to the Commission that the non-governmental

organizations do not have standing.