On a cold and windy Saturday morning, dozens of eager people got in their vehicles to participate in the First Annual Plutonium Trail Caravan beginning at the Camel Rock geologic formation.  Throughout the day the Caravan traveled through Santa Fe and El Dorado and made stops along the way.  The Caravan ended with a press conference at the Lamy Train Station.  Throughout the day, the participants engaged with the public to inform them of the growing threat of increased transportation of plutonium contaminated radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP).

Back in the day, the federal Department of Energy (DOE) promised The People that once WIPP opened, the federal agency would clean up all the plutonium-contaminated waste across its nuclear weapons complex, including at LANL, in 25 years and close WIPP.  DOE failed to meet the 25-year cleanup deadline on March 26, 2024.  Now DOE is planning to keep WIPP open to at least 2083 for waste from LANL’s expanded fabrication of plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons.

The New Mexico Raging Grannies documented this story with satirical lyrics to well-known sing-along tunes, which the caravan participants sang with gusto.  For example to the tune, Hit the Road, Jack.

Bait ‘n’ switch is the game that the DOE

Has been playing on The People,

But The People can see

That for 25 years you’ve been lyin’ to us

‘bout the terrible danger, you keep it hush-hush

‘cause if you told the truth to us,

you’d surely make the devil blush.

Hit the road, Jack, and don’t ya come back no more, no more, no more, no more; Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more. 

Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México:  Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos, spoke at the press conference at the Lamy Train Station.  https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/nuclear-nuevo-mexico  She highlighted the need to educate young people about the nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico and its impacts on New Mexicans.   Right now DOE and LANL are in the schools beginning the recruitment process for future workers.

At the same time the number of workers who are being injured and exposed to radiation in the fabrication processes are increasing.

The planning process for the 2025 Second Annual Plutonium Trail Caravan is beginning now.  Please contact the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition at stopforeverwipp.org if you would like to get involved.  https://stopforeverwipp.org/

1. Friday, April 12, 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, April 11 at 5 pm MDT on Zoom – Oppenheimer, Einstein, and Resistance to Nuclear Destruction – THE FULL STORY, with historians Lawrence Wittner & Blanche Wiesen Cook. Hosted by Peace Action New York State.  Registration:  https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NmFkdGRzbnNtdjRpNXIxcjQ1bWtzcWFkdmsgNXBsdjNqYmY2MmNuYTAxcnUzYnY0ZzdkMm9AZw&ctz=America/New_York  

3. Friday to Sunday, April 12 – 15 – PeaceWorks is issuing a CALL TO ACTION to oppose the start of a NEW 21st Century NUCLEAR ARMS RACE beginning in Kansas City NOW!  The KC National Security Campus fabricates nearly all the non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons. It announced that the plant plans to DOUBLE in size next year and increase its number of workers to Cold War levels of 9,000! https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2023/11/07/nnsa-honeywell-office-manufacturing-campus-nuclear.html

PeaceWorks invites you to join in a Resistance Retreat at Jerusalem Farm, 520 Garfield Ave., Kansas City, Missouri. Register using the QR code in the flier to the right. For more info, contact PeaceWorks Vice-Chair Ann Suellentrop at annsuellen@gmail.com or 913-271-7925.

4. 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.  https://iecho.org/echo-institute-programs/climate-change-and-human-health   

April 17^th – Environmental Exposures and Superfund Sites and Nuclear SUPERfund Sites in New Mexico.  Speakers are: 

• • Myrriah Gómez, PhD – Assistant Professor in the Honors College, University of New Mexico
  • Michelle Hunter, MS – Deputy Director, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, The Office of the State Engineer

5. Wednesday, April 17^th from 2 to 4 pm – WIPP public meeting about two Class 2 permit modifications to the NM Hazardous Waste Permit for

• • adding four new shielded containers for management of remote-handled (RH) transuranic (TRU) mixed waste as contact-handled (CH) TRU mixed waste in the WIPP underground disposal facility.
  • Changing the site recertification audit schedule from annual to a graded approach.

To review the proposed permit modifications at https://wipp.energy.gov/Library/Information_Repository_A/Class_2_Permit_Modifications/24-0241_Redacted.pdf

To attend the zoom meeting, REGISTER: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ocu2oqTMiGNJqe0L3TrFNplEgXfMzdZUy#/registration

Public comments must be received by 5 pm MDT on Saturday, June 1, 2024 to Megan McLean, NM Environment Department, Hazardous Waste Bureau at megan.mclean@env.nm.gov or the NMED Public Comment Portal at https://nmed.commentinput.com/?id=rRcW83jAC

6. Thursday, April 18^th from 11 am to noon MDT – EPA Public Meeting about proposed revisions to Standards for the Open Burning-Open Detonation (OB/OD) of Waste Explosives for a 60-day comment period, ending on Monday, May 20, 2024.

On Thursday, April 18^th at 11 am MDT, EPA will host a public webinar to discuss the proposal.  To register: https://www.epa.gov/remedytech/forms/registration-revisions-standards-open-burningopen-detonation-waste-explosives

Both Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory use OB/OD to dispose of waste explosives.  EPA is not proposing to ban OB/OD.  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-03-20/pdf/2024-05088.pdf

CCNS and colleagues will be preparing sample public comments you can use to create your comments.  Submit your comments at: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OLEM-2021-0397-0001

7. Thursday, April 18^th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm MDT – in-person and virtual LANL Cleanup Forum, hosted by the DOE Environmental Management-LANL (EM-LA) and N3B (cleanup contactor). The forum will feature discussions and public input on the environmental cleanup mission at LANL, recent progress in shipping waste off-site and work to protect water quality. The community discussion and Q&A will follow two short presentations by EM-LA and N3B.  In –person meeting at SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Avenue, Los Alamos.  For more info and virtual Microsoft Teams access numbers:  https://n3b-la.com/emcf_apr_18_2024/

8. Saturday, April 20^th from 9 am to 2 pm – Earth Day at the Caja del Rio Hike & Clean-Up, Santa Fe, NM. Activities include a hike, lunch and cleanup activities.  For more information:  https://cajadelrio.org/earthdayevent/

9. Sunday, April 21^st from 10 to 4 pm – La Montanita EarthFest 2024 at Nob Hill Location in Albuquerque. https://lamontanita.coop/earthfest/

10. Sunday, April 21^st at 6 pm – Wildflower Playhouse and Taos Center for the Arts present: Dance, Live Performance – Stories from Home by Yvonne Montoya / Safos Dance Theatre.  Stories From Home is a series of dances embodying the oral traditions of Nuevomexicano, Chicano, and Mexican American communities in the American Southwest.  Choreographer Yvonne Montoya, a 23rd-generation Nuevomexicana, and an all-Mexican American cast of dancers draw upon personal histories and ancestral knowledge, including stories from Montoya’s great-grandmother, grandmother, great-aunts, and father.

Tickets:  https://tcataos.org/calendar/#event=77457614;instance=20240421180000?popup=1   

11. Tuesday, April 23^rd from 6 to 8 pm – DOE/DOD Semiannual Public Meeting about what is going on at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Kirtland Air Force Base (Kirtland AFB) at New Mexico Veterans Memorial, 1100 Louisiana Blvd. SE, Albuquerque. For more info:  https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental-management-system/public-meetings/

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.  The Stop Forever WIPP Coalition is hosting the First Annual Plutonium Trail Caravan from Tesuque to Lamy, New Mexico in recognition of the 25^th anniversary of the receipt of the first shipment of plutonium-contaminated waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).  https://stopforeverwipp.org/

The Stop Forever WIPP Coalition seeks to remind those along the route that the federal Department of Energy (DOE) broke its promises to the People of New Mexico that it would cleanup all the plutonium-contaminated waste around its nuclear weapons complex sites located across the USA in 25 years, ship it to WIPP for disposal and begin closing the underground repository.

But DOE did not keep its promises.  In fact, the plutonium-contaminated waste LANL is making now while fueling a new nuclear arms race can only be disposed of at WIPP.

The Caravan plans to make four stops between Camel Rock and Lamy.  Each stop will provide you with an opportunity to collect information, ask questions and join the Caravan.  Plutonium Trail Caravan t-shirts, buttons and decals will be available for purchase.

The times for the stops are approximate and a map with exit numbers and directions will be available for the nearly 30-mile route. 

• The first stop will be near the Tesuque Village Market at approximately 10:15 a.m.
• The second stop will be at the Solano Shopping Center in Santa Fe, where La Montanita Co-op is located, at approximately 11 a.m.
• The third stop will be near the 599 By-Pass and Airport Road, near the turnoff to the Santa Fe Airport, at approximately 1 p.m.
• The fourth stop will be at the Agora Shopping Center in El Dorado at approximately 1:45 p.m.

A 3:15 p.m. a press conference held at the Lamy Train Station will end the Caravan for this year.  The speakers include Joni Arends, a co-founder of CCNS; and Myrriah Gómez, author of Nuclear Nuevo México.  https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/nuclear-nuevo-mexico

Our first year’s Caravan path symbolically ends at the place where the Manhattan Project scientists got off the train to travel to Los Alamos to develop atomic bombs during World War II.

The plan for next year’s Caravan path is to travel a longer portion of the WIPP Route in New Mexico, starting at Lamy.

Please join the Caravan on Saturday, April 6^th at your convenience.  Be sure to join the Raging Grannies as we sing together to oppose expanded plutonium operations at LANL and expanded plutonium-contaminated waste disposal at WIPP.

1. Friday, April 5, 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, April 11 at 5 pm MDT on Zoom – Oppenheimer, Einstein, and Resistance to Nuclear Destruction – THE FULL STORY, with historians Lawrence Wittner & Blanche Wiesen Cook. Hosted by Peace Action New York State.  Registration:  https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NmFkdGRzbnNtdjRpNXIxcjQ1bWtzcWFkdmsgNXBsdjNqYmY2MmNuYTAxcnUzYnY0ZzdkMm9AZw&ctz=America/New_York  

3. Friday to Sunday, April 12 – 15 – PeaceWorks is issuing a CALL TO ACTION to oppose the start of a NEW 21st Century NUCLEAR ARMS RACE beginning in Kansas City NOW!  The KC National Security Campus fabricates nearly all the non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons. It announced that the plant plans to DOUBLE in size next year and increase its number of workers to Cold War levels of 9,000! https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2023/11/07/nnsa-honeywell-office-manufacturing-campus-nuclear.html   PeaceWorks invites you to join in a Resistance Retreat at Jerusalem Farm, 520 Garfield Ave., Kansas City, Missouri. Register using the QR code in the flier to the right. For more info, contact PeaceWorks Vice-Chair Ann Suellentrop at annsuellen@gmail.com or 913-271-7925.

4. 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.  https://iecho.org/echo-institute-programs/climate-change-and-human-health   

April 17^th – Environmental Exposures and Superfund Sites and Nuclear SUPERfund Sites in New Mexico.  Speakers are: 

• • Myrriah Gómez, PhD – Assistant Professor in the Honors College, University of New Mexico
  • Michelle Hunter, MS – Deputy Director, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, The Office of the State Engineer

5. Thursday, April 18^th from 5:30 – 7:30 pm MDT – in-person and virtual LANL Cleanup Forum, hosted by the DOE Environmental Management-LANL (EM-LA) and N3B (cleanup contactor). This event will feature discussions and public input on the environmental cleanup mission at LANL, recent progress in shipping waste off-site and work to protect water quality. The community discussion and Q&A will follow two short presentations by EM-LA and N3B.  In –person meeting at SALA Event Center, 2551 Central Avenue, Los Alamos.  For more info and virtual Microsoft Teams access numbers:  https://n3b-la.com/emcf_apr_18_2024/

6. Sunday, April 21^st from 10 to 4 pm – La Montanita EarthFest 2024 at Nob Hill Location in Albuquerque. https://lamontanita.coop/earthfest/

7. Tuesday, April 23^rd from 6 to 8 pm – DOE/DOD Semiannual Public Meeting about what is going on at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and Kirtland Air Force Base (Kirtland AFB) at New Mexico Veterans Memorial, 1100 Louisiana Blvd. SE, Albuquerque. For more info:  https://www.sandia.gov/about/environment/environmental-management-system/public-meetings/

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/

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)?

Earlier that week, on Monday, March 22, 1999, Federal Judge John Garrett Penn lifted a seven-year injunction allowing the shipment of purely radioactive waste to WIPP.  The shipment did not contain any hazardous waste.  In fact it wasn’t even Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons waste.  It was NASA waste from the production of the plutonium batteries for the Cassini space vehicle.

On Tuesday, March 23^rd, LANL loaded waste drums into the three TRUPACT shipping containers.

On Wednesday, March 24^th, final testing was done and the truck and trailer with three TRUPACTS was ready.

Peaceful protesters with signs had gathered at the intersection of Airport Road and 599 on the south side of Santa Fe.  National Guard, police and other security personnel dressed in combat gear lined the intersection for about a block in each direction.  Black Hawk helicopters flew over the area.  A little snow fell.  Nevertheless, tensions were high.

LANL checked the weather conditions and it was determined that the shipment could not leave LANL.  To ship, a five-hour clear weather window was required.  A dense fog had developed around Santa Rosa, New Mexico and the shipment did not depart from LANL.

LANL tried again, successfully, on Thursday, March 25^th.  Again peaceful protesters and security personnel were at the intersection.

Early on the morning of Friday, March 26^th, the shipment arrived at WIPP to cheers from those waiting to see the truck and trailer.  https://www.energy.gov/em/articles/fight-wipp-history-nations-deep-geologic-nuclear-waste-repository

Prior to the arrival of the first shipment at WIPP, DOE had promised the People of New Mexico that it would clean up all the transuranic, or plutonium-contaminated, waste across the nuclear weapons complex, including LANL, and dispose of it in the underground salt bed at WIPP in 25 years and begin a 10-year closure of the facility.   For example:  http://nuclearactive.org/elected-officials-question-doe-plans-to-keep-wipp-operating-forever/ (Aug. 11, 2022); http://nuclearactive.org/doe-breaks-its-promises-to-new-mexico-part-i/ (Jan. 12, 2021); and http://nuclearactive.org/doe-breaks-its-promises-to-new-mexico-part-2/ (Jan. 19, 2021).

Next Tuesday, March 26, 2024, is the 25-year deadline.  But DOE and WIPP will not make its deadline.  In fact, DOE plans to keep WIPP open until 2083, basically forever, for LANL waste from fabricating new and provocative nuclear weapons.  https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/21/wipp-will-receive-waste-until-2083-d-waste-site-near-carlsbad-to-double-in-size-take-waste-until-208/72986011007/ ; “Stop ‘Forever WIPP’” presentation by Don Hancock, of Southwest Research and Information Center, before the New Mexico Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee, on July 14, 2021 in Carlsbad.  https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/RHMC%20071421%20Item%202%20Southwest%20Research%20and%20Information%20Center.pdf ; and https://losalamosreporter.com/2019/04/12/lanl-first-shipment-from-rant-facility-to-wipp-in-five-years-successfully-completed/

The Stop Forever WIPP Coalition, of which CCNS is a member, has been working to limit WIPP expansion.  To learn more, please visit https://stopforeverwipp.org/

To witness the early days of public opposition to the opening of WIPP, please view the 1990 documentary entitled The WIPP Trail by Penelope Place and Gay Dillingham on the Internet Archive.  https://archive.org/details/AV_427-THE_WIPP_TRAIL

1. Friday, March 22, 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 21^st at 6 pm Mountain Time – Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) Night with the Experts: Mary Beth Brangan, Producer/Director; James Heddle, Director/Director of Photography; and Morgan Peterson, Director/Editor speaking on How Cinema Can Counter Nuclear Revivalism:  Featuring their award-winning film SOS [The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy].  For more information and to register:  https://mailchi.mp/efb9db20e90c/optdwdhz7v-15553063?e=999f866a73

3. Saturday, March 23^rd at 1:15 pm – New Mexico PeaceFest, along with Veterans for Peace and the Raging Grannies will hold an anti-nuke demonstration on the southwest corner of Mountain Road and 19^th Street, outside the Albuquerque Museum. This event is in conjunction with the Albuquerque Museum exhibit on Nuclear Communities of the Southwest.  https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/albuquerque-museum/exhibitions/nuclear-communities-of-the-southwest  Please join us!  Let’s show Albuquerque that there is strong opposition to the ongoing and ever-expanding mission of producing more and more nuclear weapons, and more and more radioactive waste to irradiate our state.

At 2:00 pm that day, the museum will host a discussion exploring the long-term impacts of the 1945 Trinity Test on communities in New Mexico, led by downwinders Tina Cordova and Paul Pino. A few minutes before 2:00, we demonstrators will leave the corner and enter the museum to hear the discussion.

Following the discussion, we will MARCH to and around Old Town plaza with our signs and banners, and end back at the museum parking lot.  For more information:  https://abqpeacefest.org/

4. Tuesday, March 26^th – 25^th anniversary of the first plutonium transuranic waste shipment arrived at WIPP for disposal. The first shipment was from LANL and contained plutonium contaminated waste from fabricating the batteries for the NASA Cassini spacecraft trip to Saturn – not nuclear weapons waste.

 For over a decade (at least) before WIPP opened, DOE had claimed that all of DOE’s plutonium transuranic contaminated nuclear weapons waste would be cleaned up across its nuclear weapons complex and WIPP would be closed in 25 years, or by March 26, 2024.  That did not happen due to mismanagement, accidents and releases.  DOE now plans to keep WIPP open until 2083 at the earliest.  For more information:  https://stopforeverwipp.org/  

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Saturday, April 6^th beginning at 9:30 am in Tesuque – The first annual Plutonium Trail Caravan will recognize the WIPP transportation route from Tesuque to Lamy (where the Manhattan Project scientists got off the train to develop the atomic bombs at LANL). Save the Date!

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.  As official evacuation orders were delayed, people received much larger radioactive doses than if the evacuation orders were issued immediately.

Forty-five years later four women continue to challenge what the company and government say about the accident.

One review explained how the documentary “uncovers the never-before-told stories of four intrepid homemakers who take their local community’s case against the plant operator all the way to the [U.S.] Supreme Court –- and a young female journalist who’s caught in the radioactive crossfire.”

It also breaks the story of a “radical new health study that may finally expose the truth of the meltdown.  For over forty years, the nuclear industry has done everything in their power to cover up their criminal actions, claiming, as they always do, ‘No one was harmed and nothing significant happened.’”

The director of the outstanding documentary is Heidi Hutner.  She is a professor of Literature, Sustainability, Women’s and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University New York, and a scholar of nuclear and environmental history, literature, film, and ecofeminism. Hutner chaired the Sustainability Studies Program for six years.

Beginning on March 12^th, the documentary is being streamed on Apple + and Amazon Prime for $3.99.  Search for The Women of Three Mile Island.

After you watch the film, be sure to register for the historic webinar coming up on Thursday, March 28^th at 6 pm Mountain Time 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.

In March and April, seven in-person screenings will be held in the U.S. and Canada.  CCNS saw the film last weekend at the International Uranium Film Festival in Window Rock, Arizona.  It received the Best Investigation Documentary award.  We highly recommend watching this story about how the nuclear industry operates and covers up the truth.

1. Friday, March 15, 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 14^th from 5 to 6:15 Mountain Time – Oppenheimer: Sins of Omission – Massachusetts Peace Action webinar about the Nuclear Industry Fallout and Indigenous and Chicana/o Resistance in the Southwest.  https://masspeaceaction.org/event/webinar-what-oppenheimer-left-out/  Register at:  https://secure.everyaction.com/Ht5-Wvs7sE6XEdTAePbtQA2

3. Tuesday, March 19^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm – in-person and virtual WIPP Community Forum and Open House at Lawrence C. Harris Occupational Technology Center Room, 124 Seminar Room (OTC), Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell, 20 West Mathis. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO) will provide a short update about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with an extensive question and answer period.  For more information and registration:  https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20240215.asp

4. 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, March 20^th, Dan Hirsch will present Health Impacts of Radiation.  Dan Hirsch is the Retired Director of the Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and President of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear policy NGO.  For more information and registration: https://iecho.org/echo-institute-programs/climate-change-and-human-health

5. Thursday, March 21^st at 6 pm Mountain Time – Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) Night with the Experts: Mary Beth Brangan, Producer/Director; James Heddle, Director/Director of Photography; and Morgan Peterson, Director/Editor speaking on How Cinema Can Counter Nuclear Revivalism:  Featuring their award-winning film SOS [The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy].  For more information and to register:  https://mailchi.mp/efb9db20e90c/optdwdhz7v-15553063?e=999f866a73

6. Tuesday, March 26^th – 25^th anniversary of the first plutonium transuranic waste shipment arrived at WIPP for disposal. The first shipment was from LANL and contained plutonium contaminated waste from fabricating the batteries for the NASA Cassini spacecraft trip to Saturn.

DOE had claimed that all of DOE’s plutonium transuranic contaminated nuclear weapons waste would be cleaned up across its nuclear weapons complex and WIPP would be closed in 25 years, or by March 26, 2024.  That did not happen due to mismanagement and accidents.  DOE now plans to keep WIPP open until 2083 at the earliest.  For more information:  https://stopforeverwipp.org/  

7. Saturday, April 6^th beginning at 9:30 am in Pojoaque – The first annual Plutonium Trail Caravan will recognize the WIPP transportation route from Pojoaque to Lamy (where the Manhattan Project scientists got off the train to develop the atomic bombs at LANL). Save the Date!  And stay tuned for details. 

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.  http://www.nuclearactive.org/news/092706.html [LANL Faces Fine of Nearly $800,000.]

The New Mexico Environment Department groundwater and hazardous waste bureaus regulate the remediation of the hexavalent chromium plume.

The Environment Department’s remediation includes the installation of 1,000 feet deep wells to extract the hexavalent chromium waters for treatment and the re-injection of the treated waters back into the aquifer.

Last spring, the Environment Department raised concerns about the wells and whether the re-injected waters were “smearing,” or pushing the contamination further into the aquifer.

Then LANL released a draft environmental assessment (EA) about the remediation of the plume and recommended a “final” remedy for public review and comment.  Comments are due on Wednesday, March 13^th.

CCNS and our colleagues have drafted a two-page sample comment letters you can use, modify and submit.  https://nukewatch.org/action-item/ea-for-chromium-plume-at-lanl-now-out-for-review-submit-public-comment-by-march-13/  Ours is a long letter with four essential issues that the public must address. Please cut and paste as you wish.

(downloads WORD file)

The issues are:

• the draft EA is premature and must be withdrawn;
• the LANL proposal to use “adaptive site management” to remediate the plume has been used for nearly 20 years and it has failed;240308 CrVI sample public comment ltr
• the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that these types of administrative processes require seating the public at the decision-making table; and finally,
• the segmentation of the environmental analyses is inappropriate because NMED has yet to make its recommendation for the remedy.

The administrative procedures require the Environment Department to determine the proposed remedy and support it through its Statement of Basis for the decision.  Finally, those documents are released for public review and comment.

LANL has jumped in front of that administrative process by prematurely releasing the draft EA and a “final” remedy, contrary to how the administrative process works.  The draft must be withdrawn.

LANL has used adaptive site management for nearly 20 years and it has failed.

The public has been excluded from the decision-making table.   It is time for the public to protect the aquifer and be at the table.

By prematurely putting out its plan, LANL has segmented the EA into small parts in order to avoid looking at the bigger picture.  The EA must be withdrawn and a full environmental impact statement prepared when the proper time arrives.

For more information, click these links:  http://nuclearactive.org/public-comment-opportunities-about-lanls-final-remedy-for-the-hexavalent-chromium-plume/    and     http://nuclearactive.org/february-12th-public-comments-due-on-final-lanl-hexavalent-chromium-plume-remedy/ ]

To download our sample comment letter, please click here:    240308 CrVI sample public comment ltr

1. Friday, March 8, 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. Wednesday, March 6 to May 15 (Bi- Weekly) from noon to 1 pm Mountain Time – Climate Change and Human Health ECHO Program: Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health. 

3. Thursday – Friday, March 7 – 8: International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ.  For more information:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/    Schedule: https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2024   

4. Wednesday, March 13^th – [Comment period extended from Feb. 12^th to March 13, 2024.] Comments due about LANL proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the Hexavalent Chromium Plume (DOE/EA-2216) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  For more information and to download the document:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico    Check back to CCNS’s website at http://www.nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own. 

5. Tuesday, March 19^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm – in-person and virtual WIPP Community Forum and Open House at Lawrence C. Harris Occupational Technology Center Room, 124 Seminar Room (OTC), Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell, 20 West Mathis. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO) will provide a short update about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with an extensive question and answer period.  For more information and registration:  https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20240215.asp

Members of Indigenous communities provided testimony to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at an historic hearing in Washington, DC this week about the impacts of uranium exploitation on their human rights.  The New Mexico Environmental Law Center represents the communities.  https://nmelc.org/

As the United States doubles down on the false notion that nuclear power is a solution to the climate crisis, the uranium development industry is beginning to benefit from generous taxpayer giveaways to the nuclear industry as a whole.  Subsidies from the Biden administration have spurred uranium-mining production to restart in at least three mines in the last few months in Utah, Wyoming, and on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

In 2015 the Commission held a thematic hearing on the “Impact of Extractive Industries on the Sacred Sites of Indigenous Peoples in the United States,” where the Navajo Nation, Pueblos of Laguna, San Carlos and others participated.

As has been the case since the dawn of the Atomic Age, the impacts of uranium mining are largely left out of the debate over nuclear power.  The hearing allowed Native communities who have lived for generations with the waste from historic uranium mining and milling to hold U.S. government officials to account in a public forum for the government’s failure to address waste from uranium development in any meaningful way.

Witnesses in this week’s hearing came from the Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Oglala Lakota and Havasupai Nations,

Edith Hood and Teracita Keyanna, members of the Red Water Pond Road Community Association, spoke about how for generations the federal government has ignored the public health, environmental and cultural crises uranium development has caused in their communities.  https://swuraniumimpacts.org/red-water-pond-road-community-association/

Yolanda Badback, a member of the White Mesa Concerned Community, spoke about how state and federal officials have refused to listen to their concerns about the uranium mill in their community.  https://protectwhitemesa.org/

Tonia Stands, a member of the Magpie Buffalo Organizing, spoke about the difficulties of living under the threat of new uranium mining, while legacy waste remains unaddressed.  https://www.ienearth.org/iachr-grants-thematic-hearing-on-impacts-to-indigenous-peoples/

Carletta Tilousi. of the Havasupai Tribe Anti-Uranium Subcommittee, provided testimony about the effects of the Pinyon Plain uranium mine located on top of the tribe’s aquifer at the south rim of Grand Canyon in Arizona that began operations in January of this year.   https://www.nhonews.com/news/2024/jan/23/uranium-mining-operations-begin-pinyon-plain-mine/

In addition to community testimony, the U.S. government had the opportunity to respond, and the Commission had the opportunity to ask questions of community members and government officials.

To watch the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights hearing, go to You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEP4EuEFS5o.  To watch the New Mexico Environmental Law Center post-hearing press conference, go to Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nmelc/.

1. Friday, March 1, 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, February 29 (Leap Year Day) at 5 pm Mountain Time – Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear Warhead Webinar on Twin Existential Threats, hosted by Veterans for Peace.  Speakers are:  Ivana Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and Timmon Wallis, Nuclear Ban:  U.S., Warheads to Windmills.  Registration at https://vfpgoldenruleproject.org/event/warheads-to-windmills-addressing-the-threats-of-climate-and-nuclear-weapons-before-its-too-late/

3. Tuesday, March 5 at 11 am Mountain Time – Nuclear Survivors: Uranium Mining online discussion. Host:  International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).  Speakers:  Dimity Hawkins (Nuclear Truth Project, ICAN Australia), Myrriah Gómez (University of New Mexico) and Yaroslav Koshelev (Technical University of Berlin)  Registration at https://www.icanw.de/neuigkeiten/online-discussion-uranium-mining/

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

On March 6^th, Robert M. Gould, MD, President of the San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility will present The Global Nuclear Threat and Nuclear Landscapes in the United States.  For more information and registration:  https://iecho.org/echo-institute-programs/climate-change-and-human-health

5. Wednesday, March 6^th at 6 pm – Santa Fe County Solicits Public Input into Hazard Mitigation Plan. In person meeting at Santa Fe County Fire Station 70, Municipal Way, Edgewood, NM.  Take the survey here:  https://www.santafecountynm.gov/events/detail/hazard-mitigation-plan-update-fire

6. Thursday, March 7^th at 6 pm – Santa Fe County Solicits Public Input into Hazard Mitigation Plan. In person meeting at Santa Fe County Fire Station 50, 17919 U.S. 84/285.  Take the survey here:  https://www.santafecountynm.gov/events/detail/hazard-mitigation-plan-update-fire

7. Thursday – Friday, March 7 – 8: International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ.  For more information:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/  Schedule:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2024   

8. Wednesday, March 13^th – [Comment period extended from Feb. 12^th to March 13, 2024.] Comments due about LANL proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the Hexavalent Chromium Plume (DOE/EA-2216) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  For more information and to download the document:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico    Check back to CCNS’s website at http://www.nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own. 

9. Tuesday, March 19^th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm – in-person and virtual WIPP Community Forum and Open House at Lawrence C. Harris Occupational Technology Center Room, 124 Seminar Room (OTC), Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell, 20 West Mathis. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office and Salado Isolation Mining Contractors (SIMCO) will provide a short update about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) with an extensive question and answer period.  For more information and registration:  https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20240215.asp

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.  The NNSA comment period ended on Tuesday, February 20^th, and the next day the Public Utilities Board voted 4 to 1 to approve the Foxtail Flats project.  https://losalamos.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx, scroll down to Board of Public Utilities, 2/21/2024 Meeting Date, Agenda and Agenda Packets.

Since 1985, Los Alamos County and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have pooled their power resources through an Electric Energy and Coordination Agreement, also known as the Los Alamos Power Pool, or LAPP.  Generally LANL consumes about 80 percent of the total energy produced or purchased by the LAPP.

NNSA claimed that the 173 megawatts were needed to run the supercomputer at LANL.  The County did not define the need.  During the NNSA process, many speculated that the energy was needed to fabricate 30 plutonium triggers, or pits, for nuclear weapons.  In some statements NNSA said it needed the power on or before 2027, in others by 2030, which is an important deadline for fabricating pits.  If approved by the County Council, the Foxtail Flats project would come on line in 2026.

It appears now that the County and NNSA worked to double the amount of energy in order to run the supercomputer in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program that includes plutonium pit fabrication.  CCNS has made some observations that support this unacknowledged outcome.

When NNSA proposed building a new 14-mile long, 115-kilovolt electrical line across the sacred, historical and culturally important Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande to LANL, they requested public comments about the project, called the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project Environmental Assessment.  http://nuclearactive.org/public-comments-on-lanl-proposed-electrical-line-due-on-tuesday-february-20th/ , https://environment.lanl.gov/resources/epcu/

The environmental assessment cited out-of-date reference documents, such as a 2017 integrated resource report for the Cayman Islands (Global 2017). https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/doeea-2199-draft-environmental-assessment , p. 97 of pdf, or p. 6-2.   This report does not mention Los Alamos County or LANL.

The correct reference would have been the 2022 LANL and Los Alamos County Integrated Resource Plan that comprehensively addressed the LAPP’s near-term and long-term resource strategies for a projected 20-year planning horizon from 2022 – 2041 and LANL’s use of 80% of the energy captured by the Los Alamos Power Pool.    https://www.losalamosnm.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/departments/utilities/documents/integrated-resource-plan-irp-2022-final-report.pdf  The omission of the 2022 report did not allow the public to review the latest energy needs, use and analyses of Los Alamos County, LANL and the LAPP.  The 2022 report was not available during the time when public comments were requested by NNSA.

CCNS found the 2022 report referenced in the Foxtail Flats Solar + Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) powerpoint presentation, dated February 21, 2024, and provided in the February 21, 2024 Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities Agenda Packets.  https://losalamos.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx, scroll down to Board of Public Utilities, 2/21/2024 Meeting Date for the Agenda and Agenda Packets.

CCNS must ask why the essential 2022 Integrated Resource Plan report was omitted from the draft Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project (EPCUP) Environmental Assessment.  CCNS must ask whether such a key omission of the 2022 Integrated Resource Plan report requires the draft EPCUP Environmental Assessment to be withdrawn and for the public process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to begin again.

The Los Alamos County Council may consider the Foxtail Flats agreements at its next meeting on Tuesday, February 27 at 6 pm.  To access the agenda and agenda packets when they are posted prior to the meeting, go to:  https://losalamos.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

1. Friday, February 23, 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. Sunday, February 25^th at 1 pm – BAN The BOMB! Multimedia event MOVIE SCREENING, MARCH & RALLY.

1:00 pm – Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM

Screening of “Television Event.” a riveting documentary about the world-changing 1983 TV movie “The Day After” that profoundly impacted US nuclear policies, impacted then-president Reagan, ended the cold war, and led to a reduction in our nuclear arsenal.  Tickets go on sale at 12:40 pm.

Guild write-up: https://www.guildcinema.com/movies/television-event

See the trailer for Television Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftJ-I-yAu8

2:45 pm – We will march from the Guild Cinema to Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

3:00 pm – Rally against nuclear weapons in Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

We will gather to share ideas about how we can change public opinion the way the movie did and bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons. Featuring music by Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Paul Pino, and the Raging Grannies.

3. Wednesday, February 28 at 9 am Mountain Time – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) Thematic Hearing about the Impacts of Uranium Exploitation on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. Speakers include representatives and tribal members from the Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute, Oglala Lakota and Havasupai Tribes.  How to attend:  on IACHR’s website https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/sessions/?S=189   or on the IACHR YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@comisionIDH   For more information:  https://nmelc.org/2024/02/13/iachr-grants-thematic-hearing-on-impacts-to-indigenous-peoples-human-rights-from-uranium-exploitation/

4. Thursday, February 29 (Leap Year Day) at 5 pm Mountain Time – Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear Warhead Webinar on Twin Existential Threats, hosted by Veterans for Peace.  Speakers will be:  Ivana Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and Timmon Wallis, Nuclear Ban:  U.S., Warheads to Windmills.  Registration at https://vfpgoldenruleproject.org/event/warheads-to-windmills-addressing-the-threats-of-climate-and-nuclear-weapons-before-its-too-late/

5. Tuesday, March 5 at 11 am Mountain Time – Nuclear Survivors: Uranium Mining online discussion. Host:  International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).  Speakers:  Dimity Hawkins (Nuclear Truth Project, ICAN Australia), Myrriah Gómez (University of New Mexico) and Yaroslav Koshelev (Technical University of Berlin)  Registration at https://www.icanw.de/neuigkeiten/online-discussion-uranium-mining/

6. Wednesday, March 6^th at 6 pm – Santa Fe County Solicits Public Input into Hazard Mitigation Plan. In person meeting at Santa Fe County Fire Station 70, Municipal Way, Edgewood, NM.  Take the survey here:  https://www.santafecountynm.gov/events/detail/hazard-mitigation-plan-update-fire

7. Thursday, March 7^th at 6 pm – Santa Fe County Solicits Public Input into Hazard Mitigation Plan. In person meeting at Santa Fe County Fire Station 50, 17919 U.S. 84/285.  Take the survey here:  https://www.santafecountynm.gov/events/detail/hazard-mitigation-plan-update-fire

8. Wednesday, March 6 to May 15 (Bi- Weekly) from noon to 1 pm Mountain Time– Climate Change and Human Health ECHO Program: Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health.  To register:  https://echo.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkdO6opj8vEtDjCQltPzQPt5tyKKtkMz6T#/registration

9. Thursday – Friday, March 7 – 8: International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ.  For more information:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/    Schedule:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2024   

10. Wednesday, March 13^th – [Comment period extended from Feb. 12^th to March 13, 2024.] Comments due about LANL and its entities’ proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the hexavalent chromium plume (DOE/EA-2216) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  For more information and to download the document:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico    Check back to CCNS’s website at http://www.nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own. 

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).  https://environment.lanl.gov/resources/epcu/  Public comments about the draft Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project Environmental Assessment are due on Tuesday, February 20th.  The sample comment letter that you can modify is available right here: 240216 proposed LANL EPCU public comments

The samples may spark a deeper interest in LANL’s proposal to increase the number of electrical transmission lines across the Caja del Rio from two to three.  The proposed third line would require new infrastructure, including the installation of new pole structures that would have the capacity to carry a fourth line.

Importantly, the draft assessment states that the third transmission line would be located within a 100-foot-wide utility right-of-way across the Caja del Rio.  Along the route, optical ground wires would be incorporated into the overhead transmission lines.  LANL reveals that “An optical fiber splice box [would be] mounted to a pole structure at an accessible location for future connection by others between the Norton Substation and the Rio Grande crossing.”  See Executive Summary, p. iii.

LANL has not given any indication who are the “others” nor where the future connection would be located along the 11-mile route between the Norton Substation and the Rio Grande crossing.

On Thursday, February 15^th from 4 to 7 pm at the Santa Fe Community College, LANL is hosting a virtual and in-person public meeting to accept public comments on the proposal.  From 4 to 4:30 pm, there will be a poster information session.  At 4:30 pm LANL will give a presentation about the draft assessment.  Following the presentation public comments will begin.

The hybrid meeting will start at 4:30 pm.  The connection information is available at environment.lanl.gov/resources/epcu/

This is the second public comment period on the proposal.  Comments submitted during the first comment period do not have to be re-submitted.  However, in order for you to have standing to object to the proposal, the Forest Service requires you to submit specific comments.  The requirements are part of the Forest Service’s pre-decisional administrative review process.  For more information about how to place your objection, please see 36 Code of Federal Regulations Parts 218 and 219.

Please encourage your colleagues to get involved to protect the Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande.

For more information, please see previous Updates at:

http://nuclearactive.org/important-public-meetings-next-week-and-public-comment-deadlines/ ;

http://nuclearactive.org/february-15th-public-meeting-about-the-proposed-lanl-electrical-line-across-the-caja-del-rio/ ;

http://nuclearactive.org/caja-del-rio-coalition-requests-a-60-day-extension-of-time-to-comment-about-proposed-lanl-electrical-line/ ;

http://nuclearactive.org/lanl-releases-draft-environmental-assessment-for-a-third-electrical-line-to-cross-the-caja-del-rio-and-the-rio-grande/ ;

http://nuclearactive.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023.12.20-Letter-to-NNSA-re-Caja-del-Rio-Transmission-Line.pdf

1. Friday, February 16, 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, and others. Join us!

2. Saturday, February 17^th – WIPP shutdown for maintenance for 6 to 8 weeks.

3. Tuesday, February 20^th – Comments due about the LANL’s Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project for a 115 kV line across the Caja del Rio, the Rio Grande to LANL. See and utilize sample public comment letter at http://www.nuclearactive.org or you can craft your own.   The Draft EA is available in the NNSA NEPA Reading Room at: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room or directly at https://energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2199-los-alamos-national-laboratory-electrical-power-capacity-upgrade-project or https://environment.lanl.gov/resources/epcu/

4. Sunday, February 25^th at 1 pm – BAN The BOMB! Multimedia event MOVIE SCREENING, MARCH & RALLY.

1:00 pm – Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM

Screening of “Television Event.” a riveting documentary about the world-changing 1983 TV movie “The Day After” that profoundly impacted US nuclear policies, impacted then-president Reagan, ended the cold war, and led to a reduction in our nuclear arsenal.

Guild write-up: https://www.guildcinema.com/movies/television-event

See the trailer for Television Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftJ-I-yAu8

2:45 pm – We will march from the Guild Cinema to Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

3:00 pm – Rally against nuclear weapons in Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

We will gather to share ideas about how we can change public opinion the way the movie did and bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons. Featuring music by Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Paul Pino, and the Raging Grannies.

5. Wednesday, March 6 to May 15 (Bi- Weekly) from noon to 1 pm Mountain Time– Climate Change and Human Health ECHO Program: Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health.  To register:  https://echo.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkdO6opj8vEtDjCQltPzQPt5tyKKtkMz6T#/registration       Flyer here: CCHH Global Nuclear Series_1.31.24

6. Thursday – Friday, March 7 – 8: International Uranium Film Festival at the Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, AZ.  For more information:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/  Schedule:  https://uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/usa-2024   

7. Wednesday, March 13^th – [Comment period extended from Feb. 12^th to March 13, 2024.] Comments due about LANL and its entities’ proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the hexavalent chromium plume (DOE/EA-2216) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  For more information and to download the document:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico    Check back to CCNS’s website at http://www.nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own. 

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

TODAY, THE DOE UNCEREMONIOUSLY EXTENDED THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD TO MARCH 13, 2024 FOR THE Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the hexavalent chromium plume in the regional drinking water aquifer.  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico  Check back at nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own comments. 240208 Public Notice of Ext. of Time for Hexavalent Chromium NEPA Env’l Assessment

On Wednesday, February 13 from 6 to 9 pm the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding a virtual public meeting about Certain Stormwater Discharges from Los Alamos County and LANL under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).  To register:  https://www.epa.gov/nm/forms/virtual-public-meeting-tuesday-february-132024-600-pm-800-pm-mst-revised-designation   

On Wednesday, February 14^th people who live along the radioactive transportation routes where plutonium-contaminated waste is hauled from LANL to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) will mark the 10^th anniversary of the explosion of one or more waste drums in the WIPP underground on February 14, 2014.

The event will begin at 12:45 pm at the East Entrance to the New Mexico Statehouse.  Musicians will perform songs of satire about WIPP.  Representatives from each of the 65 at-risk communities will hold a can of pinto beans that is wrapped with a radioactive symbol and the name of their community.  After the demonstration, the cans will be donated to the food bank.

At 1 pm the activities will move into the Rotunda for short statements about the communities’ concerns.  During that time, organizers will stack the 65 cans in a pyramid.  An invitation will be presented for the communities to sign up for a free presentation about current transportation issues.

The next stop will be the Governor’s office where a bouquet of roses carrying the names of the at-risk communities along the route will be presented to thank her for what she’s done and remind her that more is needed to keep New Mexicans safe.  https://stopforeverwipp.org/events/pressconference

Finally, on Thursday, February 15^th beginning at 4 pm at the Santa Fe Community College a second in-person and virtual meeting will take place about the proposed LANL Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project.  For more information:  http://nuclearactive.org/february-15th-public-meeting-about-the-proposed-lanl-electrical-line-across-the-caja-del-rio/  For more information, please visit our website at http://nuclearactive.org/ and the Caja del Rio website at https://cajadelrio.org/ .

Also, see the February 8, 2024 Santa Fe New Mexican “Our View:  Before new power line, conduct environmental impact study” in which they state an environmental impact statement is required – not the inadequate environmental assessment.  See below to read the Our View.

On Tuesday, February 20^th public comments due about the proposed LANL Electrical Power Upgrade Project.  Please check back at nuclearactive.org for talking points and sample public comments you can use to craft your own.

Our View – February 8, 2024

Before new power line, conduct environmental impact study

• The New Mexican

More public comment about a proposed 14-mile high-voltage transmission line for Los Alamos National Laboratory is scheduled next week.

Critics of the power line — rightly — said 30 days of public comment, over the winter holidays, wouldn’t be enough time to gather feedback on this controversial proposal. The Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management all are involved in planning.

We supported additional public comment, which addresses concerns about the line, designed to connect the laboratory to additional power officials say will be needed in the years ahead. However, the public comment being taken concerns the environmental assessment conducted to determine the impact of a 115,000-volt line, complete with transmission towers, on sensitive lands.

Already, after reading the initial assessment — required before a special permit can be issued — it is clear a more detailed environmental impact statement should be mandated before the project can go forward. The second public comment hearing, scheduled Feb. 15 at Santa Fe Community College, must not be the final word on the proposed line.

A number of concerns exist about the proposal in its current form.

The line would cut a 100-foot-wide swath along its route going from the lab through White Rock Canyon, then south through the already besieged Caja del Rio area and winding east through the Santa Fe National Forest before reaching a substation. But that doesn’t take into account the construction right of way, which is 200 feet wide along with several 2- to 5-acre staging sites, according to the environmental assessment.

Construction also would require 1.69 miles of new road construction, although single-lane dirt roads exist near much of the proposed line. According to the assessment, cultural resources will be avoided to the “maximum extent possible,” but a deeper study of the impacts of this project would detail how — or if — that is possible. Tribes affected by the power line must be part of this discussion.

An environmental impact study also could look more closely at how the proposed lines might impact wildlife, including bird migrations. While the assessment claims it won’t affect, for example, the migration of sandhill cranes — listing fall and spring as migration months — anyone who looks outside right now can see the birds. They are in our neighborhood in winter. The Audubon Society says sandhill cranes can be at high risk of flying into lines.

The scope of this project is massive. It deserves a full-blown environmental impact study, both to examine effects during construction and of the line’s operation on the environment but also to look at alternatives to building an entirely new line.

According to the assessment, “LANL requires a reliable and redundant electrical power supply to support mission programs and other activities at LANL facilities.” Forecasts predict existing transmission lines serving the lab and Los Alamos County could reach capacity before 2027.

Instead of an entirely new line, a more environmentally friendly alternative might look like this: Use solar power on site. It would require 400 to 500 acres, but that could be achieved not by digging up land but by siting solar panels on parking lots and buildings, adding battery storage to ensure continual power. The lab has plenty of parking lots and buildings.

If more power is still needed, a smaller power line could be built along existing lines — that’s a more environmentally friendly solution. It’s better for wildlife, especially migrating birds, and would reduce cultural and recreational disturbance. That’s a discussion for another day, though. Right now the 14-mile proposal is up for debate. Show up and comment. Demand a full environmental impact statement. The people, land and creatures of Northern New Mexico deserve no less.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/editorials/before-new-power-line-conduct-environmental-impact-study/article_88dba4c8-c5f5-11ee-9dce-7799b712c9ef.html?utm_source=santafenewmexican.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fyour-morning-headlines%2F%3F123%26-dc%3D1707393612&utm_medium=email&utm_content=read%20more

1. Friday, February 9, 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, and others. Join us!

2. Friday, February 9^th – Comments due to DOE about the Hexavalent Chromium Remediation in Sandia and Mortandad Canyons Project Floodplain Assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It’s a 15-day comment period.  A sample public comment you can use will be available here in the morning.  Submit comments by email to:  EMLA-NEPA@em.doe.gov.  For more information:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/chromium-remediation-sandia-and-mortandad-canyons-project-floodplain-assessment 

3. Wednesday, February 13 from 6 to 9 pm – a virtual EPA public meeting about the Revised Designation of Certain Stormwater Discharges in the State of New Mexico under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). To register:  https://www.epa.gov/nm/forms/virtual-public-meeting-tuesday-february-132024-600-pm-800-pm-mst-revised-designation   

4. Wednesday, February 14^th – marking the 10^th anniversary of the explosion of one or more drums of transuranic (plutonium-contaminated) waste in the WIPP underground. See the February 9, 2024 Update.    

5. Thursday, February 15^th beginning at 4 at Santa Fe Community College about the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project. The U.S. Department of Energy and its nuclear security agency will hold a second hearing on the power line next Thursday as part of a second 30-day public comment period added after Commissioner Hansen, New Mexico congressional delegates, and activists complained too little time was given to hear people’s concerns about the project. Thank you for staying informed about the power line by visiting the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety website. If you intend to submit a public comment, review the example letter and information from the Caja del Rio Coalition. For more information: AnnaHansen_CajaDelRio

6. Tuesday, February 20^th – Comments due about the LANL’s Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project for a 115 kV line across the Caja del Rio, the Rio Grande to LANL. Check back to http://www.nuclearactive.org for talking points and sample public comments you can use to craft your own.

 The SECOND public comment period opened the Los Alamos National Laboratory Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project Draft Environmental Assessment (DOE/EA-2911) for construction and operation of a new 115 kilovolt (kV) power transmission line and upgrading LANL’s existing infrastructure.  For more information and to ACT NOW:  Protect the Caja del Rio!  Stop the Power Transmission Line at https://p2a.co/mhyopdf

The Draft EA is available in the NNSA NEPA Reading Room at: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room or directly at https://energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2199-los-alamos-national-laboratory-electrical-power-capacity-upgrade-project 

7. Sunday, February 25^th at 1 pm – BAN The BOMB! Multimedia event MOVIE SCREENING, MARCH & RALLY.

1:00 pm – Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE

Screening of “Television Event”: a riveting documentary about the world-changing 1983 TV movie “The Day After” that profoundly impacted US nuclear policies, impacted then-president Reagan, ended the cold war, and led to a reduction in our nuclear arsenal.

Guild write-up: https://www.guildcinema.com/movies/television-event

See the trailer for Television Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ftJ-I-yAu8

2:45 pm – We will march from the Guild Cinema to Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

3:00 pm – Rally against nuclear weapons in Triangle Substation Park, 2901 Central Ave NE

We will gather to share ideas about how we can change public opinion the way the movie did and bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons. Featuring music by Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Paul Pino, and the Raging Grannies.

8. Wednesday, March 13^th – [Comment period extended from Feb. 12^th to March 13, 2024.] Comments due about LANL and its entities’ proposed Chromium Interim Measure and “final” Remedy of the hexavalent chromium plume (DOE/EA-2216) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  For more information and to download the document:  https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeea-2216-chromium-interim-measure-and-final-remedy-los-alamos-new-mexico    Check back to http://www.nuclearactive.org for sample public comments you can use to craft your own.