CCNS Update

You are invited to participate in a virtual Nuclear Watch New Mexico workshop about the draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on Thursday, February 6 th from 5:30 pm to 7 pm Mountain Time. With LANL expanding its nuclear weapons programs—despite a long history of environmental contamination and nuclear safety issues—the draft SWEIS rep...

This Update relates to historic and important resources that can be useful for your participation in the public hearings about draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and its proposed operations in the next 15 years or so. Public hearings under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) will begin on Tuesday, February 11th in Santa Fe, followed by...

Earlier this week the U.S. Forest Service admitted that it has limited authority and oversight of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project, or EPCU, that would transmit 173 megawatts of energy across sacred National Forest System lands. The admission made in its 35-page Response to Comments document to complete its role in the environmental assessment pro...

More than two years after the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sought public input about the scope of a site- wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) operations, a draft LANL SWEIS will be released for a 60-day public review and comment period on Friday, January 10th. Public hearings will be held during...

The New Mexico Environment Department’s hazardous waste permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit a Legacy Transuranic, or TRU, Waste Disposal Plan to the Environment Department. DOE submitted its inadequate Plan on November 4 th for a 60-day public comment period, which ends on Friday, January 3 rd , 2025. A sample public comment letter yo...

A new condition in the New Mexico Environment Department’s hazardous waste permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit a Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan to the Environment Department. DOE submitted its Plan on November 4 th , 2024 for a 60-day public comment period.

There is a unique opportunity to provide your comments about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan. The disposal plan describes WIPP’s strategies to keep the disposal site for plutonium-contaminated hazardous wastes open for 60 more years, despite WIPP’s promises to New Mexicans to close in 2024.

On Friday, November 1st, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) adopted Resolution LV-24-061 opposing the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project “bisecting the Caja del Rio, highlighting the adverse impacts on Tribal cultural resources and sacred sites” to construct and operate a 115 kilovolt- transmission line to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supercomputers.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the Japanese non-governmental organization, Nihon Hidankyo, for its 68-years of education and advocacy. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee recognized Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Nihon Hidankyo is the Japanese Confe...

In an embarrassing turn of events, independent scientists Bernd Franke and Dr. Arjun Makhijani have provided Tewa Women United and the public with the analyses that the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Environmental Protection Agency would not – that the four flanged waste tritium containers may not need to be vented because the...

On Monday, Tewa Women United released two independent scientific reports about the harm that would be done to public health and the environment should Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be allowed to vent radioactive tritium from four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at LANL’s Area G radioactive and hazardous waste dump. It is another important step taken by Tewa Women United to hold LAN...

For the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and with the increasing threat of nuclear war, early this month the First Committee on International Peace and Security of the United Nations passed a resolution to study the impacts of nuclear war for the first time in 35 years. In support of the study were 144 countries, France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom voted no. Thirt...

The title of the new film may make you think it is about Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) located in northern New Mexico. But you would be wrong. “Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory,” a film by Jeff Gipe, is about the dangerous legacy of the Rocky Flats atomic bomb factory, located near Denver, Colorado. The world premiere will take place in early November at the Den...

This week Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, individuals and NGOs submitted comments opposing the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to approve a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) proposal to install a companion electric transmission line through the heart of the Caja del Rio traditional cultural landscape, an area sacred to Pueblos.

You are invited to participate in a transformative walk in downtown Santa Fe beginning at noon on Friday, October 25th. Organized by the Caja del Rio Coalition, the walk will begin at the Santa Fe County Administration Building, located at 240 Grant Avenue, and go to the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security

The U.S. Forest Service is accepting public objections to the draft Decision Notice, Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Final Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Electric Power Capacity Upgrade (EPCU) Project and Associated Land Management Plan (Forest Plan) Amendment. Only those who submitted comments during the scoping period that occurr...

On Monday, September 30th, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that the Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Nuclear Secrurity Administration (NNSA) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because the federal agencies failed to take a “hard look” at the alternatives to fabricate plutonium pits, or the triggers, for nuclear weapons at two of its sites. Lo...

The Three Sisters Collective is painting a new and colorful “I am Life (Creator of Worlds)” mural on the Lena Wall in O’Ga P’ogeh Owingeh, the White Shell Water Place, or Santa Fe. You are invited to make your mark on the wall on Thursday, October 3rd through Saturday, October 5th during the community paint hours. The new mural is adjacent to the mural by artist Chip Thomas about stopping expanded...

The Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories is a 2.6-acre dump that is leaking radioactive, hazardous and toxic wastes from unlined pits and trenches that threaten Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer. The public has been asking the New Mexico Environment Department for nearly 25 years to order Sandia to excavate the dump. Evidence of migrating contamination, such as the detection of...

Local, regional, national and international non-governmental organizations are coming together for a week of raising public awareness about the fossil fuel corporations doing business in New Mexico. Under the banner of Warheads to Windmills.org, the week begins on Monday, September 23rd and extends through Sunday, September 29 th . This is a second week of action. The first week focused on nuclear...

Local, regional, national and international non-governmental organizations are coming together for a week of raising public awareness about the nuclear weapons corporations doing business in New Mexico. The week of action begins on Monday, September 16 th and extends through Sunday, September 22 nd . New Mexicans will challenge two nuclear weapons profiteers who operate here. They are Honeywell an...

Many local, regional and international non-governmental organizations are organizing live and virtual actions in recognition of the International Day of Peace on Saturday, September 21 st and you can join in these efforts. From the “No Money for Nuclear Weapons” Week of Action headed by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons to the Warhead to Windmills Coalition (the Coalition), sma...

“When the Cold War ended in 1991 and the Doomsday Clock was at its furthest from midnight, the world sighed in relief… . It was a moment of hope where many believed this low tension between the military and economic powers of the world would lead to peace talks and nuclear disarmament.. . . So, why didn’t nuclear disarmament happen when the iron curtain fell?. . .” This question is at the center o...

On Wednesday evening the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition held a webinar to alert people about the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) next week about the Department of Energy (DOE) proposal to expand the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). DOE wants to keep WIPP open until at least 2083 for disposal of radioactive and hazardous wastes generated from fabrica...

On August 13th, U.S. Congressman John Garamendi of California delivered a speech at the United States Strategic Command 2024 Strategic Deterrence Amidst Global Transformation Symposium in which he asked “Why?” as in “Why does America need nuclear weapons?” and mostly importantly asked, “How do we deter in a way that ensures there is a tomorrow worth protecting? Must we continue a 50-year-old triad...