CCNS Update

The Department of Energy (DOE) wants to expand its operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for plutonium-contaminated waste from the fabrication of nuclear weapons. In March, DOE submitted a Planned Change Request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking permission to mine and operate two underground disposal panels in the WIPP underground disposal facility. EPA wants to h...

All are welcome to join the Veterans For Peace, New Mexico PeaceFests and Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety on Friday, August 9 th at 11 am on the Santa Fe Plaza to commemorate the events leading up to the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in early August 1945.

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester wrote a statement for last Monday’s Town Hall concerning plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) hosted by National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and the Department of Energy (DOE) Senior Advisor of the Office of Environmental Management, Candice Robertson. Jay Coghlan, of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, read the Archbishop’s statemen...

On Thursday, July 18 th at 8 am, you will have an informative opportunity to hear from two experts, Don Hancock and Myrriah Gómez, when they discuss the major public concerns regarding the plans of the Department of Energy (DOE) to expand operations at two of their facilities in New Mexico.

A follow-up to the Department of Energy (DOE) town hall in April 2023 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center that nearly 500 people attended in-person or virtually, will be held Monday, July 22 nd from 6 pm to 7:30 pm at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder, 13 miles north of downtown Santa Fe on U.S. 84 / 285.

On July 16 th in New Mexico, people commemorate two devastating events: the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site in 1945 in south central New Mexico, and the world’s largest uranium spill in 1979 when an earthen dam broke at the United Nuclear Corporation’s uranium mill tailing pond, releasing 1,100 tons of radioactive waste and 94 million gallons of radioactive water into the Rio Puerco, wh...

One of the most beautiful and majestic sights is found by looking across and down into the Grand Canyon at the spread of the red walls, the patches of green and the glorious Colorado River. All of this is threatened by an exemption from a federal law banning uranium mining in the watershed that feeds the complex river system. Uranium mining is allowed on U.S. Forest Service lands where the Pinyon...

Nuclear weapons programs divert public funds from health care, education, disaster relief and other vital humanitarian services. The nuclear- armed countries spent over $91.4 billion [dollars] on their arsenals in 2023. At the same time, the corporations fabricating these weapons of mass destruction and their investors made billions in profit annually.

Daniel Ellsberg was a nuclear war planner – his plans are still in use today in the United States. He has provided a stark warning about the dangers of nuclear weapons and above all the intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs and his work is being acknowledged this week. Join in virtual and live activities.

It was announced at the June 5 th Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities meeting that there are two proposals to bring approximately 50 or more megawatts of solar electricity to the County and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a federal Department of Energy (DOE) facility. One of the County’s goals is to develop and strengthen partnerships with Jemez Pueblo and Pueblo de San Ildefonso in...

The Austin newspaper, the Texas Observer, chose Searchlight reporter Alicia Inez Guzmán, to receive its 2024 MOLLY Prize on May 30 th . Guzmán holds a Ph. D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester in New York. Her article, “Buried Secrets, Poisoned Bodies,” is exemplary investigative journalism. The prize, awarded to only one journalist a year, honors Molly Ivins, the Obse...

Just as there were problems encountered with air monitoring during the February 14, 2014 explosion and release at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a nuclear bomb waste dump, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board continues to raise questions about that issue.

On March 12 th , the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted its Planned Change Request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use new Panels 11 and 12 in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) underground nuclear waste facility. The Planned Change Request also outlines the plans for seven additional panels for waste from expanded plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (L...

Beginning on Monday, May 13 th , at an in-person and virtual public hearing in Santa Fe, the New Mexico Environment Department will present its proposal to vastly expand the reuse of produced water from the production of oil and gas to the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission.

Did you know the federal Departments of Defense and Energy, NASA and the private industry sector currently operate more than 60 open burn pits across the U.S. and its territories – causing the uncontrolled release of PFAS and other toxic chemicals to the environment?

This week, CCNS highlights portions of a recent press release by Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CARES), and the Savannah River Site Watch about the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Their piece suggests NNSA does not have its priorities straight in neither producing up-to-date information on the way plutonium appears to...

Recent monthly reports by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board relate disturbing stories about near-miss operational incidents in the fifth shaft, under construction, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The underground federal radioactive waste disposal site is located 2,150 feet below ground surface in a salt formation almost 30 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Board has repo...

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).