""This project is already a classic boondoggle, and they are just getting started."
Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance on the UPF at Y12
Nuclear Weapons Complex Misconduct
Dec. 3, 2015. POGO: Updated Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, focussing on Nuclear Complex
(see report at POGO)
Click the image to view and download this large printable map of DOE sites, commercial reactors, nuclear waste dumps, nuclear transportation routes, surface waters near sites and transport routes, and underlying aquifers. This map was prepared by Deborah Reade for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
Quote of the Week
"I definitely feel that the development and use of nuclear weapons should be banned. It cannot be disputed that a full-scale nuclear war would be utterly catastrophic. Hundreds and millions of people would be killed outright by the blast and heat, and by the ionizing radiation produced at the instant of the explosion... Even countries not directly hit by bombs would suffer through global fall-out. All of this leads me to say that the principal objective of all nations must be the total abolition of war. War must be finally eliminated or the whole of mankind will be plunged into the abyss of annihilation."
- Martin Luther King, 1957. (source)
LANL's Central Mission Los Alamos Lab officials have recently claimed that LANL has moved away from primarily nuclear weapons to "national security", but what truly remains as the Labs central mission? Here's the answer from one of its own documents:
LANL's "Central Mission"- Presented at: RPI Nuclear Data 2011 Symposium for
Criticality Safety and Reactor Applications (PDF) 4/27/11
Dossier: The Kirtland AFB Nuclear Weapons Complex
Kirtland Air Force Base, which abuts and shares some runways with the Albuquerque airport, has become a major nuclear weapons complex of it's own. It hosts the Air Force's Nuclear Weapons Center, Sandia National Laboratories, and what is probably the nation's (and perhaps the world's) largest repository of nuclear weapons, estimated at up to 2,500 warheads... (read more)
Follow the Money!
LANL FY 2019 Budget Request Click to view full PDF Lab Table data
Note that the percentage of the LANL budget request for core nuclear weapons activities has risen to 70%.
Sandia FY 2019 Click to view full PDF Lab Table data
Five years ago Sandia Labs was less than 50% nuclear weapons. That is no longer true because of "Life Extension Programs" that give existing nuclear weapons new military capabilities.
CBO presentation based on the report:
Click to view presentation
Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan
- View/Download FY 2018 SSMP (PDF)
- View/Download FY 2017 SSMP (PDF)
- SSMP Analysis of Hans Kristensen, FAS:
Nuclear Transparency and the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (PDF)
- View/Download FY 2015 SSMP (PDF)
- NWNM Analysis (PDF) /
Analysis Summary (PDF)
Nuclear Watch Media
Santa Fe, Feb. 9, 2018: Jay Coghlan, Nukewatch Director Interview
'Living on the Edge', KSFR Radio. Jay speaks about the Doomsday Clock and the Trump Nuclear Posture Review. Archived podcast here.
Santa Fe, Sept 7, 2017: Rep. Ted Lieu and Jay Coghlan on KSFR Radio Congressman Lieu (D.CA) was given the Leadership Award by Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in May of this year for his sponsorship of HR 669, a bill to restrict the president's sole authority to launch nuclear war (mirrored in the Senate by S.200 introduced by Sen. Ed Markey D.MA).
(Nukewatch director Jay Coghlan is the current chairman of ANA.)
"Living on the Edge" with David Bacon, 101.1 FM ***Archived Podcast***
Jay Coghlan, Nukewatch Director Interview With David Bacon on Living on the Edge, KSFR, Aug 3, 2017. Archived podcast here
KUNM FM: LANL's Long Environmental Cleanup
KUNM public radio discussion of Los Alamos cleanup, and Nukewatch lawsuit Archived podcast here
Successful Citizen Activism Against
Expanded U.S. Plutonium Pit Production
This is the unsung story of successful citizen activism against repeated government attempts to expand the production of plutonium pit cores, which has always been the choke point of resumed U.S. nuclear weapons production. This history is a critical part of the march toward a future world free of nuclear weapons.
(View/download full report- PDF)
Updated March 2017: NukeWatch Fact Sheet: "Plutonium Pit Production at LANL" (View/download PDF)
NukeWatch fact sheet, September 26, 2017: Expanded Plutonium Pit Production at LANL Will Not Result in Significant Positive Effect On Job Creation and the Regional Economy (View/download PDF)
What is both sobering and addictive? This "Wheel of Near Misfortune" created by Union of Concerned Scientists- don't miss it!
Dr. Perry's Nuclear Nightmare Dr. William J. Perry, the 19th Secretary of Defense, shares his nuclear nightmare in this video produced by the William J. Perry Project.
What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above midtown Manhattan? You should read this.
Judgement Day http://xkcd.com/1626/
Recent visitors - click to enlarge
Help us boost public awareness of the reality and risks of nuclear weapons today. Please share Nukewatch.org with your friends using the buttons below:
"If you really want a future world free of nuclear weapons, you can hardly make a better investment than to give to Nuclear Watch New Mexico. They need and deserve your support so that they can carry on their groundbreaking work. I urge you to be generous with them!" - Danielle Brian, Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight.
April 13, 2018: Barrel of nuclear weapons waste on the way to WIPP 'ruptures' at Idaho Lab
That barrel of radioactive waste that 'ruptured' at the Idaho National Lab last week, which activated the Federal Emergency Operations Center?
It wasn't Idaho's fault- that barrel came from the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, the nuclear bomb factory of the Cold War, since shut down following a federal raid regarding environmental crimes.
Why was it at Idaho? Because it was coming to New Mexico's WIPP site, and was marooned at Idaho while WIPP spent 3 years recovering from its own burst barrel of radioactive waste, produced at Los Alamos during the Cold War. In fact, both barrels contained wastes from the production of plutonium pits- the cores of nuclear weapons- and were likely packed in the same manner. (more info) April 12, 2018:More barrel ruptures possible at Idaho nuke site
This waste is so toxic, and for so long, that it is interred thousands of feet below the surface in 200 million year old salt beds, which it is hoped will slowly encase the lethal material for as close to forever as we can get. And we are still making this stuff! In fact, Los Alamos has been tasked by NNSA with rebooting and accelerating pit production to 80 pits a year by 2030.
- See more on NNSA plans for accelerated pit production: NukeWatch 2/22 press release.
- Also see: Plutonium Pit Production at LANL
April 11, 2018: LANL Subcontractor Tetra Tech in 'Biggest Eco-Fraud in US History' Hunters Point, San Francisco Bay:
Workers at Tetra Tech, a Pasadena-based firm with a history of winning government contractors, first came forward beginning in 2012 with allegations that the cleanup had been faked on the orders of higher-ups at the company. A review of Tetra Tech's data, conducted last year by other contractors hired by the U.S. Navy and first published by Curbed SF, found that as much as 49 percent of the company's work had signs of manipulation or outright falsification and could not be trusted, that the company had committed "widespread radiological data falsification and doctored records, and covered it up.
In February, Nuclear Watch raised the alarm about Tetra Tech, calling on DOE to "reconsider" its choice of contractor to clean up radioactive wastes from nuclear bomb production at Los Alamos Lab.
"'Serious allegations of fraud by Tetra Tech were raised long before the LANL cleanup contract was awarded,' a written statement from Nuclear Watch said. 'The US Navy found that the company had committed widespread radiological data falsification, doctored records and supporting documentation, and covered up fraud at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard cleanup project in San Francisco, CA.'''
DOE responded that Tetra Tech would stay; a spokesman said DOE would "continue to monitor and evaluate" Tetra Tech's work. (ref)
We have just learned that an independent review by the EPA found that the Navy dramatically understated the scope of the problem. According to the EPA, as much as 97 percent of the cleanup data is unreliable and must be retested, according to John Chestnutt, manager of the EPA's local Superfund Division.
(read more)
- View/download petition to revoke Tetra Tech's license- includes declarations by the whistleblowers and copies of the faked Chain of Custody forms.
SF Chronicle Editorial April 12: SF deserves answers about falsified cleanup at Hunters Point Shipyard Update, April 22:
It gets worse: Toxic soil went from SF's Hunters Point to state landfills, ex-workers say
"Soil with potentially dangerous levels of radioactive waste was trucked to conventional landfills across California - the sort of dumps that typically fill up with tree branches, construction debris and old dishwashers, not radiological waste from a former nuclear test lab that handled uranium and plutonium."
Might be a good time to watch this short BBC film again
April 11, 2018: At the Brink?
Russian military: incoming missiles will be shot down and launch sites destroyed if they threaten Russian personnel.
Trump: "Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart!" (ref) April 15: Cooler heads seem to have prevailed, for the time being anyway. Close scrapes like this are a reminder of the urgency of getting rid of nuclear weapons, not making more and better ones. To those who say now is not the time due to "tensions", we say this is exactly when it must be done, before they are used, to our everlasting regret.
Save the date: April 16, 2018, Santa Fe: Nuclear New Mexico- Enough is Enough!
An important public meeting on plans to increase radiation limits at the LANL Rad Lab and to boost nuclear weapons pit production at LANL; at the same time, the launch of a lethal high-level waste "interim" storage in SE New Mexico.
Critical questions for the future of our state.
Santa Fe Library, Community Room, 5:30-7:30pm, April 16, 2018.
Read more about this: "Lethal High Level Waste to New Mexico".
For Immediate Release March 26, 2018: United States To Begin Construction Of New Nuclear Bomb Plant
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced on Friday, March 23, that it was authorizing the start of construction of the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) and two sub-projects at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The UPF is a facility dedicated solely to the manufacture of thermonuclear cores for US nuclear bombs and warheads.
Citizen watchdog groups are responding by filing an expedited Freedom of Information Act request demanding a full fiscal accounting of the UPF bomb plant- something the NNSA has refused to provide for the last five years, including to Congress, despite repeated assurances that the project is "on budget."
"This project is already a classic boondoggle, and they are just getting started," said Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) in Knoxville, Tennessee. "Worse, it undermines US efforts to discourage nuclear proliferation around the world. How can we oppose the nuclear ambitions of other countries when we are building a bomb plant here to manufacture 80 thermonuclear cores for warheads every year?"
Jay Coghlan of NukeWatch points out that "This project already has a long history, and it is instructive. In 2013, DOE announced it was 85% finished with the UPF design when it ran into the 'space/fit' issue- and more than a half-billion taxpayer dollars were just written off. In private business, that kind of thing gets you fired. In DOE's world of contractors running amok, they not only didn't get fired, not one Congressional hearing was held and the UPF budget went up the next year!"
- See full press release for all the details (PDF)
- View/download the OREPA/NukeWatch FOIA request (pdf)
John Bolton, Nat'l Security Advisor; Trump; Mike Pompeo, Sec. of State designate; Gina Haspel, CIA Director designate
March 25, 2018: The Chaotic Trump Administration Stumbles Toward War On Multiple Fronts
Cold war, hot wars, trade wars. With the appointment of John Bolton as Trump's National Security Advisor, following CIA Director Mike Pompeo being named Secretary of State, a war cabinet seems to be taking shape. Both Pompeo and Bolton want to renounce the Iran deal, facing a May 12 deadline for other signatories to change the terms of the deal or else; Bolton has recently called for bombing Iran. Bolton has also called for bombing North Korea, and we wonder how this will influence the President's avowed plan to meet Kim Jong Un in May.
"A positive trend towards a diplomatic opening with North Korea has been overwhelmed by the Bolton and Pompeo selections and the chaos in the White House. These appointments make it almost certain that Trump will pull out of the Iran nuclear deal in May, further undermining any potential agreement with North Korea... This is the moment the administration has officially gone off the rails." -Joe Cirincione, President, Ploughshares Fund (ref)
Senator Markey: "John Bolton supports proactively bombing Iran and conducting a first strike on North Korea without provocation. Appointing him to be Nat Sec Advisor is a grave danger to the American people and a clear message from Trump that he is gearing up for military conflict." (ref)
"Bolton's extreme views could tilt the malleable Mr. Trump in the wrong direction on critical decisions affecting... the Iran nuclear deal, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and the strained U.S. relationship w/ Russia, among other issues." -Daryl Kimball, Director, Arms Control Assoc. (ref).
See also: Foreign Policy: John Bolton Is a National Security Threat
Last year, when advisors were briefing the incoming president on the nuclear arsenal, Trump is reported to have asked, several times, 'If we have them, why can't we use them?' At the time it seemed a symptom of Trump's cluelessness on nuclear matters. In retrospect, it seems something far more worrisome. (source)
Arms Control Association also notes that:
"Bolton has repeatedly criticized the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia, which is one of the few bright spots in the troubled U.S.-Russia relationship and continues to enjoy strong support from the U.S. military. Last year Bolton called the treaty "an execrable deal." (source)
Trade war with China too? Why not? Trump announced new tariffs- this time on on $60 billion worth of Chinese imports, which "sent financial markets into a deep dive and ignited fears of a trans-Pacific trade war..." (ref) Note, as "tensions mount" in the South China Sea: "Mike Pompeo and John Bolton are known as very 'pro-Taiwan'"- (Bill Bishop, Axios)
March 19, 2018: A Model for the Probability of Nuclear War
The Global Catastrophic Risk Institute has presented a model for calculating the total probability of nuclear war. "The model is based on 14 interrelated scenarios for how nuclear war can break out, covering perhaps the entire range of nuclear war scenarios... the paper also includes a dataset of historical incidents that might have threatened to turn into nuclear war. 60 historical incidents are included, making it perhaps the largest such dataset currently available". -GCRI
(view/download PDF)
March 13, 2018: In Surprise Move, Trump Tweets He'll Meet With Kim Jong Un by May
Tillerson blindsided, returns early from Africa, but is tweet-fired before he touches down.
(ref)
Trump said he disagreed with Tillerson on Iran; CIA director Pompeo, an Iran hardliner, to become Secretary of State.
March 10, 2018: Don't Bank on the Bomb 2018 Report View/download Report PDF
Don't Bank on the Bomb's 2018 report found that 22 financial institutions comprehensively prevented any involvement in nuclear weapon producing companies in 2017, up from 18 in 2016 and 13 in 2015: including Norway's Government Pension Fund, Australia's Future Super, U.S.-based fund manager Green Century and Denmark's MP Pension, which manages pensions for Danish academics.
There were a further 41 institutions that excluded nuclear weapon producers from their investments, but whose policy was not all-inclusive, up from 36 in 2016 and 40 in 2015.
Of the $525 billion invested, $81 billion more than a year previously, more than half came from the top 10 investors, all U.S.-based, led by Blackrock, Capital Group and Vanguard, the report said.
"The small group of countries that have nuclear weapons are modernizing and even expanding their arsenals.
"At the same time, a large majority of countries around the world are calling for an end to this new nuclear arms race."
"Author of the report Susi Snyder: 'The Nuclear Ban Treaty has sparked momentum towards divestment, shown by 10% fewer investors in nuclear weapon producers, and an increase in financial institutions comprehensively prohibiting any investment. Investments are not neutral, these companies should be congratulated for standing on the side of humanity.'"
(ref) / (ref2)
March 8, 2018: Pentagon Gearing Up for Space Warfare
The Trump administration's new defense policy calls for conducting military and other operations in response to space attacks, mainly by China and Russia.
"'Space is a warfighting domain just like the air, ground, maritime, and cyberspace domains,' AF Gen. John Hyten, Commander, Strategic Command.
"Hyten also revealed that U.S. adversaries will deploy hypersonic strike vehicles- that can travel at more than 7,000 miles per hour- in the next few years.
"China has conducted at least seven tests of hypersonic vehicles, and Russia has conducted several hypersonic missile tests [including one on March 11]. Hypersonic vehicles are designed to defeat missile defenses.
"Hyten urged speeding up U.S. development of hypersonic strike weapons as well as what he termed conventional prompt strike weapons."
(ref: Pentagon Gearing Up For Space Warfare)
Hypersonics Heating Up
The arms race has already gone hypersonic, especially with Putin's announcement of several new hypersonic delivery systems in the works (see below). But the US and China have also been urgently developing this new class of weaponry as well.
Best recent survey of the status- and difficulties posed by Mach 20 speeds, at DefenseOne: "The US is Accelerating Development of Its Own 'Invincible' Hypersonic Weapons"
March 8, 2018: Amid Heightened Tension, Markey, Merkley, Feinstein, and Sanders Press Trump Administration to Jumpstart New Strategic Talks with Russia
Read their letter in full at Rep. Markey's site.
March 6, 2018: Senators Say DOE May Have Reimbursed Contractor For Fighting Whistleblower Retaliation Claims
So someone at a nuclear weapons lab screws up, or cheats, or is less than honest, and it's covered up by the corporate management; and someone blows the whistle. The Lab retaliates against the whistleblower, who then files a claim against The Lab. The Lab hires attorneys to fight the claim. Then The Lab gets reimbursed by DOE for the legal expenses. So, taxpayer funds were used to silence and defeat whistleblowers?
"'Whistleblowers are an invaluable resource for weeding out waste, fraud and abuse- the last thing the government should be doing is paying the legal fees of contractors who've retaliated against whistleblowers,' McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement."
"Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) asked about the situation in a Tuesday letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry, citing documents that appear to show that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) paid more than $24 million to the partnership of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for costs from a series of whistleblower cases."
(more at The Hill)
US and Russia Nuclear Arsenals: Different Frames Make for Dangerous Times
The worrisome aspects of Trump's Nuclear Posture Review represented the arguments of the "Second Nuclear Age" hawks, i.e. that the world is no longer bi-polar, that the US needs more small nukes widely deployed so as not to be caught with either no response or a strategic response in regional conflicts, where the adversary might doubt we would go strategic. Thus US 'deterrence' had weakened. In this view, numerous smaller, widely deployed nukes are meant to sustain 'deterrence' into the more chaotic "Second Nuclear Age".
On the other hand, the Russian response is framed by their overriding anxiety that the US, with its missile defense systems surrounding Russia, and NATO troops on Russian borders, is intent on developing the ability to win a nuclear war with Russia. Russia is afraid of the destabilization of the Cold War strategic equilibrium model, wherein neither side sought an advantage so great that it might consider a surprise attack. ABMs - anti-ballistic missile systems- were banned so that neither side could hope to launch a first strike and take out the remaining retaliatory missiles with a missile defense system.
The Russian high command stated last year that they in fact did now think the US was working to develop this capability (ref). The Trump Nuclear Posture Review, with its emphasis on war-fighting nukes, only reinforced Russian command fears that the US could be preparing for a fight. The weapons systems Putin announced last week were all noted for their ability to defeat missile defenses and thus, in the Russian view, to preserve 'MAD'- mutually assured destruction- the Cold War's solution to preventing a nuclear war. To understand better the Russian view, it's worth remembering what Yuri Andropov said in 1981: "The US is preparing for war but it is not willing to start a war... They strive for military superiority in order to 'check' us and then declare 'checkmate' against us without starting a war." (ref) Putin's speech to the Federal Assembly March 1, 2018:
"Back in 2001, the US announced its withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia was categorically against this. We saw the Soviet-US ABM Treaty signed in 1972 as the cornerstone of the international security system...
"Together with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the ABM Treaty not only created an atmosphere of trust but also prevented either party from recklessly using nuclear weapons, which would have endangered humankind, because the limited number of ballistic missile defense systems made the potential aggressor vulnerable to a response strike.
"We did our best to dissuade the Americans from withdrawing from the treaty. All in vain. The US pulled out of the treaty in 2002...
"Despite our numerous protests and pleas, the American machine has been set into motion, the conveyer belt is moving forward. There are new missile defense systems installed in Alaska and California; as a result of NATO's expansion to the east, two new missile defense areas were created in Western Europe: one has already been created in Romania, while the deployment of the system in Poland is now almost complete..." (transcript):
Defeating missile defenses, from Putin's speech to the Federal Assembly, March 1:
- The Sarmat ICBM "is untroubled by even the most advanced missile defense systems."
- A nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable cruise missile: "invincible against all existing and prospective missile defense and counter-air defense systems."
- A high-speed, deep ocean nuclear drone "There is simply nothing in the world capable of withstanding them."
- The RS-26 "Avangard" (aka YU-71) A nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle that can travel at 20 times the speed of sound. "It flies to its target like a meteorite, like a ball of fire"
The intersection of these two contrasting frames of reference could see misunderstandings, confusion, and conflict. Putin seemed to feel obliged to make a clear warning.
"We are greatly concerned by certain provisions of the revised Nuclear Posture Review, which... reduce the threshold for use of nuclear arms... in response to conventional arms attacks and even to a cyber-threat."
"As such, I see it as my duty to announce the following.
Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, weapons of short, medium or any range at all, will be considered a nuclear attack on this country. Retaliation will be immediate, with all the attendant consequences."
But he continued: "There should be no doubt about this whatsoever. There is no need to create more threats to the world. Instead, let us sit down at the negotiating table and devise together a new and relevant system of international security and sustainable development for human civilisation. We have been saying this all along. All these proposals are still valid. Russia is ready for this."
And in closing, "I hope that everything that was said today would make any potential aggressor think twice, since unfriendly steps against Russia such as deploying missile defenses and bringing NATO infrastructure closer to the Russian border become ineffective in military terms and entail unjustified costs, making them useless for those promoting these initiatives.
"It was our duty to inform our partners of what I said here today under the international commitments Russia had subscribed to. When the time comes, foreign and defense ministry experts will have many opportunities to discuss all these matters with them, if of course our partners so desire." (more details- see full speech transcript) Stephen Cohen: How Washington Provoked- and Perhaps Lost- a New Nuclear-Arms Race
March 2, RT: "Russian lawmakers emphasize that Putin's address was a call for peace and talks" "Senator Aleksey Pushkov said in comments to RT that he thought that the main message of Putin's address to the international community was very clear: 'don't even think of using any kind of weapons against Russia and don't have any illusions about Russia's strength in the military field.'
"Pushkov noted that certain circles in the United States tend to calm themselves by calling Russia 'a weak regional power' but the presentation made by the Russian president had made it absolutely clear that any speculations about Russia's supposed weakness were total nonsense.
"However, the senator also stressed that the display of strength was not aimed at intimidation. Putin suggested a reconsideration of the western strategy of strategic encirclement, as well as the US strategy of creating new weapons that can overcome the Russian strategic nuclear potential.
"'He says this is meaningless, you will not achieve anything so let us sit down and talk. I am absolutely sure that now we will see a hysterical reaction from the US mass media, but it is important to stress that there is a second part to Putin's message- it is not just a display of our capabilities, it is also an offer to discuss and come to some solutions,' Pushkov told RT."
For Immediate Release March 1, 2018: The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities: Benefits for the Select Few
Santa Fe, NM- According to media reports, Andrea Romero, Executive Director of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities, is accused of charging some $2,200 dollars of unallowable travel costs, such as alcohol and baseball tickets, while lobbying in Washington, DC for additional funding for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
Worse, there's the matter of her private company being funded by the lab contractor. LANS. "It is, at a minimum, unseemly for the Executive Director of the Regional Coalition, which lobbies for increased LANL funding, to receive funding for her private business from LANS, who runs LANL. Ultimately that funding for her private business comes from the American taxpayer."
- (All the details, see full press release PDF)
- New Mexican, March 2: Funds for ostrich farm fuel criticism of regional coalition
For Immediate Release February 28, 2018: Major LANL Cleanup Subcontractor Implicated in Fraud-
Entire Los Alamos Cleanup Should Be Re-evaluated
Santa Fe, NM. On December 17, 2017, the Department of Energy awarded a separate $1.4 billion contract for cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to Newport News Nuclear BWXT-Los Alamos, aka 'N3B'. This award followed a DOE decision to pull cleanup from LANL's prime contractor, Los Alamos National Security, after it sent an improperly prepared radioactive waste drum that ruptured underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. That incident contaminated 21 workers and closed WIPP for nearly three years, costing taxpayers at least $1.5 billion to reopen.
Tetra Tech Inc is a major subcontractor for N3B in the LANL cleanup contract. Tetra Tech is part of Tech2 Solutions, and will be responsible for the groundwater and storm water programs at LANL that are of intense interest to the New Mexico Environment Department and citizen environmentalists. To date, these programs have been supported by several New Mexico small businesses that will be displaced by Tetra Tech.
Serious allegations of fraud by Tetra Tech were raised long before the LANL cleanup contract was awarded. The US Navy found that the company had committed widespread radiological data falsification, doctored records and supporting documentation, and covered-up fraud at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard cleanup project in San Francisco, CA.
See media links and excerpts, all the details in the full press release (PDF)
Enough is Enough!
Concerned Citizens' Comments Needed
We urge our readers to send in their comments on these two important issues for our state. Every comment submitted helps build momentum to stop plans for bomb production at LANL and a high-level nuclear waste repository in southeast NM.
LANL Rad Lab - Plutonium Pit Production
Comments due by April 26.
sample comments
- NNSA is planning a 10-fold increase in plutonium at the LANL Rad Lab with a view to ramping up the production of plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons.
- NNSA wants to re-categorize the Rad Lab from a "radiological facility" to a "Hazard Category-3" nuclear facility.
(See details in our press release)
- Here are sample comments you can use.
- Send comments to : RLUOBEA@hq.doe.gov
Lethal High Level Waste Site Near Carlsbad
- sample comments
Comments due by May 29.
- New facility to store 100,000 metric tons of lethal high-level nuclear waste from commercial reactors across the country, with potential to increase to 120,000 metric tons for 120 years.
Plans are for a shallow sub-surface burial system. These sites, and any transport to these sites, are not only dangerous, but environmentally unjust.
- More info: Lethal High-Level Waste to New Mexico
- sample comments
- submit comments online
Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to ICAN
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) received the Nobel Peace Prize Sunday, Dec 10 in Oslo, Norway. ICAN has been the driving force behind the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons voted this summer at the UN and now open for signatures. Nuclear Watch NM is proud to be one of ICAN's 400 affiliated organizations worldwide.
ANA's 30th Consecutive DC Days [2018]
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's 30th consecutive DC Days will take place May 21-23, with a training day on May 20. Learn how to work with Washington DC and lobby our representatives and staff effectively.
- Read about last year's DC Days events here.
- Online registration opens February 1. (go here)
Upcoming:
- NNSA: LANL contract will likely be awarded in May.
- We're hearing that a decision on venue(s) for plutonium pit production may come May 11.
Nuclear New Mexico
Click to see NukeWatch's annotated map of nuclear sites, including those on the way, in The Land of Enchantment
Nuclear Watch Legal Actions Ongoing
- Cleanup Lawsuit
See all related docs: NukeWatch lawsuit against DOE & LANS (LANL's corporate manager), re failure to execute cleanup of radioactive wastes.
- UPF Lawsuit
OREPA, NukeWatch, and NRDC lawsuit against the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) -the 'tip of the spear' for the $trillion dollar nuclear modernization project.
ANA Report 2017: Accountability Audit
This year's report examines the extraordinary spending at Department of Energy nuclear facilities and examines ways to reduce risks and save billions of dollars across the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. (View/download PDF)
Alliance For Nuclear Accountability 2016 Report Out-of-control U.S. nuclear weapons programs accelerate spending, proliferation, health and safety risks: The Trillion Dollar Trainwreck (PDF)
Newsletters and Calendars
- The Bulletin's Nuclear Roundup
Daily nuclear news; subscribe or view online. Very good selection.
- Ploughshares' Early Warning
"Daily news on the issues we're following from the desk of Joe Cirincione." Subscribe or view online.
- AM Nukes Roundup
A good one from Rethink Media. Compiles all of the day's top news and opinion pieces on nuclear issues- subscribe or view online.
- Proliferation News
From the Carnegie Nuclear Policy Program- subscribe or view online.
- Nuclear Policy News (CSIS)
Subscribe or view online. Very good selection. Note that CSIS's top ten corporate donors include Lockheed Martin, Northrup-Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics and Leonardo-Finmeccanica.
- Nuclear Calendar FCNL
Extensive email listing of all nuclear-related events, from the Friends Committee on National Legislation.
Subscribe or view online.
- National Security Legislative Calendar
From the Council for a Livable World. (ref)
- NucNews
Very extensive daily dump of nuclear-related news.
Annotated List of Nuclear Close Calls
An extensive and annotated list of dozens of "broken arrows"- incidents in which nuclear weapons were misplaced, stolen, damaged, or even detonated.
Compiled by Sarah Witmer at Wagingpeace.org, who notes: "These close calls emphasize the lack of proper security for nuclear weapons, and the lack of training and overall competence of militaries and leaders who possess nuclear weapons. There have been far more incidents than those listed here, and likely many that militaries and world leaders withhold as classified."(view list)
Current nuclear stockpiles
For country reports and other details see original annotated infographic at Ploughshares.org.
Accidental nuclear war- think it can't happen? It almost did, quite a few times. See this timeline of nuclear close calls, presented by The Future of Life Institute.
Radioactive Quotes
"Now is the time and the opportunity to ask whether those weapons are more of a security risk than an asset to NATO and whether they increase or reduce the risk of nuclear use."
- NTI Report "Building a Safe, Secure, and Credible NATO Nuclear Posture", presented to the Munich Security Conference February, 2018.
(source: NTI)
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Our Mission: Through comprehensive research, public education and effective citizen action, Nuclear Watch New Mexico seeks to promote safety and environmental protection at regional nuclear facilities, mission diversification away from nuclear weapons programs, greater accountability and cleanup in the nation-wide nuclear weapons complex, and consistent U.S. leadership toward a world free of nuclear weapons.
"If you really want a future world free of nuclear weapons, you can hardly make a better investment than to give to Nuclear Watch New Mexico. They need and deserve your support so that they can carry on their groundbreaking work. I urge you to be generous with them!" - Danielle Brian, Executive Director, 
Workers at Tetra Tech, a Pasadena-based firm with a history of winning government contractors, first came forward beginning in 2012 with allegations that the cleanup had been faked on the orders of higher-ups at the company. A review of Tetra Tech's data, conducted last year by other contractors hired by the U.S. Navy and first published by Curbed SF, found that as much as 49 percent of the company's work had signs of manipulation or outright falsification and could not be trusted, that the company had committed "widespread radiological data falsification and doctored records, and covered it up.
"'Whistleblowers are an invaluable resource for weeding out waste, fraud and abuse- the last thing the government should be doing is paying the legal fees of contractors who've retaliated against whistleblowers,' McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement."
"We are greatly concerned by certain provisions of the revised Nuclear Posture Review, which... reduce the threshold for use of nuclear arms... in response to conventional arms attacks and even to a cyber-threat."
Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to ICAN
