Sat. June 10th 2:00pm MT – Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester on the Need for Nuclear Disarmament
Mountain Cloud Zen Center
7241 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505
Attendance in person is encouraged.
This event will also be web streamed at sit.mountaincloud.org
passcode: mountain22
Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester will lead a discussion on the need for nuclear disarmament at the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM. He will be introduced with a brief overview of the issues by Sangha member Jay Coghlan, Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico. Both in person attendees and online participants will have the opportunity for questions and answers.
John C. Wester was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1976 and installed as auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in 1998. He was appointed Bishop of Salt Lake City in 2007. He was subsequently installed as the twelfth Archbishop of Santa Fe on June 4, 2015. He has taken up the cause of nuclear disarmament because more money is spent on nuclear weapons in his Santa Fe Archdiocese than any other diocese in the country.
Archbishop Wester believes that humanity is entering a new and more dangerous arms race. To help counter that he is promoting interfaith dialogue and effort toward a future world free of nuclear weapons. This includes an event with the working title of A World Without Nuclear Weapons, From Reflection to Action: An Interfaith Remembrance of the Trinity Test on the afternoon of Sunday, July 16, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the Trinity Test. This will be held at the Santa Maria de la Paz Center at 11 College Ave., Santa Fe, NM (just before the Santa Fe Community College). This event has added significance in advance of the scheduled release of the major Hollywood film Oppenheimer on July 21.
In August Archbishop Wester will travel to Japan with the Archbishop of Seattle to commemorate the 78th anniversaries of the atomic bombings with the Bishops of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Together, they will appeal for and work toward a future world free of nuclear weapons. Their efforts follow Pope Francis’ guidance, under whose leadership the Vatican was the first to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Upcoming Public Comment Opportunities on (1) Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Sandia National Laboratories and (2) on LANL Chromium Interim Measures
- June 5, 2023 – comments due on scope of a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Sandia National Laboratories. https://www.federalregister.gov/…/national-nuclear… and https://www.energy.gov/…/doeeis-0556-site-wide…
Written comments on the scope of the SNL/NM SWEIS or requests for information related to the SNL/NM SWEIS may be sent via postal mail to:
SNL/NM SWEIS Comments
National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia Field Office
PO Box 5400
Albuquerque, NM 87185
or by email to: [email protected] or [email protected] - June 6, 2023 – comments due on the scope of an Environmental Assessment for the Chromium Interim Measures and Final Remedy.
Submit your comments to: [email protected] (preferred)
Please use the subject line: Chromium EA Scoping Comment
U.S. mail:
Jesse Kahler
NEPA Compliance Officer
U.S. DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office
1200 Trinity Drive, Suite 400
Los Alamos, NM 87544
12TH INTERNATIONAL URANIUM FILM FESTIVAL RIO DE JANEIRO
MAY 18 – 28, 2023
Free online screening 24/7
National Nuclear Security Administration/Environmental Management Santa Fe Town Hall
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
6:30-8:30 PM
Santa Fe Convention Center
In Person and Virtual
NNSA Under Secretary, Jill Hruby and DOE’s Environmental Management Senior Leader, Ike White will be in attendance in person.
The Town Hall will be moderated by Santa Fe County Commissioner Chair Anna C. Hansen, who invited them to be here.
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) Public Hearing November 16 on “Legacy cleanup activities, nuclear safety, and increased production activities” at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
Santa Fe, NM 87501
On November 16, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold a public hearing at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Join In-Person if You Can!
The hearing will also be streamed and a link will be available on the hearing website on the day of the event: https://www.dnfsb.gov/public-hearings-meetings/november-16-2022-public-hearing
Endless Nuclear Waste Storage in NM?? Not On Our Watch…
Keep up with the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition to learn how to take action against the Federal Government’s Plan to Expand WIPP and keep it open indefinitely.
Visit the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition’s website and social media:
Website: www.StopForeverWIPP.org
Facebook: facebook.com/StopfvrWIPP
Twitter: twitter.com/stopforeverwipp
Instagram: instagram.com/stopfvrwipp
A Guide to “Scoping” the New LANL SWEIS
“Scoping” means determining the issues that should be included in public analyses required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of proposed major actions by the federal government. According to the Department of Energy ‘s own NEPA implementation regulations, DOE must prepare a new or supplemental site-wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) for its major sites when there are “significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns.” The last site-wide EIS for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was completed in 2008 and is badly outdated. Moreover, since 2018 the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, has been aggressively expanding the production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores for nuclear weapons at the Lab.
On August 19, 2022, NNSA finally announced its intent to prepare a new LANL SWEIS, but apparently the agency will not address expanded plutonium pit production.1 NNSA’s dubious argument is that it performed the legally required NEPA analysis for expanded plutonium pit production in a 2008 Complex Transformation Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, the 2008 LANL SWEIS and a woefully inadequate “Supplement Analysis” in 2020 that concluded a new SWEIS was not needed. 2 3
Issues That Must Be Addressed in a New LANL SWEIS
This is meant to be a guide to (or list of) the issues that must be addressed in a new draft LANL SWEIS. It is not completely exhaustive, nor is it a comprehensive fact sheet on the substance of the issues. Nuclear Watch New Mexico will offer suggested scoping comments for interested citizens and submit its own comprehensive formal comments before the October 3 deadline or extended deadline (see “Timing” below).
Stay Informed of All Permit-Related Happenings at WIPP! Sign Up for Updates:
The New Mexico Environment Department maintains a Facility Mailing List to which you can add your name and address to get the latest information – just email Ricardo Maestas at the New Mexico Environment Department at [email protected] and ask to be added to the list. Or mail your request with your mailing address to:
Ricardo Maestas
New Mexico Environment Department-Hazardous Waste Bureau
2905 Rodeo Park East, Bldg. 1
Santa Fe, NM 87505
WIPP also uses the facility mailing list to inform you about opportunities to provide public comments. NMED provides their list to WIPP.
More Info and signup options:
HELP US SUPPORT NEW MEXICO’S GOVERNOR IN ACTING TO STOP WIPP EXPANSION!
STOP “FOREVER WIPP!”
The Department of Energy is seeking to modify the nuclear waste permit for southeastern New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Dragging out WIPP’s operations decades past the original 20-year agreement violates the social contract made with New Mexicans. WIPP is being equipped to take the waste that will be generated from production of plutonium pits for nuclear warheads, and it was never supposed to do that. An expansion of WIPP will impact the entire country, not just residents of southeastern New Mexico.
View the videos below for more information, and, if you live in an area that may be endangered by these nuclear waste transportation risks, please consider making your own “This is My Neighborhood” video!
Background Information – Problems with Nuclear Waste
Playlist: Problems with Nuclear Waste
Mixed Waste Landfill Facts
