Category: New Mexico

Strong Political and Public Opposition Means Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) in NM “Impossible in the Near Future”

Sophia MerynHigh-level Radioactive Waste, Holtec, New Mexico, Nuclear Waste

https://www.axios.com/2025/08/15/nuke-waste-storage-nm-holtec

Is Holtec pulling out of New Mexico?

The two articles above describe new updates on Holtec’s nuclear waste storage plan in New Mexico.

Background: In June 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision reinstated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) license for a private “interim” high-level nuclear waste storage facility, formally known as a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF), in West Texas by the company Interim Storage Partners, reversing a prior appeals court ruling. Holtec claims this ruling also effectively restores their previously vacated license for its proposed CISF in Lea County, New Mexico.

New Mexico’s legal resistance to Holtec holds firm. State lawmakers passed Senate Bill 53 in March 2023, prohibiting any state agencies from permitting high-level radioactive waste storage projects. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has reiterated strong opposition, saying “Holtec is not welcome” in the state. https://sourcenm.com/2025/06/18/state-laws-protect-new-mexico-despite-scotus-nuclear-storage-ruling-against-texas-experts-say/

Big News: Just last month, on July 28, 2025, Holtec informed the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (its local partner) that state legislation and political resistance have made the project “impossible in the near future.” Holtec intends to pursue termination of its revenue-sharing agreement with Eddy-Lea. Even with a license in hand, Holtec cannot proceed without state permits, and New Mexico law (SB 53) prohibits those.

The New Mexico and Texas state laws blocking CISF facilities were hard-won victories, and aggressive advocacy is ongoing to continue legal and legislative pressure against the storage plan. See https://beyondnuclear.org/is-holtec-pulling-out-of-new-mexico/ for more! Our colleague organization Beyond Nuclear and other environmental groups continue to argue against Holtec’s New Mexico CISF scheme, which has obtained an NRC license that, thus far anyway, has been upheld by the federal courts.

“We hope to nonetheless stop the Holtec CISF, as well as the Interim Storage Partners CISF, 40-some miles to the east of Holtec’s site, in Andrews County, Texas, despite court-backed NRC license approval.”

The June Supreme Court ruling reinstated Holtec’s license by deciding that outside groups (states, NGOs, industry challengers) lacked proper standing to block it. But the Court did not rule on the merits of whether NRC has the statutory authority under the NWPA to issue such a license in the first place. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 gives the Department of Energy (DOE) the job of managing the nation’s high-level radioactive waste. The NWPA does not authorize the NRC to license private, away-from-reactor “interim” storage sites like Holtec’s. This leaves the door open to future challenges, either in court or in Congress, about the legality of private CISFs.

The public and NM and TX state officials continue to decry the risks of these CISFs, including the real possibility of the “interim” site becoming effectively permanent, the increase in radioactive waste transport, and the broader impacts on communities near the oil-producing Permian Basin in west Texas and the already oversubscribed transuranic waste dump in southeastern New Mexico, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

 

August 6th U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Commemoration in Santa Fe

Sophia MerynArchbishop, Budget, DOE, Downwinders, Environmental Impact, Hiroshima, ICAN, Japan, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Nagasaki, New Mexico, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, TPNW

Eighty Years Later, it is Beyond Time to Get Rid of Nuclear Weapons.

Last week on August 6, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, community members gathered at the Center for Progress and Justice on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe to honor the solemn occasion and demand an end to the ongoing nuclear weapons harm and destruction that first began here in New Mexico.

The event was organized by Nuclear Watch New Mexico in collaboration with the Up in Arms campaign by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, to reduce military and nuclear weapons spending, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize), the Santa Fe Archdiocese, the Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub, and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. It centered around a massive public art installation from Up in Arms of a towering cubic structure framed by messages on top of images of $100 bills. The structure is sized to literally hold $100 billion of those bills, respresenting what the U.S. spends every year on nuclear weapons (the total cost of nuclear weapons "modernization" is up to $2 trillion). Visible to thousands of drivers each day, the large installation pressures viewers to reckon with the scale of this cost and to imagine what else those resources could make possible. A prominent message on one of the four sides quotes the president in saying, "'We don't need to build brand new ones. We already have so many,' — Donald Trump" and below it, "His budget includes a down payment of $2 trillion of nuclear weapons." Another side reads, "The current U.S. nuclear arsenal is the equivalent of 50,00 Hiroshima explosions. One nuclear bomb killed over 100,000 people in Hiroshima."

The installation will remain on display for the foreseeable future, GO SEE IT NOW! 1420 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

During the event, speakers Archbishop John C. Wester (by video from Japan), Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, Sophie Stroud from Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Anne Pierce-Jones from Back from the Brink, Ben Cohen representing Up in Arms, and Seth Shelden from ICAN all gave concrete steps and actions that concerned citizens can take to help promote a safer world. The speakers were presented by former Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, who stated, “Disarmament is the only answer. I have spent my life working to end the nuclear cycle, as many have, and most of us in this room have never known a world without nuclear weapons.”

Speakers drew connections between the devastation in Hiroshima and the continued production of plutonium pits at LANL. At Los Alamos National Lab alone, five billion dollars will be poured into nuclear weapons programs in Fiscal Year 2026, starting this October. One billion dollars was added to last year’s budget, which includes a 42% increase for nuclear warheads. At the same time, nonproliferation programs are being cut, the science budget sliced in half, and funds for renewable energy zeroed out and gone completely. The push for "modernization" of the US’s nuclear arsenal is directly linked to plutonium pit production at Los Alamos, specifically expanding plutonium pit production. LANL will receive $1.7 billion in direct costs for pit production in 2026. Add in the indirect costs, and it’s roughly double that. All of this future pit production is exorbitantly expensive, yet the National Nuclear Security Administration still has no credible cost estimate for these plans.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: New plutonium pits are not needed to maintain the existing stockpile - it is all for future, new designs. And these new weapons cannot be tested because of the testing moratorium - or conversely could pressure the US to resume testing. In 2006, independent experts concluded that existing plutonium pits last at least a century. Their average age now is about 43 years. A new pit aging study is expected this year. Expansion plans should stop until then.

The U.S.’s $2 trillion “modernization” program is a plan to keep nuclear weapons forever. It is claimed to be essential for “deterrence.” But deterrence relies upon the flawed assumption that all actors will behave rationally, and that accidents or miscalculations will never occur. History says otherwise. Moreover, the U.S. and Russia have always rejected minimal deterrence in favor of nuclear warfighting capabilities that could end civilization overnight. That is why we have 1,000s of nuclear weapons and are funneling billions of dollars into mass death machines, even though everybody knows that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won.

See more on the myth of deterrance here:

Deterrence is the Threat: NukeWatch Presentation for Western New Mexico University – April 1, 2025

Media coverage of the event includes the Santa Fe New Mexican articles below:

New Mexico reckons with its role in Japan’s atomic devastation on 80th anniversary of Hiroshima

‘End the nuclear cycle’: Antinuclear New Mexicans speak out 80 years after Hiroshima bombing

View the full event recording - Click HERE or below:

Full Event Recording: Press Conference & Commemoration – Hiroshima Atomic Bombing 80th Anniversary Event (August 6, 2025)

View the photo gallery here:

Plutonium Pit PEIS Scoping Hearing Presentation: Slides and Recording

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, Kansas City Plant, LANL Cleanup, Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, Nevada National Security Site, New Mexico, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Strategy, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, WIPP

Get Prepared: A coalition of advocacy groups, including Union of Concerned Scientists, Tri-Valley CAREs, and NukeWatch New Mexico recently held a training to help participants prepare effective comments.

Watch the recording here
Password: gP=&0LYZ

Lawsuit Compels Nationwide Public Review of Plutonium Bomb Core Production

Sophia MerynStickyLos Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, NNSA, Nuclear Weapons, Pantex Plant, Pit Production at LANL, Pit Production at SRS, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, Washington DC

AIKEN, S.C. — Today the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency within the Department of Energy, published a formal Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to complete a nationwide “programmatic environmental impact statement” on the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. Pits are the essential radioactive triggers of modern nuclear weapons. The NNSA is aggressively seeking their expanded production for new-design nuclear weapons for the new nuclear arms race.

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) successfully represented the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment in a legal challenge to NNSA’s attempt to improperly jump start dual site pit production. On September 30, 2024, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that the NNSA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with its plan to produce at least 30 pits per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and at least 50 pits per year at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.

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Find Out the Facts & Sign the Petition: Why NMED Should Deny LANL’s Request for Tritium Releases

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, NMED, Tritium

Why NMED Should Deny LANL’s Request for Tritium Releases

The Los Alamos National Laboratory plans to begin large releases of radioactive tritium gas any time after June 2, 2025. The only roadblock to the Lab’s plans is that it needs a “Temporary Authorization” from the New Mexico Environment Department to do so.

Reasons why NMED should deny LANL’s request are:

  1. The state Environment Department has a duty to protect the New Mexican As it states, “Our mission is to protect and restore the environment and to foster a healthy and prosperous New Mexico for present and future generations.” 1
  2. Why the rush? LANL explicitly admits there is no urgency. According to the Lab’s publicly-released “Questions and Answers” in response to “What is the urgency for this project?”

“There is no urgency for this project beyond the broader mission goals to reduce onsite waste liabilities.” 2

    1. In addition, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) admits that the end time frame for action is 2028, not 2025.3 Therefore, there is time for deliberate consideration.
    2. Contrary to NMED’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit for LANL, the Lab has not fulfilled its duty to inform the public via NMED of possible alternatives to its planned tritium releases.4 According to Tewa Women United, “LANL has told EPA there are 53 alternatives; that list of alternatives, initially requested in 2022, has not yet been Tewa Women United has repeatedly asked LANL to provide the public with that list.” 5

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Formal Comments on the Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, New Mexico, NMED, NNSA, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Tritium

Full NukeWatch LANL SWEIS Comments Out Now!
The LANL SWEIS public comment period has ended, but you can still take action: Use our recent extensive comments as a resource & citizens’ guide to Lab issues.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires the Los Alamos National Laboratory to periodically prepare a new “Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Continued Operations.”

Please use NukeWatch NM’s recent extensive comments on the Lab’s new draft SWEIS as a resource and citizens’ guide to Lab issues.

Did you know, for example, that:

• LANL’s nuclear weapons production budget has doubled over the last decade?

• The Lab’s so-called cleanup plan is to “cap and cover” some 200,000 cubic yards of radioactive and toxic waste, leaving them permanently buried as a perpetual threat to groundwater?

• There is a planned intentional release of up to 30,000 curies of radioactive tritium gas, all without a public hearing?

View at: nukewatch.org/formal-comments-on-the-draft-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-for-continued-operation-of-the-los-alamos-national-laboratory/

 Use our lengthy formal comments as a starting point, toolkit or resource for dissecting ongoing and future issues at LANL!

We encourage you to use our comments to ask for follow-up info, either from us here at NukeWatch or from the Lab, and to demand better accountability and transparency! Use as background or briefing material for local and congressional advocacy.

For example:

  • Cite or excerpt our comments in future public processes under the National Environmental Policy Act. For example, we are expecting that a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement for plutonium “pit” bomb core production will be announced soon, the result of a lawsuit in which NukeWatch led.
  • Share with those organizing around stopping expanded plutonium pit production and advocating for genuine radioactive and toxic wastes cleanup.
  • Learn about LANL’s proposed electrical transmission line across the environmentally and culturally sensitive Caja del Rio and alternatives that were not considered.
  • The National Environmental Policy Act itself is under assault by the Trump Administration. We expect environmental justice and climate change issues to be stripped from LANL’s final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement. This needs to be resisted!

NukeWatch NM argued that the draft SWEIS should be withdrawn and a new one issued because:

 • The NNSA has rigged the draft LANL Site-Wide EIS with three self-serving scenarios:

  – Expanded nuclear weapons programs (contradictorily called the “No Action Alternative”).

  – Yet more expanded nuclear weapons programs (“Modernized Operations Alternative”).

– Yet far more expanded nuclear weapons programs (“Expanded Operations Alternative”).

• A Reduced Operations Alternative must be included.

• The SWEIS’ fundamental justification for expanded nuclear weapons programs is “deterrence.” But “deterrence” has always included nuclear warfighting capabilities that could end human civilization overnight.

• The SWEIS purports to align with U.S. obligations under the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty. That is demonstrably false.

• Future plutonium pit production is NOT to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. Instead, it is for new-design nuclear weapons that could lower confidence in stockpile reliability and/or prompt a return to testing.

• The SWEIS’ No-Action Alternative violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

• The legally required programmatic environmental impact statement on pit production should be completed first, followed by the LANL SWEIS.

• Plutonium pit reuse should be analyzed as a credible alternative to pit production.

• A recent proposal for a data center at LANL is not in the SWEIS. It raises huge issues of future water and electrical use, the appropriateness of commercial interests at a federal lab, and the possible fusion of artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons command and control.

• Recent Executive Orders could strip the final SWEIS of environmental justice and climate change analyses. This must have clarification.

• Planned tritium releases should be fully analyzed.

• The Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade should be analyzed will all credible alternatives.

• The proposed BioSafety Level-3 facility must have its own standalone EIS.

• All Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board concerns should be addressed and resolved.

• Genuine comprehensive cleanup should be a preferred alternative.

• A new SWEIS should follow a new overdue Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis.

Brief Analysis of Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments on the Illegality of Licensing Radwaste Dumps in TX and NM

Sophia MerynHigh-level Radioactive Waste, Holtec, New Mexico, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Waste

Today the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission vs. Texas. At issue is whether the NRC exceeded its authority when it approved licenses for proposed “consolidated interim storage facilities” for high-level radioactive waste, and this includes highly irradiated “spent” fuel from nuclear power plants.

Two consolidated interim storage facilities are planned for western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended specifically prohibits private “interim” storage of federal spent nuclear fuel, and disallows the Department of Energy from taking title to the waste unless a permanent geologic repository is licensed, built and opened.  The law intended to prevent private “interim” storage of federal radioactive waste because interim storage is much less robust than permanent storage, and would double the risk of accident or attack during transport, since consolidated “interim” storage means the waste has to be moved twice, once to the CISF and again to a permanent repository.

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NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop – February 6, 2025

Sophia MerynArchbishop, Downwinders, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, High-level Radioactive Waste, LANL Chromium Plume, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, New Mexico, NMED, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, Tritium, WIPP

Full Video Recording: NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop

NukeWatch Presentation: Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop
NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop

Independent Review of Chromium Groundwater Contamination Fails to Make Final Cleanup Recommendation

Sophia MerynChromium, Environmental Impact, LANL Chromium Plume, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico

After 20 Years Los Alamos Lab Still Doesn’t Know Size of Plume
At Present Rate Cleanup Will Take More Than a Century

On December 30, 2024, in the middle of the holiday season, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) posted the report Independent Review of the Chromium Interim Measures Remediation System to its largely unknown Legacy Cleanup Electronic Public Reading Room. This report attempts to address the Lab’s extensive contamination of the region’s deep groundwater aquifer by a large plume of hexavalent chromium, whose potentially serious human health effects (including cancer) was the subject of the popular movie Erin Brockovich.

LANL’s chromium contamination plume is at least one mile long, a half mile wide and 100 feet thick.[1] It is commonly regarded as the Lab’s most serious environmental threat. One drinking water supply well for Los Alamos County has been shut down because of the plume. Lab maps of the contamination depict it as abruptly stopping at the border of San Ildefonso Pueblo, which is highly unlikely.

The bottom line of the newly released chromium report is:

“…at this time the plume is not sufficiently characterized to design a final remedy… data gaps and uncertainties need to be addressed before committing to an alternative or final remedy.”

This is a full two decades after the chromium plume was first reported.

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How to Build A Nuke

Court Rules U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Plan Violates Federal Law

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., NEPA, New Mexico, Nuclear Weapons, Pit Production, Pit Production at LANL, Pit Production at SRS, Plutonium Pit Production

On September 30, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger Lewis ruled that the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) and its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (“NNSA”), violated the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) by failing to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with their plan to produce plutonium pits, a critical component of nuclear weapons, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (“LANL”) in New Mexico and, for the first time ever, at the Savannah River Site (“SRS”) in South Carolina.

The Court found that the plan’s purpose had fundamentally changed from NNSA’s earlier analyses which had not considered simultaneous pit production at two sites.  These changes necessitated a reevaluation of alternatives, including site alternatives, which Defendants failed to undertake prior to moving forward while spending tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars. Therefore, the Court entered judgment in favor of Plaintiffs, the nonprofit public interest groups Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Water New Mexico and Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs); the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition; and Tom Clements as an individual plaintiff.

As a result of this ruling, the Defendants are required to newly assess pit production at a nation-wide programmatic level which will mean undertaking a thorough analysis of the impacts of pit production at DOE sites throughout the United States, including radioactive waste generation and disposal. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this will provide the opportunity for public scrutiny of and formal comment on their assessments.

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RECA Advocates on Capitol Hill Renew Push for Nuclear Radiation Victim Compensation This Week

Sophia MerynEnvironmental Impact, Environmental Justice, New Mexico, Nuclear Testing, Nuclear Weapons, RECA

This week saw important developments surrounding the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which provides compensation to individuals affected by U.S. nuclear testing and uranium mining and expired in June earlier this year, leaving many who were exposed to radiation without compensation. Advocates and lawmakers are intensifying efforts to push Speaker Mike Johnson to bring RECA back to the House floor for a vote.

Two Native American women, Linda Evers and Tina Cordova, have been at the forefront of this fight, advocating tirelessly to preserve and extend RECA’s provisions. Their work has resonated powerfully, especially in New Mexico, where uranium mining and nuclear tests have left entire communities facing severe health crises. These populations have been disproportionately impacted by radiation and suffered from generations of exposure to radioactive contamination, leading to chronic illnesses, cancers, and premature deaths. The situation is especially dire for Native American and rural communities, who have long borne the brunt of this toxic legacy, with little to no compensation or acknowledgment. The fight to extend RECA is not just about justice—it’s about survival for those still suffering the long-term effects of these catastrophic policies.

In a recent Washington, D.C. event, activists from New Mexico voiced their frustrations over the lack of progress, pushing lawmakers to extend the act and increase compensation limits. See more on this in the news report above from KOB 4.

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Fate of interim storage at Supreme Court could be decided by October

Nuclear Waste ‘Interim’ Storage Updates

Sophia MerynHoltec, New Mexico, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Waste

In June 2024, Holtec International, along with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Justice, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a March ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court that vacated Holtec’s license to build a nuclear waste interim storage facility in New Mexico. The Fifth Circuit’s basis to vacate the license is that the NRC lacks the authority to license private interim storage sites like Holtec’s in New Mexico and a similar facility in Texas operated by Interim Storage Partners (ISP). Holtec’s petition to the Supreme Court aims to reverse the lower court’s ruling and allow the construction of the facility in southeastern New Mexico, which would store spent nuclear fuel “temporarily” while awaiting a permanent disposal solution.

Holtec contends that their operations are safe and necessary for managing the nation’s growing stockpile of nuclear waste. These sites and any transport to these sites are not only dangerous but environmentally unjust. New Mexico’s demographic is largely Latino. There are many communities of color, especially in the southern part of the state where the sites are being proposed. These sites present clear examples of environmental racism; people of color would be disproportionately affected if the Holtec/ISP CIS site were licensed and constructed.

For more background information, see:

Keeping a (Nuke)Watchful Eye on Consolidated Interim Storage: No High-Level Waste To New Mexico

Interim Storage Partners first applied for a federal license to build the site back in 2016. The NRC approved and licenced the facility in west Texas in 2021.

Key dates include the petition being docketed on June 27, 2024, and scheduled for the Supreme Court’s conference on September 30, 2024. During this conference, the justices will decide whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case (grants certiorari). If it does, oral arguments may be scheduled in late 2024 or early 2025, with a decision expected afterward. The timeline for any Supreme Court ruling could vary, but such cases often take several months for a decision following the grant of certiorari.

UPDATE – OCTOBER 4, 2024: The Supreme Court has granted certiorari, meaning the justices will hear arguments and decide the case.

From Courthouse News Service: “The court is expected to take up the case in its forthcoming term, which begins Monday. Arguments likely will begin next year, with a decision possible by the summer.”

For more information, see also: exchangemonitor.com/fate-of-interim-storage-at-supreme-court-could-be-decided-by-october

High Detections of Plutonium in Los Alamos Neighborhood – As We Enter a New Nuclear Arms Race the Last One is Still Not Cleaned Up

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, NMED, Nuclear Waste, Plutonium

In April Nuclear Watch New Mexico released a map of plutonium contamination based on Lab data. Today, Dr. Michael Ketterer, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Arizona University, is releasing alarmingly high results from samples taken from a popular walking trail in the Los Alamos Town Site, including detections of some of the earliest plutonium produced by humankind.

On July 2 and 17 Dr. Ketterer, with the assistance of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, collected water, soil and plant samples from Acid Canyon in the Los Alamos Town Site and soil and plant samples in Los Alamos Canyon at the Totavi gas station downstream from the Lab. The samples were prepared and analyzed by mass spectrometry at Northern Arizona University to measure concentrations of plutonium, and to ascertain its sources in the environment.

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Keeping a (Nuke)Watchful Eye on Consolidated Interim Storage: No High-Level Waste To New Mexico

Sophia MerynEnvironmental Impact, Environmental Justice, High-level Radioactive Waste, Holtec, New Mexico, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Waste, WIPP

If you follow news on nuclear waste, you know that the federal government is required by law to have a permanent disposal plan for our nation’s nuclear waste before engaging in temporary storage, or “consolidated interim storage” for commercial spent nuclear fuel. There are currently about 86,000 metric tons of this fuel in the U.S., stored on-site at operating or shutdown nuclear power plants in 33 states, an amount that continues to grow by about 2,000 metric tons a year (GAO). This is waste generated by nuclear power plants called ‘high-level radioactive waste’ (HLW), also known as ‘spent’ or ‘irradiated’ fuel. This waste contains plutonium, uranium, strontium, and cesium; it is most toxic and dangerous type of radioactive waste created by the nuclear industry and will be radioactive for millions of years.

Two private companies “Holtec” and “Interim Storage Partners” are proposing to build and operate facilities for HLW called “Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities (CISF)” in New Mexico and Texas. While federal law requires the government to have a permanent disposal solution, it does not explicitly prevent private entities from offering interim storage solutions. Enter money-gobbling Holtec and ISP.

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Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: February 2024

Sophia MerynFY 2023 Budget, FY 2024 Budget, High-level Radioactive Waste, Holtec, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, New Mexico, Pit Production, Pit Production at LANL, Pit Production at SRS

FEDERAL BUDGET NEWS

Release of federal FY 2025 budget expected March 11 (it will initially be just topline numbers).

Meanwhile on the FY 2024 budget: House and Senate Armed Services Committee authorized funding exceeding Biden’s request, including money for the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile and nuclear warhead (reminder: that the President doesn’t want), plus adding $$ for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. But appropriations bills are still not happening because of ever increasing congressional dysfunction. This is now best exemplified by Republicans rejecting an immigration bill they initially drafted but that Trump denounced because he wanted immigration to remain a hot issue during the presidential election campaign.

The current second “laddered” Continuing Resolution that is keeping the government running expires March 1 and 8.

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As New Mexicans Struggle, Sen. Heinrich is Proud of Nuclear Weapons Money

Sophia MerynBudget, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, Pit Production at LANL, Plutonium Pit Production, Sandia National Laboratories

Sen. Heinrich is so proud of all of the nuclear weapons money in New Mexico. He is one of the chief congressional architects of expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores and sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee from where he can direct $$billions to the Sandia and Los Alamos Labs.

But during the Department of Energy’s long presence in the Land of Enchantment, according to Census Bureau data New Mexico has slid in per capita income from 32nd in 1959 to 47th in 2022. New Mexico has the most children living in poverty (30%) and is rated dead last in well-being of children and quality of public education. Finally, in a report that the Los Alamos Lab tried to suppress, six county governments surrounding Los Alamos County suffer a net economic loss from LANL.

In fiscal year 2024 DOE will spend $10 billion in New Mexico, 75% for core nuclear weapons research and production programs and 5% for dumping related radioactive wastes in our state. DOE’s budget is 6% greater than the entire operating budget of the State of New Mexico ($9.4 billion).

Senator Heinrich, please explain what good all that nuclear weapons money does for average New Mexicans, and not just for the privileged nuclear weapons enclaves.

For much more, please see nukewatch.org/new-mexico-americas-nuclear-colony

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Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: January 2024

Sophia MerynFY 2023 Budget, FY 2024 Budget, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, New Mexico, North Korea, Sandia National Laboratories

FEDERAL BUDGET NEWS

Half of the federal budget (including Energy and Water appropriations which funds DOE) shuts down January 19 and the other half February 2 if a Continuing Resolution (CR) is not reached. House Speaker Johnson agreed to a previous funding agreement with the Biden Administration but the so-called Freedom Caucus is now in revolt.

Update: On January 18, Congress passes third stopgap funding bill instead of full FY24 budget, keeping the government funded until March. 

Sen. Martin Heinrich aids and abets the new, more dangerous nuclear arms race. He is outspokenly proud of all of the nuclear weapons money in New Mexico, and he is one of the chief congressional architects of expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. In congress, Heinrich sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee from where he can direct $$billions to the Sandia and Los Alamos Labs.

But during the Department of Energy’s long presence in the Land of Enchantment, according to Census Bureau data New Mexico has slid in per capita income from 32nd in 1959 to 47th in 2022. New Mexico has the most children living in poverty (30%) and is rated dead last in well-being of children and quality of public education. Finally, in a report that the Los Alamos Lab tried to suppress, six county governments surrounding Los Alamos County suffer a net economic loss from LANL.

In fiscal year 2024 DOE will spend $10 billion in New Mexico, 75% for core nuclear weapons research and production programs and 5% for dumping related radioactive wastes in our state. DOE’s budget is 6% greater than the entire operating budget of the State of New Mexico ($9.4 billion).

Senator Heinrich, please explain what good all that nuclear weapons money does for average New Mexicans, and not just for the privileged nuclear weapons enclaves.

For much more, please see https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/New-Mexico-Americas-Nuclear-Colony.pdf

ACCELERATING NUCLEAR ARMS RACE

North Korea Issues Ominous Warning About Nuclear Strike This Year
North Korea has issued an ominous warning about “the highest risk of clashes this year” between the totalitarian state and its neighbor to the south, which could end in “a nuclear strike,” according to South Korean media. Yonhap News Agency, a major media outlet in Seoul, reported on Thursday that North Korea media condemned recent Army artillery exercises and naval firing drills and exercises. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news agency of North Korea, said the exercises are “self destructive” and called South Koreans “warmongers,” according to Yonhap.

Los Alamos Lab’s Future at a Crossroads: Cleanup or More Nuclear Weapons? NukeWatch Applauds NM State Rejection of Fake Cleanup

Sophia MerynDOE, GAO, High-level Radioactive Waste, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, NMED, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Pit Production at LANL

Santa Fe, NM – In an important win for genuine cleanup at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has rejected the Lab’s plans for so-called cleanup through “cap and cover.” LANL’s plan would leave existing radioactive and toxic wastes uncharacterized and forever buried in unlined pits and trenches as a permanent threat to groundwater. At issue is remediation of the Lab’s “Material Disposal Area C” waste dump that has 7 pits and 108 shafts of radioactive and toxic wastes. Area C is located in the heart of nuclear weapons production at LANL, contiguous to the Lab’s main plutonium facility which is expanding production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores.

In a September 7, 2023 “Public Notice of Statement of Basis,” the Environment Department ruled:

“For maximum protection of human health and the environment and to ensure that the drinking water resource can be conservatively protected, NMED has determined that the selected [cleanup] remedy for MDA C must consist of waste excavation, characterization, and appropriate disposal of the buried waste… Excavation will ensure that the source of contamination at MDA C is removed…”

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Photos from Japan Pilgrimage of Peace

Sophia MerynArchbishop, Hiroshima, Japan, Nagasaki, New Mexico, Nuclear Weapons

Image Credit: The Archdiocese of Seattle Website (Daily Digests), Leslie M. Radigan & Archdiocese of Santa Fe Official Facebook Page, and Jay Coghlan of NukeWatch New Mexico.

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August 1 - First day of our Pilgrimage of Peace Novena in Japan
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August 2 - At Sophia, a Catholic University in Tokyo, attended by our leader, Hiro, where we toured the campus and met some of his teachers.
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August 2 - AB Wester and AB Etienne met with a reporter for The Asahi Shimbun paper to discuss the vision and purpose of this Pilgrimage of Peace, saying “Pope Francis has changed the moral needle with a seismic shift in the thinking on nuclear. He is saying even having nuclear weapons is immoral. He is laying the challenge before us…We want to start and sustain a thriving conversation on nuclear.” They shared the vision for verifiable multilateral nuclear disarmament as a pathway to peace and explained that many might think they are naive. “But we believe it’s far more naive to continue with what we’re doing now.”
“We are here to see what we can do to advocate for peace and share the gospel,” said AB Etienne. We are here “to invite people to realize that we can have peace by growing relationships with our neighbors and communities. We need to do that as people before we can do so as nations.”
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August 3 - A train ride to Kamakura, a 12th-century city on the coast.
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August 3 - Walking up to the Zen Engaku-ji Temple in Kamakura, founded in 1282 by Mugaku Sogen to honor those killed in wars against Mongolia. The quiet and peacefulness of the temple grounds, meditation rooms, and garden were palpable.
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August 3 - The Zen Engaku-ji Temple, founded in 1282 by Mugaku Sogen to honor those killed in wars against Mongolia. The quiet and peacefulness of the temple grounds, meditation rooms, and garden were palpable.
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August 3 - The Great Buddha of Kamakura. The national treasure began in 1252 and was completed approximately 10 years later.
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August 3 - Kamakura Daibutsu (The Great Buddha of Kamakura). The national treasure began in 1252 and was completed approximately 10 years later.
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August 3 - In Kamakura, a 12th-century city on the coast of Japan, visiting the Sisters of the Visitation.
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August 4 - Hiroshima Peace Memorial with Genbaku Dome in Background
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August 4 - New Mexico and Seattle Pilgrims of Peace at Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 4 - NukeWatch Director Jay Coghlan with famous Hibakusha Setsuko Thurlow
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August 4 - Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 4 - Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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August 6 - The Hiroshima Peace Park sign.
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August 6 - In Hiroshima, Japan
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August 6 - Hiroshima, Japan: Amidst this solemn atmosphere, the day elicited a mix of grief, reverence, and a call for peace, underscoring the importance of nuclear disarmament and the lasting effects of human conflict.
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Upon arrival, we met with the Mayor of Nagasaki, Mr. Shiro Suzuki, at City Hall. Our goal was to share our mission and express our interest in working collaboratively with the city and Japan's Catholic bishops. He shares our goals and is committed to working to abolish nuclear weapons. Archbishop Wester presented Mayor Suzuki with an Executive Order from the City of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller commemorating August 9, 2023, "In Honor of The Japanese Innocent Lives Lost."
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Photo from event, "Interfaith Dialogue and Exchange of Religious Leaders with a Common Desire for World Peace"
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August 7 - Nagasaki, Japan: Urikami Cathedral for Mass
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August 8 - Nagasaki, Japan: the Atomic Bomb Museum.
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August 8 - Nagasaki, Japan: the Atomic Bomb Museum.
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August 9 - Our Lady of Nagasaki, a wooden head of the Virgin Mary that survived the bombing. Her burnt face is both miraculous and haunting as she reminds us of the devastation and pain of that horrific day.
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August 9 - The Madonna of Nagasaki - burnt 78 years ago by the plutonium bomb.
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August 9 - The Madonna of Nagasaki - burnt 78 years ago by the plutonium bomb.
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Breakthrough Study Bolsters RECA Claims for New Mexicans Exposed to Trinity Test Site Radiation

Sophia MerynDownwinders, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, New Mexico, Nuclear Testing, Nuclear Weapons, RECA

Plutonium Detections From Trinity Test Discovered 78 years After Test – Confirm RECA Must Be Expanded

Located in the Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico, the Trinity Test Site marks the location of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” would have you believe this area is desolate, inhospitable and uninhabited. Contrary to this narrative and popular opinion, The area where the Trinity test occurred was not  uninhabited. There were more than 13,000 New Mexicans living within a 50-mile radius. Many of those children, women and men were not warned before or after the test. The event marking the dawn of the nuclear age in July 1945 ushered in decades of health issues for residents living downwind due to exposure to radioactive fallout. The long-lasting impact of radiation exposure is a painful legacy that the New Mexican communities have had to bear.

New preliminary information strongly supports Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) status for New Mexicans downwind of the Trinity Test Site. In the past weeks, Michael E. Ketterer, (Professor Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ) has completed a short “proof of principle” study that directly investigates where plutonium in soils originates by analyzing isotopic ratios, in a known portion of the Trinity Test plume.

Dr. Ketterer sampled soils along highways NM 42, US 54, NM 55, US 60, and US 380. The isotopes show that there is definitely plutonium from the Trinity Test in the northeast plume, and distinguishes it from global (stratospheric) background and New Mexico regional background from Nevada Test Site fallout. Soils along all five of these highways contain plutonium that reflects mixtures of Trinity Test debris and global/Nevada regional background fallout; in some cases, nearly 100% of the Pu originates from the Trinity Test.

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Does New Mexico Deserve Downwinder Status: Definitely Yes, as Evident Via Plutonium Isotopes in 2023 Soil Samples

Sophia MerynDownwinders, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., New Mexico, RECA

Michael E. Ketterer, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff AZ

Introduction/objective: to investigate whether plutonium from the July 16, 1945 Trinity Test can be identified in contemporary soils and dusts near the Trinity Site. A proof-of concept study was conducted via a small-scale July 2023 collection of soil samples along five public highways transecting the areas reported to be most affected (refer to 239+240Pu deposition inventory map from Beck et al., 2020). More-distant soil samples were obtained from the Carson National Forest near Truchas, New Mexico.

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New Mexico: America’s Nuclear Colony

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, LANL Chromium Plume, LANL Cleanup, New Mexico, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons

Money doesn’t talk, it swears. (Bob Dylan)

Quick Facts

Nuclear New Mexico

• DOE FY 2024 budget in NM is $10 billion (double next state).
– 75% core nuclear weapons research and production programs
– 28% life extended and new-design nuclear warheads ($2.65B)
– 20% expanded nuclear weapons production ($2 billion)
– $1.75B expanded plutonium “pit” bomb core production
– 5% for dumping radioactive bomb wastes (WIPP $484 million)
• Expanding nuclear weapons programs sold as jobs, jobs, jobs
• Los Alamos County (LAC) 70.6% non-Hispanic Caucasian
• LAC is 11th richest county in USA, most millionaires per capita
• Los Alamos County median household income $123,677
• Los Alamos County per capita income $64,521
• Los Alamos County persons in poverty 3.7%
• Los Alamos County has least children living in poverty in USA
• Los Alamos County rated best county to live in in USA
• Historically LAC schools subsidized added $8 million/yr from DOE
• LAC receives >$50 million in annual state gross receipts taxes
• Dept of Energy renewable spending in NM is 0.5% of $10B budget
• Indigenous and Hispanic lands unjustly seized for LANL
• World’s first atomic bomb detonated at Trinity Test
• 75 years still no govt tally of sick Navajo/Laguna uranium miners
• At least 8,280 sick Los Alamos and Sandia Labs workers
• Major hexavalent chromium groundwater contamination at LANL
• LANL plans to “cap and cover” and leave >200,000 yd3 of waste
• USA’s largest repository of warheads 2 miles south of ABQ airport
• Nation’s only plutonium “pit” bomb core production site at LANL
• Nation’s only dump for bomb wastes at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
• NM targeted for all of nation’s lethal radioactive high-level wastes

New Mexico

• NM’s entire FY24 state operating budget is 6% less ($9.4 billion).
– 54% public education K-12 and higher
– 34% public health and safety

• NM per capita income falls from 32nd (1959) to 47th (2022)
• New Mexico 50% Hispanic, 11.2% Native American
• New Mexico 4th poorest state
• Median household income $54,020
• Average per capita income $29,624
• New Mexicans in poverty 18.4% (3rd highest in USA)
• 30% of New Mexican children live in poverty (highest rate in USA).
• New Mexico rated worst in well-being of children
• New Mexico is dead last in quality of public education
• Six surrounding county govts suffer net economic loss from LANL
• New Mexico has very abundant renewable energy resources
• DOE transfers excess land to white, wealthy Los Alamos County
• Generational cancers, Downwinders never compensated
• Chronically delayed remediation of 260 uranium mines and 7 mills

• NM facing decreasing water resources and increasing wildfires
• Lab commonly hires away senior NM Environment Dept officials
• >$5B for plutonium facilities, more than all NM schools & hospitals
• DOE threatens to sue NM over new WIPP state permit conditions
• Federal Nuclear Reg. Comm. grants license despite state opposition

New Mexico: America’s Nuclear Colony

New Mexico is the birthplace place of nuclear weapons. The “Land of Enchantment” has always been the single most important state within the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The Department of Energy (DOE) will spend $10 billion in NM in FY 2024, 6% more than the operating budget of the entire state government.

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