PLUTONIUM SAMPLING AT LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY
Cost of RECA Chart
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
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(ABC NEWS) Plan to discharge water into Hudson River from closed nuclear plant sparks uproar; (Spectrum News 1) Legislature approves bill to prohibit disposal of nuclear wastewater in Hudson River
The Indian Point nuclear plant along the Hudson River is at the center of a controversy two years after it was shut down
ABC NEWS – ByMICHAEL HILL Associated Press | June 20, 2023 abcnews.go.com
The latest flashpoint revolves around plans to release 1.3 million gallons of water with traces of radioactive tritium into the river as part of the plant’s decommissioning.
Legislature approves bill to prohibit disposal of nuclear wastewater in Hudson River
SPECTRUM NEWS 1, BY HUDSON VALLEY | June 20, 2023 spectrumlocalnews.com
Santosh Nandabalan, a senior organizer for the environmental group Food & Water Watch, said new legislation that would halt the dumping of all radiological wastewater into the Hudson River is critical to preserving one of the state’s most important ecological features.
“It is a huge threat not only to that water, but to the local communities along the river,” he said. “Then, there’s a vibrant economy that’s linked to this river, which would take a massive hit if that dumping went forward.”
The bill is a response to a plan by Holtec that would dispose of about 300,000 gallons of wastewater into the Hudson in September…
“The Doomsday Machine”: Confessions of Daniel Ellsberg, Former Nuclear War Planner
Daniel Ellsberg was best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers, but he was also a lifelong anti-nuclear activist, stemming from his time working as a nuclear planner for the U.S. government. In December 2017, he joined us to discuss his memoir, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. “This was an actual war plan for how we would use the existing weapons,” he noted, “many of which I had seen already that time.”
| June 20, 2023 democracynow.org
VIDEO: Reports number of stockpiles of nuclear warheads steadily increasing
ABC NEWS: Dan Smith says the Ukraine War has propelled the resurgence of nuclear threats, despite a general decline over the past 35 years.
CNN: Putin warns NATO over being drawn into Ukraine war, says Russia has more nuclear weapons
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned there is a “serious danger” of NATO being drawn further into the Ukraine war if members of the alliance continue to supply military weaponry to Kyiv.
By Zahid Mahmood, CNN | June 17, 2023 cnn.com
…“This is a serious danger of further drawing NATO into this military conflict,” he added.
During his speech to the forum, Putin also suggested Russia’s large number of nuclear weapons would “guarantee” its security – noting that Russia had more such weapons than NATO countries.
Russia has a total stockpile of around 6,250 nuclear warheads as of January 2021, according to the Arms Control Association. The US has more than 5,500 while two other NATO member states, Britain and France, have about 220 and 290 nuclear warheads, respectively.
“Nuclear weapons are created to guarantee our security in the broader sense and the existence of the Russian state,” Putin said.
“But first of all, there is no need and secondly the very fact of talking about it reduces the possibility of the threshold for using these weapons being reduced.”
Rest In Peace, Daniel Ellsberg
My dear father, #DanielEllsberg, died this morning June 16 at 1:24 a.m., four months after his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer. His family surrounded him as he took his last breath. He had no pain and died peacefully at home. https://t.co/x5qm73LW3c pic.twitter.com/GTBqgAADYj
— @RobertEllsberg (@RobertEllsberg) June 16, 2023
Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending – New Report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
In its report “Wasted: 2022 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending” the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows in 2022, the year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nine nuclear-armed states spent $82.9 billion on their nuclear weapons, more than $157,000 per minute, an overall increase of $2.5 billion from 2021.
By | June 12, 2023 icanw.org
Download the Executive Summary
Read the Executive Summary in Italian
Download the full report
Nine countries spent $82.9 billion on nuclear weapons, of which the private sector earned at least $29 billion in 2022. The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined, $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the U.S. did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.
This is the fourth annual report documenting massive investments in global nuclear weapons spending. Through an ever-changing and challenging security environment, from security threats of climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons spending has steadily increased, with no resulting measurable improvement on the security environment. If anything, the situation is getting worse.
As companies throw money at lobbyists and researchers to assert the continued relevance and value of nuclear weapons, the record shows the inutility of weapons of mass destruction to address modern security challenges — and the legitimate fear, backed by peer-reviewed scientific evidence, that they can end global civilisation as we know it.
Los Alamos labs contractor settles state violation; has federal notice for more issues – Source NM
New allegations from 2021 include contamination issues, flooding, improper staffing and dismissing hazardous waste protocols
| June 12, 2023 sourcenm.com
As contractors at Los Alamos National Lab resolved allegations of mislabeling hazardous waste in 2020 after a New Mexico Environment Department inspection, federal overseers recently reported additional significant safety violations from 2021.
Triad National Security, LLC is a contractor that manages the national lab, including LANL’s plutonium weapons program. Triad is co-owned by the Battelle Memorial Institute, Texas A&M University System, and the University of California.
On May 31, Triad and New Mexico’s environment department agreed to a $20,000 settlement, after the agency alleged Triad violated state laws during a 2020 inspection.
ICAN: The U.S. Spent $43.7 Billion on Nuclear Weapons Last Year—More Than EVERY Other Nuclear-Armed Nation COMBINED
A new report from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows that the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent a total of $82.9 billion on nuclear weapons, “of which the private sector earned at least $29 billion in 2022.” The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined, $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the U.S. did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.
ICAN states, “The nine nuclear-armed states may have wasted $157,644 a minute on nuclear weapons in 2022, but no matter how much they spend, their nuclear weapons remain tools of terror and intimidation propped up by a mythical tale of deterrence that is rapidly unravelling.
“Through an ever-changing and challenging security environment, from security threats of climate change to the Covid-19 pandemic to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nuclear weapons spending has steadily increased, with no resulting measurable improvement on the security environment…If anything, the situation is getting worse.”
“Luck, not reason or strategy, has kept nuclear weapons from being used in warfare for the past 78 years. But we can’t count on our luck to hold in perpetuity.”
If you need any more convincing of this fact, or of how “unacceptably dangerous nine countries’ reliance on nuclear weapons is,” watch this POV video where you’re the President and a nuclear attack is imminent. What do you do?
@kurz_gesagt POV: You’re the President and a nuclear attack is imminent. What do you do? #kurzgesagt #kurzgesagt_inanutshell #inanutshell #kurzgesagt_discover #nuclearwar #nuclearattack #nuclearattackwarning #pov #warzone #atomicbombs #emergency #urgent #decision #now ♬ original sound – Kurzgesagt – In A Nutshell
Searchlight New Mexico – The ABCs of a nuclear education
New Mexico’s local colleges are training students to work in a plutonium pit factory. What does this mean for their future — and the world’s?
By, SEARCHLIGHT NEW MEXICO | June 7, 2023 searchlightnm.org
Illustration by Kevin Beaty
Every day, thousands of people from all parts of El Norte make the vertiginous drive up to Los Alamos National Laboratory. It’s a trek that generations of New Mexicans have been making, like worker ants to the queen, from the eastern edge of the great Tewa Basin to the craggy Pajarito Plateau.
All in the pursuit of “good jobs.”
Some, inevitably, are bound for that most secretive and fortified place, Technical Area 55, the very heart of the weapons complex — home to PF-4, the lab’s plutonium handling facility, with its armed guards, concrete walls, steel doors and sporadic sirens. To enter “the plant,” as it’s known, is to get as close as possible to the existential nature of the nuclear age.
Over the next few years, the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility (PF-4) will undergo a paradigm shift to a large-scale production facility for weapon components, with the largest number of workers in its history. NNSA is investing billions of dollars in production-related infrastructure at Los Alamos, and the Board is continuing to urge commensurate investment in the safety infrastructure needed to ensure workers and the public are adequately protected from potential accidents at PF-4.
THE DEFENSE NUCLEAR FACILITIES SAFETY BOARD
For 40 years, some 250 workers were tasked, mostly, with research and design. But a multibillion-dollar mission to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal has brought about “a paradigm shift,” in the words of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, a federal watchdog. Today, the plant is in the middle of a colossal expansion — growing from a single, aged building to what the safety board calls “a large-scale production facility for weapon components with the largest number of workers in its history.”
Safe Storage Key to Dealing with Waste, Climate Change
“Much has been written about constructing a nuclear waste storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already granted Holtec an initial license for construction and for a similar facility in west Texas. The mayor of Carlsbad, speaking also for Hobbs, has written a letter supporting this. This facility would be halfway between Carlsbad and Hobbs. Nuclear Watch NM and the Los Alamos Study Group oppose the facility…”
BY ABQ JOURNAL NEWS STAFF, ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL | April 23, 2023 – Updated June 7, 2023 abqjournal.com
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and our congressional delegation have all spoken against it. Senate Bill 53, signed into law this session, bans such facilities in the state.
Comments on the scope of the Environmental Assessment for Chromium Plume Interim Measure and Final Remedy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
Nuclear Watch New Mexico June 6, 2023 | Email
NEPA Document Manager
U.S. DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office
1200 Trinity Drive, Suite 400
Los Alamos, NM 87544
By email to: emla-nepa@em.doe.gov
Dear Document Managers,
Nuclear Watch New Mexico (NWNM) respectfully submits these comments on the needed scope of the Environmental Assessment for Chromium Plume Interim Measure and Final Remedy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico (hereinafter “Cr EA”). We would appreciate their serious consideration by the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) and look forward to a comprehensive response.
Our mission statement: 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.
We work on contemporaneous budget, environmental and policy issues concerning nuclear weapons facilities. We have publicly and vocally pressed the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to diversify its missions away from nuclear weapons programs and move more toward critically needed programs, such as nonproliferation efforts, other new national security priorities (for example, port security), and pure science and energy efficiency programs. Through detailed budget analyses, we hope to demonstrate that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) can move towards comprehensive cleanup of the LANL site and still contribute to the economy of New Mexico.
The U.S. is flirting with the initiation of another nuclear arms race, the first since the end of the Cold War. The Department of Energy’s plan is to rebuild the nuclear weapons complex for continuing nuclear warhead production throughout the 21st century, including new designs. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires a hard look at all reasonable alternatives to preferred federal proposals.
