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Nuclear fallout: $15.5 billion in compensation and counting
Nuclear fallout: $15.5 billion in compensation and counting
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Nuclear fallout: $15.5 billion in compensation and counting
They built our atomic bombs; now they’re dying of cancer
By Jamie Grey and Lee Zurik | November 12, 2018 at 1:00 PM EST – Updated November 12 at 10:54 AM
LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO (InvestigateTV) – Clear, plastic water bottles, with the caps all slightly twisted open, fill a small refrigerator under Gilbert Mondragon’s kitchen counter. The lids all loosened by his 4- and 6-year old daughters because, at just 38, Mondragon suffers from limited mobility and strength. He blames his conditions on years of exposure to chemicals and radiation at the facility that produced the world’s first atomic bomb: Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Gilbert Mondragon, 38, pulls the cap off a plastic water bottle that had been twisted open by his young daughters. He hasn’t the strength for those simple tasks anymore and blames his 20-year career at the Los Alamos National Lab. He quit this year because of his serious lung issues, which he suspects were caused by exposures at the nuclear facility.
Mondragon is hardly alone in his thinking; there are thousands more nuclear weapons workers who are sick or dead. The government too recognizes that workers have been harmed; the Department of Labor administers programs to compensate “the men and women who sacrificed so much for our country’s national security.”
But InvestigateTV found workers with medical issues struggling to get compensated from a program that has ballooned ten times original cost estimates. More than 6,000 workers from Los Alamos alone have filed to get money for their medical problems, with around 53 percent of claims approved.
NNSA Review of UPF Compounds Legal Violations, Environmental Groups Say
OCTOBER 18, 2018
NNSA Review of UPF Compounds Legal Violations, Environmental Groups Say
BY EXCHANGE MONITOR
A September review by the Department of Energy compounded the agency’s alleged transgressions of federal environmental law stemming from a 2016 design change to a next-generation uranium plant under construction at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, a band of environmental groups said this week in an amended federal lawsuit.
The supplemental analysis DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) published last month on the Uranium Processing Facility “not only failed to correct the NEPA [National Environmental Protection Act] violations identified in Plaintiffs’ original Complaint, but also revealed additional ways in which the NNSA was continuing to violate NEPA,” the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote in an amended complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Tennessee.
Challenging the UPF Bomb Plant – Y-12 Supplement Analysis Comments
On July 5, 2018, OREPA and Nuclear Watch New Mexico—along with many of you!—submitted formal comments on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan for the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, TN. The gist of our comments is that NNSA is required to prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement, or at least a thorough Supplemental EIS, and can’t move forward with the UPF bomb plant until they have done so.
The comments, which you can read or download here, now become part of the Administrative Record which the judge hearing our legal challenge will use to decide the case.
We believe the government’s attempt to rectify their past errors is way too little and way too late, and the Supplement Analysis has effectively strengthened our argument. In addition to the comments, we also submitted attachments, including expert declarations on the NNSA’s plans, the seismic risks they are overlooking, and the unsuitability of a piecemeal approach to planning at Y12. You can read or download the attachments here.
Disarmament and Related Treaties
Published 4 December 2014 by The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, this publication contains the text of multilateral treaties that focus on nuclear weapons, and nuclear-weapon-free zones and other disarmament treaties.
Ebook version coming soon. PDF version available online now
Bombs Away- The Case for Phasing Out U.S. Tactical Nukes in Europe
An extensive report questioning the wisdom of stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Europe (incl. the B-61). Foreign Affairs, July/August 2014 Issue
Nuclear Ban Treaty
Reaching Critical Will Twitter feed
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (PDF)
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
ICAN has posted a Flickr album of annotated photos of the UN Ban Treaty negotiations.
The Ban Treaty achievement was preceded by the three Conferences on the Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons.
Recommended Reading
A Murderous History of Korea
New York Review of Books, May 18, 2017
Especially now, it’s important to know the context of the Democratic People’s Republic, which, by the way, has been in existence as long as the Soviet Union
Informed Analysis of Events in and Around North Korea
Selected Press Items
Koreas agree to work toward peace and ‘complete denuclearization’
Trump’s strike on Syria is exactly why North Korea wants nuclear weapons
The Trump-Kim Summit and North Korean Denuclearization: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Pence’s Anti-North Korea PR Campaign Bombs
US Vice-President Mike Pence rains on Olympic parade with Korea team snub
S. Korea, U.S. agree to work toward opening denuclearization talks with N. Korea
Could a false alarm like Hawaii trigger a war?
Japan public TV sends mistaken North Korean missile alert
Hawaii’s Nuclear Wakeup Call (and Why We Should Take MLK’s Advice)
What the Hell Happened in Hawaii?
Hawaii Panics After Alert About Incoming Missile Is Sent in Error
University of Hawaii emailed students tips on how to prepare for a nuclear attack
The New Hwasong-15 ICBM: A Significant Improvement That May be Ready as Early as 2018
North Korea signals intent to ‘complete’ its nuclear force
How U.S. Intelligence Agencies Underestimated North Korea
North Korea: Hawaii residents told to prepare for nuclear attack as tensions reach new high
California’s plans for North Korean nuclear attack revealed
The Memo: Fears escalate over North Korea
Trump at UN threatens to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea
North Korea’s Threat Pushes Japan to Reassess Its Might and Rights
North Korea responds to latest U.N. sanctions with second missile over Japan
North Korea’s nuclear plans are actually very clear. It’s far less obvious what Donald Trump will do
Hwasong 14: Not an ICBM? Still an open question
Analysis: North Korea’s “not quite” ICBM can’t hit the lower 48 states
UCS: North Korean ICBM Appears Able to Reach Major US Cities, incl. New York
North Korea Finally Tests an ICBM
How to Deal With North Korea: There are no good options
Detailed report on Nth Korea missile and nuclear weapons programs
Thinking the Unthinkable With North Korea
A Quick Technical Analysis of the Hwasong-12
North Korea Missile Test Appears to Tiptoe Over a U.S. Tripwire
Kirtland AFB Official News Paper
Find online here.
Jay Coghlan
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, commenting on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Nuclear Facility in the plutonium production complex at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Scott Kovac
Scott Kovac, Operations and Research Director, Nuclear Watch New Mexico debunking the argument that the economic impact of the proposed new nuclear facility at Los Alamos is an efficient use of $6 billion.
History Archives and Resources
Nuclear Files
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Nuclear Vault
Nat’l Security Archive, George Washington University, Nuclear Documentation Project
Atomic Heritage Foundation
Extensive historical documentation
Restricted Data
A blog about nuclear secrecy, past and present, run by Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
Archive of Nuclear Data
From the NRDC Nuclear Program
Wilson Center Digital Archive International History Declassified: Nuclear History
See the featured collections
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Digitized archives
Atomic Archive
Atomic Archive Photo Collection
Poisoned Waters and Poisoned Places
In 2001, ANA activists worked closely with Peter Eisler, an investigative reporter then at USA Today (now at Reuters), to produce this huge series of reports about the breadth of contamination and health risks from the U.S. nuclear weapons venture.