Once Again – It’ll Cost More and Take Longer
Decades of nuclear materials production at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site in South Carolina have left 37 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste in 49 underground storage...
Search Results for: radioactive waste
Complete excavation of Area G now estimated at only $9.1 billion
Q: How much does it cost to cleanup a 65-acre, 50-year-old, nuclear weapons laboratory unlined dump full of low-level radioactive waste (LLW), radioactively contaminated infectious waste, asbestos contaminated material, transuranic...
Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) Town Hall December 3rd, 2025 – Thoughts from Nuclear Watch New Mexico:
The LANL Director mentioned Non-proliferation is a big part of their work. However, the Nuclear Nonproliferation program budget is a mere 6.5% of the total Lab budget (Nuclear Weapons is...
Department of Energy Seeks to Eliminate Radiation Protections Requiring Controls “As Low As Reasonably Achievable”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 21, 2025 Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email Santa Fe, NM – An internal Department of Energy (DOE) memorandum eliminates worker and public radiation...
Department of Energy Seeks to Eliminate Radiation Protections Requiring Controls “As Low As Reasonably Achievable”
An internal Department of Energy (DOE) memorandum eliminates worker and public radiation protection rules known “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” (ALARA). This fundamental departure from decades of accepted health physics...
Lab Chromium Contamination Confirmed on San Ildefonso Pueblo Land
Comprehensive Cleanup Needed Instead of More Nuclear Weapons The New Mexico Environment Department has announced: “A toxic chromium plume from Los Alamos National Laboratory has spread beyond Lab boundaries onto...
Lab Chromium Contamination Confirmed on San Ildefonso Pueblo Land
Comprehensive Cleanup Needed Instead of More Nuclear Weapons FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, November 14, 2025 Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email Contact: Scott Kovac, 505.316.4148 | Email Santa Fe,...
New Article about “Participatory Democracy in Action” Describes WIPP Permit Negotiations
Thanks to our friends at Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety for this article: In an essay for NYU’s Democracy Project, David F. Levi, a former federal judge and director emeritus...
New Mexicans Can Save the DNFSB; Contact Our Senators Today
From our friends at Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety: The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has been dwindling from a five-member board to one member and may disappear if...
Victory! Proposed Tritium Venting by LANL Halted for Now Due to Community Pressure
Proposed Tritium Venting by Los Alamos National Lab Postponed Indefinitely after Community Pressure THANK YOU to the over 2,500 of you who signed our Petition to Deny LANL’s Request to...
Formal Comments on the Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory
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 &...
Historic Settlement Reached in NEPA Lawsuit Over Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production
Nonprofit public interest groups have reached an historic settlement agreement with the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). This is the successful result...
Historic Settlement Reached in NEPA Lawsuit Over Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 17, 2025 Media Contacts: Ben Cunningham, Esquire, SCELP, 843-527-0078, ben@scelp.org Tom Clements, Savannah River Site Watch, 803-834-3084, tomclements329@cs.com Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, 505-989-7342, jay@nukewatch.org...
DOE Rejects Comprehensive Cleanup at Los Alamos Lab; Designates Expanded Nuclear Weapons Production as Preferred Future
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 15, 2025 Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342 | Email Santa Fe, NM – Today, in an informal conference hosted by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), the Department of...
New Draft LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement is Released
NNSA’s Preferred Future for the Lab is Radically Expanded Nuclear Weapons Programs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 10, 2025 Jay Coghlan – 505.989.7342 | Email Santa Fe, NM – The National Nuclear...
New Draft LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement is Released
NNSA’s Preferred Future for the Lab is Radically Expanded Nuclear Weapons Programs The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has finally released its Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Continued...
Independent Review of Chromium Groundwater Contamination Fails to Make Final Cleanup Recommendation
After 20 Years Los Alamos Lab Still Doesn’t Know Size of Plume At Present Rate Cleanup Will Take More Than a Century FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 2, 2025 Contact: Jay...
Independent Review of Chromium Groundwater Contamination Fails to Make Final Cleanup Recommendation
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...
Working Together, We Can Meet Enormous Challenges
Dear Friends, As we look back on 2024, Nuclear Watch New Mexico hopes you had a wonderful year. We wish you peace and prosperity. Given uncertain times ahead, we are...
Santa Fe New Mexican: Santa Fe County commissioners grill federal official over LANL legacy cleanup
Santa Fe County commissioners on Tuesday pressed an official from the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office on legacy waste cleanup, including the status of a toxic chromium plume under...
The Energy Department just made one plutonium pit. Making more is uncertain
Coinciding with NNSA’s announcement of the first diamond-stamped pit, a US District Court ruled that the Energy Department and the NNSA violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing...
Watchdog group reports ‘extreme contamination’ of plutonium at Los Alamos open space
The legacy of environmental waste is “hiding in plain sight” at a popular open space in the heart of Los Alamos that became a dumping ground during the Manhattan Project,...
How a US health agency became a shield for polluters
Companies and others responsible for some of America’s most toxic waste sites are using a federal health agency’s faulty reports to save money on cleanups, defend against lawsuits and deny...
Santa Fe New Mexican MY VIEW: On Trinity test anniversary, U.S. should rethink national priorities
By John C. Wester, SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN | July 21, 2024 santafenewmexican.com My archdiocese, home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Yet 79...
A last push for RECA as sunset looms
“The shared stories here are harrowing. Uranium workers from Laguna and Acoma Pueblos and the Seboyeta and Cubero land grants who toiled in mines after 1971 and the Tularosa Basin...