Watchblog
Lawsuit Compels Nationwide Public Review of Plutonium Bomb Core Production
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...Continue reading→
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 Release Radioactive Tritium into the Air! A massive thank you as well to our fellow campaigners we worked alongside on this issue, Tewa Women United...Continue reading→
Plutonium Pit PEIS Scoping Hearing Presentation: Slides and Recording
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 VIEW/DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION (PDF)
Plutonium Pit Production Programmatic EIS “Scoping” Comments
VIEW/DOWNLOAD AS PDF
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: May 2025
Nuclear Weapons Budget: • Republicans are pushing for $1 trillion per year for military spending. The fiscal 2026 budget request calls for $892.6 billion in discretionary defense funding — same as FY 2025 (and a cut given inflation). But they are also seeking $119.3 billion through budget “reconciliation.” • Congressional Budget Office “Projected Costs of...Continue reading→
Find Out the Facts & Sign the Petition: Why NMED Should Deny LANL’s Request for Tritium Releases
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...Continue reading→
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 & 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...
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: April 2025
Nuclear weapons Air Force Weighs Keeping 1970s-Era Missiles Until 2050 The US Air Force is considering contingency plans that would extend the life of 1970s-era intercontinental ballistic missiles by 11 more years to 2050 if delays continue to plague the new Sentinel models intended to replace them. The current plan is to remove all 400...Continue reading→
Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester Attend the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester's UN Speech on the Immorality of Nuclear Weapons at the 3rd TPNW MSPWatch this video on YouTube We had the honor of joining the Archbishop of Santa Fe, John Wester, in attending the third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last week, March...
Brief Analysis of Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments on the Illegality of Licensing Radwaste Dumps in TX and NM
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...Continue reading→
LANL Site-Wide EIS Hearings in Santa Fe and Los Alamos Filled with Loud Protest and Vehement Dissent: Nuclear Weapons are IMMORAL
In this Site-Wide EIS we’re given three options: Expanded nuclear weapons programs (hypocritically called the no action alternative), then we’re presented with yet more expanded nuclear weapons programs, and the third alternative is even more expanded nuclear weapons programs. What we really need is a genuine alternative in this Site-Wide, and I hope that citizens...Continue reading→
NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop – February 6, 2025
Full Video Recording: NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop NukeWatch Presentation: Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop
Remember the Downwinders
Today, Jan. 27 is a National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders. Nuclear testing by the U.S. government started in New Mexico with the Trinity Test in July 1945, and the Crossroads Series of three tests followed in the Pacific in 1946. The United States took part in nuclear testing as part of the escalating Cold...Continue reading→
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 of a lawsuit against NNSA over its failure to complete a programmatic environmental impact statement on the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores, as...Continue reading→
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 Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This is more than two years after it was first announced and sixteen years after the last site-wide...Continue reading→
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 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...Continue reading→
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 confident that by working together we can meet the enourmous challenges that are in store for us in 2025. DONATE Together, we can resist provocative...Continue reading→
The U.S. Nuclear Policy of Deterrence: What if it Fails?
The U.S. nuclear strategy of deterrence “aims to prevent an adversary from launching a nuclear weapon by assuring that any first strike will be followed by a retaliatory second strike, whose effects will equal or exceed the original damage and may eliminate the adversary altogether.” From a purely theoretical standpoint, its premise is simple: the...Continue reading→
Court Rules U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Plan Violates Federal Law
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...Continue reading→
RECA Advocates on Capitol Hill Renew Push for Nuclear Radiation Victim Compensation This Week
KOB 4 NEWS: New Mexican activists make cross-country trip to advocate for RECA reauthorization in DC 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...Continue reading→
Nuclear Waste ‘Interim’ Storage Updates
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...
High Detections of Plutonium in Los Alamos Neighborhood – As We Enter a New Nuclear Arms Race the Last One is Still Not Cleaned Up
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...Continue reading→
NNSA Town Hall July 22nd – Hruby: “We have to limit the growth of Los Alamos Laboratory…”
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) Los Alamos Field Office held a Town Hall event hosted by the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and EM on Monday, July 22, in Santa Fe. The Town Hall was led by NNSA’s Jill Hruby and EM’s Senior Advisor Candice Robertson. The intent according the...
Keeping a (Nuke)Watchful Eye on Consolidated Interim Storage: No High-Level Waste To New Mexico
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.,...Continue reading→
Your NukeWatch NM Team in DC!
Your Nuclear Watch New Mexico team has just returned from a weeklong trip to Washington D.C. (we went so you don’t have to!). We proudly joined the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) in their annual “DC Days” conference and following Spring Meeting, where over 60 individuals from 30+ groups journeyed to DC to lobby congress...Continue reading→
Recent Project: Plutonium Sampling at the Los Alamos National Lab
NukeWatch has recently published a project on plutonium sampling at Los Alamos National Laboratory showing plutonium migration and contamination into the groundwater at and around the lab. See more: Click Here for More VIEW FULL PAGE MAP Source/Reference Documents Map Spreadsheet Examples 2021-2023 Below are examples of a spreadsheets created in Intellus, which is the...Continue reading→
Jay Coghlan/NukeWatch NM Letter to the Editor: Santa Fe Reporter March 20, 2024
By Jay Coghlan, The Santa Fe Reporter | sfreporter.com EFF Designer Hannah Diaz Cover, March 13: “The Foilies” THE GREATEST FOILIE OF ALL The Reporter should stick around in its own back yard for the “The Foilies: Recognizing the worst in government transparency.” IMHO, it’s all small potatoes compared to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Los...
NNSA’s Nuclear Weapons Budget Takes Huge Jump
Arms Race Accelerates with MIRVed Warheads Los Alamos Lab Cleanup Cut Ironically the day after the film Oppenheimer was awarded multiple Oscars, the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) asked Congress for its biggest nuclear weapons budget ever. NNSA’s FY 2025 request for “Total Weapons Activities” is $19.8 billion, $700 million above...Continue reading→
DOE/NNSA budget numbers from FY 2024 Energy and Water Agreement
Some DOE/NNSA budget numbers from FY 2024 Energy and Water Agreement https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240304/FY24%20EW%20Conference%20JES%20scan.pdf President must sign by Friday March 8 to avoid a partial government shutdown, including DOE and NNSA. Lowlights: • Total funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) $24.135B (+8.9%) • $19.1 billion for NNSA’s Total Weapons Activities (+11.6% over FY 23) • $35M for the...Continue reading→
A Note on the Value of Site-Wide EISs in Midst of Texas Wildfires Updates
By Jay Coghlan Texas wildfires live updates: Blaze grows to 500k acres, leading to power outages, evacuations across the map nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/texas-wildfires-live-updates-huge-blaze-covers-300000-acres-forcing-ev The 2000 Cerro Grande Fire burned 3,500 acres of Los Alamos National Lab property and more than 250 homes in the Los Alamos townsite (I could see the bursts of propane tanks from...Continue reading→
DNFSB Recommendation February 8, 2024 – Excerpts Pertaining to LANL
Published 2/8/24 in the Federal Register at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-02-08/pdf/2024-02513.pdf Pre-published at: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-02513.pdf Page numbers below are from that. All excerpts are verbatim. DNFSB Recommendation 2003-01 Onsite Transportation Safety [TSD = “Transportation Safety Document” MAR = “Materials at Risk”, typically plutonium] Page 2: however, more work is necessary to ensure the LANL TSD appropriately identifies all hazards, analyzes...Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: February 2024
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 $$...Continue reading→
NNSA Suppresses How Taxpayers Money Is Spent
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has just released cursory two or three page summaries of contractors’ performance paid for by the American taxpayer. For the just ended fiscal year 2023, NNSA gave nothing less than grades of “Excellent” or “Very Good” in six broad mission goals for its major contractors. This is despite the...Continue reading→
As New Mexicans Struggle, Sen. Heinrich is Proud of Nuclear Weapons Money
Sen. Heinrich is so proud of all of the nuclear weapons money in New Mexico. He is one of the chief congressional architects of expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores and sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee from where he can direct $$billions to the Sandia and Los Alamos Labs. But...Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: January 2024
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...Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: December 2023
Nuclear weapons issues Final conference by Senate and House Armed Services Committee deleted expansion of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that would have covered Trinity Test Downwinders, among others. In contrast, it authorized tens of billions for expanding nuclear weapons programs. So, it’s nothing for those harmed by nuclear weapons testing and production in New...Continue reading→
Homily and Statement by Archbishop Wester to the Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
On November 29, 2023, the 34th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, and in conjunction with the Second Meeting of the State Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester gave a homily on nuclear disarmament at Our Church of the Savior near the United...
The Second Meeting of States Parties on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
Since the invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, to the recent situation in Israel/Gaza, the risk of impending nuclear war has been a reality considered by many for the first time. As stated at a side event during the weeklong meeting of States Parties on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) held last week...Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: November 2023
Nuclear weapons issues New bomb: The Pentagon has announced a new nuclear bomb, the B61-13. The B61-12 is now in production and will be forward deployed in Europe. But it has a dial-a-yield that maxes out at 50 kilotons. The new B61-13 will max out at 360 kt to get at hardened deeply buried targets...Continue reading→
U.S. Strategic Posture Commission Ratchets Up Nuclear Arms Race
Today, America’s Strategic Posture, The Final Report was released by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. In its own words: “The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States was established by the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and concludes that America’s defense strategy...Continue reading→
Los Alamos Lab’s Future at a Crossroads: Cleanup or More Nuclear Weapons? NukeWatch Applauds NM State Rejection of Fake Cleanup
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...Continue reading→
National Nuclear Security Administration: New Assessments of Major Projects from the Government Accountability Office
National Nuclear Security Administration: Assessments of Major Projects GAO-23-104402 Published: Aug 17, 2023. Publicly Released: Aug 17, 2023. The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to invest over $30 billion in its major projects to modernize the research and production infrastructure supporting the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. This is our first biennial assessment of NNSA’s major projects. As...Continue reading→
Photos from Japan Pilgrimage of Peace
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.
Breakthrough Study Bolsters RECA Claims for New Mexicans Exposed to Trinity Test Site Radiation
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...Continue reading→
Does New Mexico Deserve Downwinder Status: Definitely Yes, as Evident Via Plutonium Isotopes in 2023 Soil Samples
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...Continue reading→
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
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,...Continue reading→
New Mexico: America’s Nuclear Colony
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...Continue reading→
Holtec International, the U.S. Federal Government, and the State of New Mexico – What Do We Know?
Nuclear power is a trending topic lately. What’s missing from most of these conversations is the nitty gritty details of the nuclear waste produced from nuclear power plants, and how to handle it. In mainstream and social media, nuclear is often hyped up as a climate solution and the issue of what to do with...Continue reading→