Watchblog
Tom Udall’s Stand
The New Mexican Feb. 26, 2015 Letter to the Editor http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-to-the-editor-feb/article_74b054a2-432f-5f0e-8fb1-ec972291a10f.html Udall’s stand A recent New Mexican article (“Udall weighs in on LANL’s next mission: Pits,” Feb. 22) quotes Sen. Tom Udall, “As long as we have nuclear weapons, they have to have pits, and Los Alamos does that.” He then goes on to hope... Continue reading→
DOE Nuclear Weapons Budget Up 10%, Equals Cold War Record
Nuclear Watch New Mexico FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 2, 2015 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342 DOE Nuclear Weapons Budget Up 10%, Equals Cold War Record Huge Startup for Nuclear Cruise Missile Warhead $4 Billion Slated for LANL Plutonium Pit Production Facilities Cleanup and Dismantlement Funding Remain Flat Santa Fe, NM – Today, the... Continue reading→
Questions for the DOE FY 2016 Nuclear Weapons and Cleanup Budget Request
The Administration releases its Congressional Budget Request this Monday, February 2, 2015. Questions for the U.S. Department of Energy FY 2016 Nuclear Weapons and Cleanup Budget Request From Alliance for Nuclear Accountability A national network of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup The US nuclear weapons budget continues to... Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Sites Evaluations Released After NukeWatch requests
Performance Evaluation Reports For Nuclear Weapons Sites Continue to be Released After Nuclear Watch NM Freedom of Information Act requests In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Nuclear Watch New Mexico on March 28, 2012, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) released the FY2011 Performance Evaluation Reports for its eight nuclear... Continue reading→
Nonproliferation Expert Highlights Need for New Tools for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Verification
Nonproliferation Expert Highlights Need for New Tools for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Verification January 12,2015, nonproliferation expert Dr. James Doyle is releasing a report making the case for expansion of the nation’s nonproliferation programs, and will brief key congressional staff on his findings. While in Washington DC, Dr. Doyle is also meeting with the Department of... Continue reading→
More WIPP Fallout: NNSA Cuts Los Alamos Lab’s Award Fees by 90%
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 29, 2014 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154, [email protected] More WIPP Fallout: NNSA Cuts Los Alamos Lab’s Award Fees by 90% Watchdogs Say Management Contract Should Be Put Out for Bid Santa Fe, NM – Today, Los Alamos Lab Director Charles McMillan notified LANL employees that the National... Continue reading→
Watchdogs Urge Big Cut to Contractor Fees at the Sandia Labs
Watchdogs Urge Big Cut to Contractor Fees at the Sandia Labs December 19, 2014 – The Project On Government Oversight and Nuclear Watch New Mexico sent the Department of Energy Secretary a letter urging that the FY 2014 contractor incentive award fee for the Sandia National Laboratories be completely denied. The two watchdog organizations wrote... Continue reading→
GAO Seeks Broader Analysis For Proposed Liquid Waste Facility at LANL
GAO Seeks Broader Analysis For Proposed Liquid Waste Facility at LANL The Government Accounting Office (GAO) was mandated to review the “analysis of alternatives” (AOA) process applied by NNSA. The process entails identifying, analyzing, and selecting a preferred alternative to best meet the mission need by comparing the operational effectiveness, costs, and risks of potential... Continue reading→
Comments to DOE Re: Transition of Legacy Clean-up Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory
December 10, 2014 Jack R. Craig, Jr. DOE EM Re: Transition of Legacy Clean-up Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory Mr. Craig, Please consider these preliminary comments and requests concerning the transition of legacy clean-up work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Through comprehensive research, public education and effective citizen action, Nuclear Watch New Mexico seeks... Continue reading→
Safety Analysis Flaws Plague Los Alamos TRU Waste Handing Facility
Safety Analysis Flaws Plague Los Alamos TRU Waste Handing Facility The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) believes that the Radioassay and Nondestructive Testing (RANT) Shipping Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory must resolve safety issues prior to resuming operations. The DNFSB staff review team identified “significant flaws” in hazard and accident analyses. The RANT... Continue reading→
NNSA Governance Advisory Panel Condones Diminishing Federal Oversight Of Failing Contractors
Santa Fe, NM – Yesterday, the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise released its long awaited report, entitled “A New Foundation for the Nuclear Enterprise.” According to enabling language in the FY 2013 Defense Authorization Act, “The purpose of the advisory panel is to examine options and make recommendations for... Continue reading→
NukeWatch Urges Increasing DOE Accountability in Wake of Fines
On December 6, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) declared multiple violations at both the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). NMED plans to fine WIPP $17.7 million and LANL $36.6 million due to major procedural problems related to the handling of radioactive transuranic (TRU) wastes that contributed to two... Continue reading→
FY 2015 Defense Authorization Act cuts Safety Board employees
The House Armed Services Committee has tried repeatedly to cripple the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, realizing that the Board slows down what the nuclear weaponeers want to do (and causes the estimated costs of new nuclear facilities to explode because of safety concerns). The Board’s enabling legislation authorized a staff of up to 150... Continue reading→
Watchdogs Urge Reduced Contractor Fees at the Los Alamos Lab
Watchdogs Urge Reduced Contractor Fees at the Los Alamos Lab Washington, DC and Santa Fe, NM – Today, the Project On Government Oversight and Nuclear Watch New Mexico sent the Secretary of the Department of Energy a letter urging that the contractor award fee for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be slashed.... Continue reading→
Highlights of National Nuclear Security Administration Issues in the House FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act
Highlights of National Nuclear Security Administration Issues In the House FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act Sources: House FY 2015 NDAA, pages 1516 – 1555 and budget tables beginning page 1643. http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20141201/CPRT-113-HPRT-RU00-S1847.pdf Compiled by Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch New Mexico. Any comments by me are italicized. The House FY 2015 National Defense Authorization... Continue reading→
NNSA Considers Stuffing More Plutonium Into New Facility
Despite the fact that no one has come up with a good reason to increase plutonium pit production for the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, officials want to study the possibility of radically increasing the amount of plutonium allowed in a recently completed laboratory at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Deputy Administrator for National Nuclear... Continue reading→
Comment on NYT article “Which President Cut the Most Nukes?”
Today’s New York Times article “Which President Cut the Most Nukes?” does a public service by pointing out that contrary to his rhetoric, Obama has the lowest nuclear weapons dismantlement rate of any president. In fact, he proposes to cut funding for dismantlements by 45% in FY 2015, along with cutting nonproliferation programs designed to... Continue reading→
Scottish Independence and U.K. “Modernizing for the Second Nuclear Age”
Scots will vote on independence from the United Kingdom on Sept. 18, with polls showing the lead of anti-independence forces narrowing. If independence wins one declared goal of the Scottish National Party is to kick out the only British base for nuclear-armed strategic submarines at Faslane, effectively putting the future of U.K. nuclear forces in... Continue reading→
Why Do DOE And LANL Refuse To Do A Pit Production Study?
Why Do DOE And LANL Refuse To Do A Pit Production Study? A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report Manufacturing Nuclear Weapon “Pits”: A Decisionmaking Approach for Congress, August 15, 2014 attempts to present the amount of space needed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Lab to produce 80 plutonium pits per year. CRS has... Continue reading→
Doyle Entangled in Anti-Nuclear Classification
On July 23, 2014, Los Alamos National Laboratory approved for public release an article titled Rethinking the Unthinkable, written by retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Houston T. Hawkins, with the intention of being used for public presentations. This article argues for an increase in nuclear weapons production and expanding stockpiles. Hawkins stresses the importance nuclear... Continue reading→
DOE Sec. Moniz Calls To Speed Up WIPP Reopening While LANL Digs Up More Problems
US Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz visited the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) recently and announced future recovery plans for WIPP and they include a target date to start some operations 18 months from now reported KRQE. That date is extremely optimistic. Here’s a few reasons why – The exact cause of the February... Continue reading→
LANL Heading Down Slippery Slope With Proposed Biosafety Lab
The DOE Inspector General released Audit Report on “Management of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Biosafety Laboratories” that calls for a re-evaluation of the proposed needs for Biolabs at nuclear weapons facilities such as Los Alamos. The report stated that Los Alamos National Laboratory was considering a $9.5 million expansion of bio-laboratory capabilities even though the... Continue reading→
DOE Retroactively Classifies Suspect WIPP Drums As Ignitable
DOE Retroactively Classifies Suspect WIPP Drums As Ignitable In two letters posted to the NMED website, Los Alamos contractor and DOE Field Office officials informed NMED that 86 drums currently stored at LANL and 368 drums underground in Panel 6 at WIPP are now considered to contain ignitable wastes. These drums are part of the same waste stream... Continue reading→
Relevant to NNSA biolabs – – C.D.C. Closes Anthrax and Flu Labs After Accidents
Today’s New York Times has a very relevant article for those concerned about biolabs at National Nuclear Security Administration sites (i.e., Los Alamos and Livermore Labs). The money quote: “Dr. Frieden [Director of the CDC] himself suggested that the accidents had implications for labs beyond his agency, arguing that the world needs to reduce to... Continue reading→
Los Alamos Rated Easiest County to Live in
Los Alamos Rated Easiest County to Live in The team at The Upshot, a NYTimes news and data-analysis venture, compiled six basic metrics to give a picture of the quality and longevity of life in each county of the nation. They were attempting to answer the question, Where are the hardest places to live in the... Continue reading→
Missed WIPP Deadline May Put Real Cleanup at LANL Back On Track
Missed WIPP Deadline May Put Real Cleanup at LANL Back On Track Santa Fe, NM – Today the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) denied extension requests by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to delay cleanup milestones under a legally enforceable 2005 Consent Order. These denials by NMED counter a trend since January 2012 when NMED and... Continue reading→
DOE Headquarters Launches an Investigation Into the WIPP Release
DOE Headquarters Launches an Investigation Into the WIPP Release On June 16, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) DC Office of Independent Enterprise Assessments notified Nuclear Waste Partnership, LLC, the operating contractor for DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, of its intent to conduct an investigation. The investigation will look into potential nuclear safety, worker... Continue reading→
Los Alamos Budget is 65% Nuclear Weapons
Los Alamos Budget is 65% Nuclear Weapons There are people who don’t realize that there still are nuclear weapons in the world. There are those who don’t realize that Los Alamos is still in the nuclear weapons business. I’ve created a chart that illustrates that nuclear weapons activities are 65% of the Lab’s annual $2.1 billion... Continue reading→
GAO report on NNSA’s dismantlement program
There are lots of interesting nuggets in the Government Accountability Office’s recent dismantlement report. “Nuclear Weapons: Actions Needed by NNSA to Clarify Dismantlement Performance Goal,” April 2014, GAO-14-449, www.gao.gov/assets/670/662840.pdf Selected highlights below. Verbatim excerpts follow page numbers (add 5 for PDF page number). General points in italics are mine. Republican presidents, not Dems, make significant stockpile... Continue reading→
After a Failed Campaign, the State Must Return to Enforceable Cleanup At LANL
After a Failed Campaign, the State Must Return to Enforceable Cleanup At LANL The June 30 deadline of the “3706 Campaign” to remove 3706 cubic meters of transuranic waste stored on the surface on Los Alamos Lab will be missed due to the radiation release and shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The campaign... Continue reading→
LANL Management Irregularities Continue
LANL Management Irregularities Continue Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the private consortium that runs Los Alamos National Laboratory under contract for the federal government will manage $2.1 billion of our taxpayer dollars this year. LANS should remember that they were hired to represent the nation’s interests, not the interests of the for-profit corporations running the... Continue reading→
Nuclear Watch New Mexico Is A Proud Participant In Give Grande
Give ¡Grande! New Mexico is Tomorrow! On Tuesday, May 6th, you have the opportunity to support local nonprofits and generate significant funds for causes in New Mexico. Large and small gifts will combine for big impact that will support local efforts! Just log onto www.givegrandenm.org and give to the nonprofits of your choice. Make a... Continue reading→
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency Claims Phony Budget Savings
New Report: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Agency Claims Phony Budget Savings; Misleads Congress and Taxpayers About Real Costs of New Warheads; Nonproliferation and Dismantlement Programs Cut Santa Fe, NM – The House Armed Services Committee is currently pushing a defense bill that pushes back against the Obama Administration’s plans to delay production of a new air... Continue reading→
NNSA Digs Deep To Find A Reason To Give Itself Award
The award for the largest nuclear facility project completed ahead of schedule and under budget by NNSA goes to a project came in only 1% under budget after spending $40 million in contingency. In an April 2 2014 National Nuclear Security Administration press release titled, NNSA Receives Secretary’s Award for Project Management Excellence, the Chemistry and... Continue reading→
WIPP Continues to Show Signs, Town Hall Webcast Tonight, LANL TRU to WCS, More Information
WIPP Continues to Show Signs, Town Hall Webcast tonight, LANL TRU to WCS, More Information WIPP Underground Continues to Show Signs of Radiological Activity The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant officials stated that there was another radiological release on March 11. This was outside of the WIPP site exhaust shaft filter. An air sample from the outside... Continue reading→
DOE Nuclear Weapons Budget Surpasses Cold War Record
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 17, 2014 DOE Nuclear Weapons Budget Surpasses Cold War Record Bomb with New Military Capabilities up 20% Dismantlements Cut By Nearly Half Nonproliferation Programs Down 21% Cleanup Funding Flat Santa Fe, NM – The Obama Administration has finally released its detailed budget for fiscal year 2015, which starts October 1.... Continue reading→
WIPP Update March 14 – Truck Fire Report Is Released
WIPP Underground Fire Investigation Summary Report of Accident on February 5, 2014 The salt haul truck that caught fire was approximately 29 years old. The investigation of the truck fire did not reveal exactly what started the blaze but did find: •Maintenance program was ineffective •Fire protection program was less than adequate •Emergency management/preparedness and... Continue reading→
WIPP Town Hall Webcast Tonight, Thursday March 13 2014
Weekly Town Hall Meeting Scheduled for Thursday March 13 2014 Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway and DOE will co?host weekly town hall meetings to update the community on recovery activities at WIPP. The meetings will be held every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Carlsbad City Council Chambers, 101 N. Halagueno Street. If you can’t... Continue reading→
DOE releases predicted spread of WIPP contamination
We now have a look at DOE’s predicted contamination spread, available at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) update page. This model is based on three air samplers, and no samplers to the Northeast. There are still many questions, including: What caused this release in the first place? How contaminated is the underground? Are soil... Continue reading→
Mine Games – WIPP Update March 10, 2014
Mine Games In a March 9th press release, the Nuclear Waste Partnership (NWP), the management and operations contractor at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), stated their plans to reenter the ailing salt mine/nuclear waste repository after a radiological release shut down operations over three weeks ago. The press release... Continue reading→
Great Article form La Jicarita – What’s Wrong with WIPP
What’s Wrong with WIPP by lajicarita By DON HANCOCK, Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) The world’s first geologic repository for military nuclear waste is making international news because of the radiation leak that was detected late at night on Valentine’s Day. An unknown amount of radioactive and toxic chemical waste was released to the... Continue reading→
WIPP Video Story and Congressional Delegation Statements from KRQE
KRQE TV 13 aired a news story last night that included statements from the five members of the NM Congressional Delegation: On the recent radiation leak: “From my perspective on the (U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources) committee, the first priority is making sure that the personnel who actually work at WIPP are safe and that the community and... Continue reading→
Nuclear Weapons Budget Increased, Nonproliferation and Cleanup Budgets Cut
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 4, 2014 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.692.5854, [email protected] Nuclear Weapons Budget Increased Nonproliferation and Cleanup Budgets Cut Good News: Wasteful Plutonium Program Shuttered The Obama Administration has released topline numbers for its FY 2015 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which owns the nation’s... Continue reading→
QUESTIONS FOR DOE FY 2015 BUDGET
ALLIANCE FOR NUCLEAR ACCOUNTABILITY A national network of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup Ashish Sinha: (301) 910-9405 [email protected] Bob Schaeffer: (239) 395-6773 [email protected] for use with March 4, 2014 Obama Administration Budget Request QUESTIONS FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) FY 2015 NUCLEAR WEAPONS, REACTOR AND... Continue reading→
WIPP Update Feb 27 2014 – 13 Employees Contaminated
WIPP Update Feb 27 2014 – 13 Employees Contaminated I’ll remind us all that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site is NOT a National Security site. It is a fancy landfill. There are really no secret programs there to protect. Maybe there are some secret parts buried there, but they have long-since been crushed.... Continue reading→
WIPP update Feb 26 2014
The New York Times ran a WIPP story today, NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY SET TO REOPEN AFTER LEAK, New York Times — February 26, 2014, By Matthew L. Wald This is a good example of what is known, what is being said, and what is not being said. 1. One shaft has a filter with a monitor and three... Continue reading→
WIPP Update Feb 25 2014
Let’s start with what we know. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the Nation’s only operating geologic repository for nuclear waste. WIPP can legally only accept a very specific type of waste – transuranic (TRU) waste generated at defense-related nuclear facilities. “Transuranic” refers to atoms of man-made elements that are heavier (higher in atomic... Continue reading→
Budget Deal Mixed Bag for Nuclear Weapons Programs
Budget Deal Mixed Bag for Nuclear Weapons Programs Planned Long-Term Trend Not Sustainable Following December’s budget deal Congressional appropriators have completed a one trillion dollar omnibus appropriations bill for this fiscal year, expected to pass given that neither political party wants another shutdown. The federal government has been running on a Continuing Resolution since... Continue reading→
Nukes Will Cost One Trillion over 30 Years; Cleanup, Job Creation Imperiled
Nuclear Weapons “Modernization” Will Cost One Trillion Dollars Over Thirty Years; Locally, Los Alamos Lab Cleanup and Job Creation Are Imperiled The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has just released its study Projected Costs of Nuclear Forces 2014 -2023. Its stunning conclusion is that estimated costs for maintenance and “modernization” of the nuclear weapons stockpile,... Continue reading→
Op ed on Area G resolution had outdated info
The op-ed below ran in the New Mexican yesterday (Sunday 12/8/13) . It had some outdated information. The first iteration of the draft City resolution on Area G cleanup called for reburial of low-level wastes in a modern landfill, while specifically calling for any high level and transuranic wastes to be disposed offsite. Most low-level... Continue reading→