CCNS Update

On Monday, Tewa Women United released two independent scientific reports

about the harm that would be done to public health and the environment should Los

Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) be allowed to vent radioactive tritium from four

Flanged Tritium Waste Containers stored at LANL’s Area G radioactive and hazardous

waste dump. It is another important step taken by Tewa Women United to hold LANL

and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accountable to the law.

For the first time since the end of the Cold War in 1989 and with the increasing

threat of nuclear war, early this month the First Committee on International Peace and

Security of the United Nations passed a resolution to study the impacts of nuclear war

for the first time in 35 years. In support of the study were 144 countries, France, the

Russian Federation and the United Kingdom voted no. Thirty countries abstained,

including the United States.

The title of the new film may make you think it is about Los Alamos National

Laboratory (LANL) located in northern New Mexico. But you would be wrong. “Half-Life

of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory,” a film by Jeff Gipe, is about the

dangerous legacy of the Rocky Flats atomic bomb factory, located near Denver,

Colorado. The world premiere will take place in early November at the Denver Film

Festival.

This week Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, individuals and NGOs

submitted comments opposing the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to approve a Los Alamos

National Laboratory (LANL) proposal to install a companion electric transmission line

through the heart of the Caja del Rio traditional cultural landscape, an area sacred to

Pueblos.

You are invited to participate in a transformative walk in downtown Santa Fe

beginning at noon on Friday, October 25th. Organized by the Caja del Rio Coalition,

the walk will begin at the Santa Fe County Administration Building, located at 240 Grant

Avenue, and go to the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security

The U.S. Forest Service is accepting public objections to the draft Decision

Notice, Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Final Environmental Assessment

(EA) for the proposed Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Electric Power Capacity

Upgrade (EPCU) Project and Associated Land Management Plan (Forest Plan)

Amendment. Only those who submitted comments during the scoping period that

occurred between April 19, 2021 and May 21, 2021 and during the two comment

periods for the draft EA beginning December 19, 2023 and ending January 17, 2024

and beginning January 22, 2024 and ending February 20, 2024 are eligible to submit

objections. As evidence of public concern, over 22,000 public comments were

submitted during these comment periods.

On Monday, September 30th, United States District Court Judge Mary Geiger

Lewis ruled that the Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Nuclear Secrurity

Administration (NNSA) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because

the federal agencies failed to take a “hard look” at the alternatives to fabricate plutonium

pits, or the triggers, for nuclear weapons at two of its sites. Los Alamos National

Laboratory (LANL) was created to design and fabricate the atomic bombs used during

World War II. The Savannah River Site in South Carolina has never fabricated pits for

nuclear weapons

The Three Sisters Collective is painting a new and colorful “I am Life (Creator of

Worlds)” mural on the Lena Wall in O’Ga P’ogeh Owingeh, the White Shell Water Place,

or Santa Fe. You are invited to make your mark on the wall on Thursday, October 3rd

through Saturday, October 5th during the community paint hours. The new mural is

adjacent to the mural by artist Chip Thomas about stopping expanded production of

plutonium pits, or the triggers, for nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory

(LANL).

The Mixed Waste Landfill at Sandia National Laboratories is a 2.6-acre dump

that is leaking radioactive, hazardous and toxic wastes from unlined pits and trenches

that threaten Albuquerque’s drinking water aquifer. The public has been asking the

New Mexico Environment Department for nearly 25 years to order Sandia to excavate

the dump. Evidence of migrating contamination, such as the detection of volatile

organic compounds 400 feet below the dump in 2015, verifies the public’s concern.

Local, regional, national and international non-governmental organizations are

coming together for a week of raising public awareness about the fossil fuel

corporations doing business in New Mexico. Under the banner of Warheads to

Windmills.org, the week begins on Monday, September 23rd and extends through

Sunday, September 29 th . This is a second week of action. The first week focused on

nuclear weapons. Both present existential threats to life on Planet Earth – one that kills

in an instant; the other painfully over time.