CCNS Update

The U.S. Navy has ordered 444 fully functional Blackbeard hypersonic missiles

from Castelion Corporation. The government has assigned 80% of the contract work to

be done in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where Project Ranger is nearing completion.

Project Ranger is a 1,000-acre hypersonic manufacturing campus, designed to support

production of solid rocket motors, static testing of those motors and final assembly of

hypersonic weapons.

From Saturday, October 3 rd through Saturday, October 10 th , people around the

world are organizing local events to bring outer space to greater public attention by

proclaiming “Keep Space for Peace.” However, on Monday, September 14 th , the Trump

administration announced it had placed weapons in orbit around the Earth in a major

effort to militarize space. U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink followed up by saying the

United States, “now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint

force against hostile adversary action.” He refused to say what the weapons are, how

many there are or when they were launched.

On Monday, September 14 th , Veterans for Peace lit their new electronic billboard

featuring Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the reader and saying, “I want you to refuse

unlawful orders.” The billboard is located on the south side of the I-40 exit at Wyoming

Boulevard in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Last week residents of Ypsilanti Township expressed their anger over a

proposed high-performance computing facility near the Huron River in a partnership

between the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Residents are concerned that the proposed project would fuel research into the nuclear

arms race.

From 1946 to 1969, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was used as the station for

top-secret nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. It was also the place where

decontamination was done on the ships used in hydrogen bomb tests. Radioactive and

toxic waste was disposed there.

Why does it matter whether plutonium pits are “aging” before their time? We all

age. We get old and we die. But that’s not what the Department of Energy (DOE) and

National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) want for their plutonium pits. They

want to make sure that they will “live” forever.

After working for nearly five years, Los Alamos County and the Department of

Energy updated their original 1985 Electric Coordination Agreement (ECA) for the

interconnected electric system that has powered homes, businesses and Los Alamos

National Laboratory (LANL) for over 40 years. After months of painstaking work, the

ECA was approved by the Los Alamos County Council on Tuesday, August 25th. DOE

has until Monday, August 31st to also sign.

Once again, the Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous National

Nuclear Security Administration has denied the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

access to nuclear weapons facilities, including at Los Alamos National Laboratory

(LANL). At a time when LANL is ramping up production of plutonium pits, the triggers

for nuclear weapons, the DOE is restricting access to the Board and its resident

inspectors preventing them from fulfilling critical oversight and public reporting

responsibilities. As a result, the public is no longer informed about potential issues of

adequate protection at defense nuclear facilities.

In compliance with the Trump administration Executive Orders 14300 and 14154,

the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to scrap long-standing

radiation exposure standards for the general public and nuclear workers. The proposed

rulemaking is called “Reforming and Modernizing the NRC’s Radiation Protection

Framework,” which will result in more radiation exposures, not less. With cuts to

medical assistance for so many in the U.S., the proposed changes will be even more

harmful. And people will die as a result.

Did you know that the nuclear bomb the United States of America dropped on

Nagasaki, Japan on August 9th, 1945 was fabricated at Los Alamos National

Laboratory? Or that the radioactive waste from that fabrication remains buried at

LANL? This is a circle that needs to be closed by removing the waste to a place where it

can do no harm.