The comment period is open for the public to review the New

Mexico Environment Department’s recommendation to excavate

the 11.8 acre unlined dump, called Material Disposal Area C, or MDA

C, at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Public comments are

due Monday, November 6 th .

On Wednesday, September 19 th , the landmark Treaty on the

Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons had been signed by almost half of

all countries in the world after a ceremony at the United Nations

General Assembly in New York where Sri Lanka acceded to the

Treaty and the Bahamas signed it.

Friday, September 22 nd will be the last opportunity to make your public

comments about the changes to the operating permit for the nuclear

waste dump, called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP. WIPP is a

deep geologic repository for plutonium- contaminated radioactive waste

from the production of nuclear weapons, located 26 miles east of

Carlsbad, New Mexico.

In a July 2023 report the federal Government Accountability Office

recommended that a third-party facilitator be brought in to improve the

relationship and build trust between the New Mexico Environment

Department and the Department of Energy (DOE) as they try to resolve

outstanding cleanup issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

CCNS provided the following response to a recent Santa Fe New Mexican Our View:

“In response to Stop Stalling: Clean up chromium plume, no one is stalling.

The plume does need immediate attention and does need to be analyzed

with a computer model that everyone can use. The consequences of

getting the cleanup of the toxic hexavalent chromium plume wrong would

be disastrous.

Did you know that in 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

designated the 3,000 square mile Española Basin System as a Sole Source Drinking Water Aquifer? One ongoing concern is that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) sits on its western edge, near the Valles Caldera. And a recent dispute between the New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy about the LANL hexavalent chromium plume, which is being pushed deeper into the regional drinking water aquifer, highlights the need for state agencies to have the resources to protect it.

Hexavalent chromium is a known human carcinogen.

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 peaceful demonstrators from across the United States of America joined together for the first March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They came together to demand voting rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and to appeal for an end to racial segregation and discrimination.

More than 100 medical journals, including the Lancet, the British Medical Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the JAMA, have issued a joint call for urgent steps to decrease the growing danger of nuclear war and to move rapidly to the elimination of nuclear weapons. At a time of expanded fighting in Ukraine and increased tensions in Korea, leaders of the global health community underscore that any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for humanity.

Near the end of World War II, on August 6 th , 1945, the United States dropped a uranium atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the United States dropped a plutonium atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. To acknowledge the harm done in the development, testing and use of the atomic bombs by the United States, two events are taking place on Saturday, August 5 th in Albuquerque and one event on

Wednesday, August 9 th in Los Alamos. For more information or to find similar

commemorative events in your area, please see the Physicians for Social Responsibility

website at psr.org.

A delegation from the Archdioceses of Santa Fe and Seattle is embarking on a transformative Pilgrimage of Peace to the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Akita, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, from July 31 to August 12, 2023. The delegation comprises Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, and Most Reverend Paul D. Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle, along with representatives from various organizations and archdiocesan offices dedicated to nuclear disarmament and social justice. Funding for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe delegation is strictly through grants and personal contributions; no funds from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe are being used.