CCNS Update

Twenty years ago, the hexavalent chromium plume was discovered in the regional aquifer 1,000 feet below ground surface at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Since then the debate about how to remove the dangerous hexavalent chromium from the regional drinking water aquifer has been ongoing between LANL, the New Mexico Environment Department, and the public.

In July 2022, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded the Tularosa Basin Range Services, a Bechtel affiliate, a 10-year, $3 billion dollar management and operating contract for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to continue the disposal of Cold War radioactive and hazardous wastes from the fabrication of plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

Monday, January 22 marks the third anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This year’s focus is the lie of deterrence. For decades policy makers have declared nuclear weapons necessary to deter enemy attacks, all the while ignoring the humanitarian costs of the nuclear arms race and the global devastation promised by the nuclear weapons should deterrence fail.

In an utterly confusing move, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) released an environmental assessment for public review and comment that claims it contains the final remedy for the cleanup of the hexavalent chromium plume in the regional drinking water aquifer.

On December 19 th , Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) released a draft environmental assessment that would allow the installation and operation of a 14-mile, 115 kiloVolt overhead electrical line basically in parallel to the two electrical lines that already cross the Caja del Rio Plateau and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, where LANL is located. It is named the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade, or EPCU Project. A thirty-day public comment period was announced, ending on Wednesday, January 17 th , 2024.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has a habit of releasing environmental documents requiring public comment during the winter holiday season. That habit continued this winter with not one, but two draft environmental assessments (EA). One involves the hexavalent chromium plume in Mortandad Canyon. The second, and the topic of this Update, is the proposed Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project where an approximately 14-mile, 115 kiloVolt overhead electrical line would be added to the two that already cross the Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, where LANL is located.

An on-going David versus Goliath fight occurred last week during a public hearing before the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board, a board charged to prevent or abate air pollution.

For the first time, an agreement was made by the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to challenge the false narrative of nuclear deterrence. It holds that possession of nuclear weapons will prevent another nation with nuclear weapons from attacking.

Since at least 1999 Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has proposed running an additional 12-mile, 115 kilovolt electrical line to the two that already cross the Caja del Rio and the Rio Grande to the Pajarito Plateau, claiming it needs the additional power line to run its supercomputers.

You are invited to join the Global Day of Action Against Nuclear Weapons on Sunday, November 26 th at 2 pm on the Santa Fe Plaza. Come with your friends, family and colleagues and call for an end to nuclear weapons by bringing attention to the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW.