The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), operated by the Department of Energy, plays a critical role in maintaining the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Central to this mission is the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility (RLWTF), which was constructed in the early 1960s to treat, store, and dispose of radioactive and hazardous liquids

You are invited to participate in a virtual Nuclear Watch New Mexico workshop

about the draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for the Los Alamos

National Laboratory (LANL) on Thursday, February 6 th from 5:30 pm to 7 pm Mountain

Time. With LANL expanding its nuclear weapons programs—despite a long history of

environmental contamination and nuclear safety issues—the draft SWEIS represents a

vital opportunity for the public to demand transparency, accountability and

environmental justice.

This Update relates to historic and important resources that can be useful for

your participation in the public hearings about draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact

Statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and its proposed operations in

the next 15 years or so. Public hearings under the National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA) will begin on Tuesday, February 11th in Santa Fe, followed by a wednesday,

February 12th hearing in Española, and a Thursday, February 13th hearing in Los

Alamos. The specifics are available at nuclearactive.org.

Earlier this week the U.S. Forest Service admitted that it has limited authority and

oversight of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s proposed Electrical Power Capacity

Upgrade Project, or EPCU, that would transmit 173 megawatts of energy across sacred

National Forest System lands. The admission made in its 35-page Response to

Comments document to complete its role in the environmental assessment process.

More than two years after the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National

Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sought public input about the scope of a site-

wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) for Los Alamos National Laboratory

(LANL) operations, a draft LANL SWEIS will be released for a 60-day public review and

comment period on Friday, January 10th. Public hearings will be held during the week

of February 10th. The public comment period ends on March 11th.

The New Mexico Environment Department’s hazardous waste permit for the

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to submit

a Legacy Transuranic, or TRU, Waste Disposal Plan to the Environment Department.

DOE submitted its inadequate Plan on November 4 th for a 60-day public comment

period, which ends on Friday, January 3 rd , 2025. A sample public comment letter you

can use is available at our website at nuclearactive.org

A new condition in the New Mexico Environment Department’s hazardous waste

permit for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) requires the Department of Energy

(DOE) to submit a Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan to the Environment

Department. DOE submitted its Plan on November 4 th , 2024 for a 60-day public

comment period.

There is a unique opportunity to provide your comments about the Waste

Isolation Pilot Plant’s Legacy Transuranic Waste Disposal Plan. The disposal plan

describes WIPP’s strategies to keep the disposal site for plutonium-contaminated

hazardous wastes open for 60 more years, despite WIPP’s promises to New Mexicans

to close in 2024.

On Friday, November 1st, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

adopted Resolution LV-24-061 opposing the proposed Electrical Power Capacity

Upgrade Project “bisecting the Caja del Rio, highlighting the adverse impacts on Tribal

cultural resources and sacred sites” to construct and operate a 115 kilovolt-

transmission line to operate Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) supercomputers.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to the Japanese non-governmental

organization, Nihon Hidankyo, for its 68-years of education and advocacy. The Nobel

Peace Prize Committee recognized Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world

free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear

weapons must never be used again.” Nihon Hidankyo is the Japanese Confederation

of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization.