Compiled by leaders of groups from communities located in the shadows of U.S. nuclear weapons sites. The report card grades looks to the future and lays out an agenda for the next administration.
2008 Radioactive Report Card Grade Book
Press Release
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| | | published Monday, January 09, 2012 | 345 Views |
The following article on Los Alamos National Laboratory's ever-changing cleanup schedule quotes ANA Director Susan Gordon and ANA member Scott Kovac giving their perspectives on Los Alamos' remediation plans.
January 6, 2012
By Mark Oswald and John Fleck
From the Albuquerque Journal
POJOAQUE — Los Alamos National Laboratory on Thursday committed to moving the equivalent of 17,000 drums of radioactive waste that have been stored above ground for decades off lab property by 2014.
But lab officials also said they can’t meet their commitment to clean up other lab hazardous waste by 2015.
Moving the waste drums — which caused consternation and gained international press attention during last summer’s Las Conchas Fire as flames headed toward Los Alamos — is a top state priority.
But the longer-term cleanup goal, established in a 2005 agreement known as a “consent order,” has been suspect for some time because of a shortfall in federal money for lab cleanup work.
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| | | published Thursday, January 05, 2012 | 241 Views |
The following article quotes ANA member Scott Kovac of Nuclear Watch New Mexico as he comments on the Department of Energy's opacity regarding contracting at national laboratories.
Jan 5, 2012
By John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
Federal officials this week awarded a Bechtel-University of California team $83.7 million for its management of Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2011, plus a one-year extension of its lab management contract as a bonus, but refused to release the performance evaluation report on which the decisions were based.
The one-year extension means the current team will be in charge at Los Alamos through 2017.
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| | | published Monday, December 19, 2011 | 692 Views |
ANA member Tom Carpenter and 2011 whistleblower awardee Dr. Walt Tamosaitis were interviewed on the Rachel Maddow show on December 15th. They discussed problems at the Waste Treatment Plant which is supposed to process millions of gallons of nuclear waste currently leaking underground in Washington State.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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| | | published Monday, December 12, 2011 | 815 Views |
The following article discusses the Hanford, WA nuclear waste treatment plant that ANA has long been concerned about. The article examines retaliation against Walt Tamosaitis, a whistleblower who ANA recognized at our 2011 DC Days awards reception. The piece also quotes ANA member, Tom Carpenter, a long-time Hanford watchdog.
December 11, 2011
By Shannon Dininny
From the Associated Press
The federal government says a one-of-a-kind plant that will convert radioactive waste into a stable and storable substance that resembles glass will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more and may take longer to build, adding to a string of delays and skyrocketing price tag for the project.
In addition, several workers at southeast Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation have raised concerns about the safety of the plant's design — and complained they've been retaliated against for voicing their issues.
The turmoil has some in the Pacific Northwest uneasy about the plant's long-term viability and fearful that a frustrated Congress could balk at paying more money for a project long considered the cornerstone of cleanup at the highly contaminated site.
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| | | published Monday, December 05, 2011 | 743 Views |
Dec. 2, 2011
By William Hartung
From the Huffington Post
Your government is slated to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade to purchase, maintain and operate our massive nuclear arsenal. The costs include everything from new nuclear bombers, submarines and bomb factories to the huge but unknown costs of deploying and maintaining thousands of nuclear weapons.
It's an outrage that we are spending this kind of money on these outmoded and unnecessary systems at a time when deficit reduction is the order of the day. It is equally outrageous that our government will not tell us exactly how much we're spending on them -- and may not even be keeping track.
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| | | published Monday, November 28, 2011 | 730 Views |
This piece quotes long-time ANA member Don Hancock as he tries to explain some of the issues involved with federally funding nuclear waste cleanup.
Nov. 25, 2011
From The Republic
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Los Alamos National Laboratory is asking the state of New Mexico for more time to meet some mandated cleanup milestones as it faces shifting priorities and uncertainty about its environmental cleanup budget.
The northern New Mexico lab would be able to speed up the shipment of radioactive waste from lab property to a permanent disposal site if allowed to shift resources to higher priority work, George Rael, head of environmental management for the federal government's Los Alamos Site Office told the Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/v5Ystc ).
The changes in lab cleanup priorities come amid discussion among the state, the lab and members of the public regarding the lab's 2005 agreement on environmental cleanup milestones.
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| | | published Wednesday, November 16, 2011 | 707 Views |
The following article discusses the MOX plutonium fuel program, which ANA opposes. Touching on several of the problems with the program, the Reporter quotes two ANA members, Tom Clements and Jay Coghlan.
Nov. 16, 2011
By Wren Abbott
From the Santa Fe Reporter
Los Alamos National Laboratory is doubling down on a project that helps create a controversial, highly reactive new fuel used in nuclear power plants. Beginning next year, LANL will create twice as much plutonium oxide, an essential component of mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel, which combines uranium and plutonium.
MOX fuel is believed to have amplified the effects of the recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.
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| | | published Tuesday, November 08, 2011 | 650 Views |
The following piece highlights the Department of Energy's habit of under-budgeting nuclear cleanup projects and features ANA member Gerald Pollet.
Nov. 6, 2011
By Annette Cary
From Tri-City Herald
Do not expect that the $115 billion estimated to be needed to complete environmental cleanup work at Hanford will be adequate to finish the job, according to the Hanford Advisory Board.
The board sent a letter to the Department of Energy and its regulators Friday saying that the estimate does not include cleanup work the board expects may be needed and also does not include fully developed cost estimates for some work.
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| | | published Thursday, November 03, 2011 | 913 Views |
ANA thanks the Santa Fe Reporter for their excellent feature article on toxic waste coming from Los Alamos National Laboratory. The following article quotes several ANA members and asks "Why are we expanding weapons production and cutting corners on environmental protection?"
Nov. 2, 2011
By Wren Abbott
From the Santa Fe Reporter  In the summer of 2010, an excavator lifted a 1940s-era radiation protection suit from a pit in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area 21. With it came two pickup trucks of the same vintage—one of which may have been involved in the famous Trinity nuclear test near White Sands—and a 30-foot-tall chemical mixing tank.
The successful excavation of Material Disposal Area B, the lab’s oldest waste site, disproved a commonly held belief: that comprehensive cleanup of radioactive waste at the lab was cost-prohibitive, if not impossible. The project cleared a 200,000 square foot area and removed 750,000 cubic feet of toxic waste that had lain dormant since World War II. It cost $110 million—a modest sum for a facility with an approximately $2 billion budget.
Unfortunately, Area B is one of 24 waste sites at LANL, which in 1944 started burying everything from uranium chips to contaminated dump trucks in unlined pits. More than half of the lab’s estimated 17 million cubic feet of remaining waste lies in Area G—the only disposal site where LANL continues to dump, and one it seeks to expand. Though Area G’s fate has been bandied about for decades, it has now reached a critical turning point.
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| | | published Friday, October 14, 2011 | 859 Views |
October 12, 2011
By Los Alamos Monitor Staff
A Record of Decision has been issued for the Chemistry Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) facility Wednesday afternoon by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The new facility will consist of two buildings which will be linked by tunnels.
Sources close to the situation have indicated the decision has been made to move ahead with the project that promises to be an economic shot in the arm for the Los Alamos area at least during the construction phase of the multi-billion dollar project.
The NNSA is remaining mum on the decision, according to spokesperson Toni Chiri, who said a press release will be issued Thursday morning with details of the ROD.
“We will be spending tonight making Congressional notification,” she said.
Controversy has swirled around the project since planning for a replacement began in 1999 for the aging 550,000 square foot CMR building that was originally completed in 1952.
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