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| | | published Tuesday, September 13, 2011 | 867 Views :: 0 Comments |
Sep 13, 2011
By John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
A pair of congressmen on the House Strategic Forces Subcommittee, including Albuquerque Democrat Martin Heinrich, are pushing to protect a proposed nuclear weapons budget increase from an increasingly likely Congressional failure to pass a federal budget Oct. 1.
In a letter Monday, Heinrich and Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, asked the Obama administration to declare an "anomaly" for the National Nuclear Security Administration's budget. NNSA is the prime funding source for Los Alamos and Sandia labs here in New Mexico, and the administration is asking for a big budget increase for the agency in the coming year.
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| | | published Friday, September 09, 2011 | 728 Views :: 0 Comments |
Sep 08, 2011
By Nickolas Roth
From the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation's Nukes of Hazard Blog
The search for federal budget savings was apparent as the Senate Appropriations Committee released its version of the fiscal year 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill on September 7. While the Committee recommended $7.19 billion for nuclear weapons programs, approximately $250 million more than the fiscal year 2011 enacted level and over $800 million more than the fiscal year 2010 enacted level, it made major strides in addressing some excessive and wasteful nuclear weapons programs.
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| | | published Friday, September 09, 2011 | 865 Views :: 0 Comments |
By John Fleck and Michael Coleman From the Albuquerque Journal
The U.S. nuclear weapons program appears headed for another budget increase in the coming year, but it will likely be less than the Obama administration had hoped.
A key Senate committee Wednesday signaled what appears to be a bipartisan congressional consensus to put the brakes on the administration’s plans for big increases in coming years.
Members of the Democratic-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee joined their House Republican colleagues in voting to trim the administration’s requested spending hike for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons work, which provides much of the support for spending at two major national labs in New Mexico.
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| | | published Monday, August 29, 2011 | 2024 Views :: 0 Comments |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 26, 2011
Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.920.7118, jay[at]nukewatch[dot]org Santa Fe, NM - Without public notice this late Friday afternoon the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has posted online its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)-Nuclear Facility. While providing materials characterization and analytical chemistry for “special nuclear materials” the Nuclear Facility will be the keystone to an expanded plutonium pit production complex at Los Alamos, quadrupling the Lab’s manufacturing capability from 20 radioactive nuclear weapons cores per year to 80. The Nuclear Facility is also slated to have a vault that can hold up to six metric tons of plutonium that it will share via underground tunnels with the Lab’s plutonium pit production plant. As expected, NNSA changed little in the Final CMRR-Nuclear Facility SEIS from the draft, whose required public review period expired in July 2011. NNSA refused to revisit its 2004 decision to build the Nuclear Facility, claiming that nothing relevant had changed since then. This is despite much public comment pointing out the U.S.’ adoption of a future nuclear weapons-free world as a long-term national security goal, and repeated congressional rejections of new-design nuclear weapons and directly related expanded plutonium pit production.
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| | | published Monday, August 29, 2011 | 1124 Views :: 1 Comments |
The following op-ed was written by a member of New Mexico Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). PSR is a long-time Alliance for Nuclear Accountability member group and we are happy to promote their work to keep Americans safe from radioactive health threats.
Aug 25, 2011
By Dr. Robert M. Bernstein From the Albuquerque Journal Water from the Rio Grande is again pumping into faucets of Albuquerque homes (soon to be followed by Santa Fe). Unfortunately, questions remain about whether pollutants from Los Alamos National Laboratory are being flushed into the river by runoff from recent storms, following the Las Conchas Fire. Because these contaminants are so toxic, it’s essential that the water be carefully tested by an independent contractor.
While there was much publicity about the danger to some 20,000 containers of transuranic waste stored under fabric tents in Area G, little was said about the 21 million cubic feet of radioactive and chemical waste on-site (21 million cubic feet is three times the amount that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is designed to hold at capacity). This waste began during World War II, and much was buried on the mesas and canyon bottoms in unlined pits, trenches and shafts. Radioactive liquid wastes were discharged directly to the canyons, especially Acid Canyon, an offshoot of Los Alamos Canyon, which flows to the Rio Grande.
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| | | published Thursday, June 30, 2011 | 348 Views :: 0 Comments |
Preliminary
results of air samples Wednesday showed no nuclear or chemical
contamination, and there is now very little chance the Las Conchas
Fire will move onto Los Alamos National Laboratory property,
officials said Wednesday.
"What we see in this fire is
exactly what see in any fire across New Mexico," LANL Director
Charles McMillan said during a midday news conference regarding
samples taken from one high-volume air monitor. "To me, that is
very encouraging."
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| | | published Monday, June 27, 2011 | 553 Views :: 0 Comments |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 27, 2011 Contact: Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505.989.7342, c. 505.920.7118, jay@nukewatch.org
Santa Fe, NM - In less than 24 hours the Las Conchas wildfire has burned 43,000 acres of forest and has raced 12 miles to the southwestern boundary of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) where a number of sensitive tritium facilities are located. In the year 2000 the Cerro Grande Fire took nearly two weeks to burn ~48,000 acres in the same general vicinity of the east side of the Jemez Mountains, including ~5,000 acres within LANL boundaries. At that time, the Lab and Los Alamos County underwent a hurried mandatory evacuation, with only essential personnel left behind to guard sensitive Lab facilities. Because of the emergency routine monitoring of daily radioactive emissions came to an abrupt halt, arguably precisely when they were most needed.
Ironically public comments are due by the end of Tuesday June 28 on the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) - Nuclear Facility, a huge plutonium facility that will be the keystone to an expanded plutonium pit production complex at Los Alamos. The Nuclear Facility will store up to six metric tons of “special nuclear materials” (re: mostly plutonium), and will have up to 300 kilograms of plutonium in process at any given time (enough for ~50 nuclear weapons). It is generally accepted that several tens of micrograms of respirable plutonium-239 in the lung will dramatically increase the risk of lung cancer (1 kilogram = 1 billion micrograms). The primary purpose of the Nuclear Facility is to provide materials characterization of and analytical chemistry on “special nuclear materials” so that production capability can be expanded from the currently sanctioned level of 20 plutonium pits per year to 80.
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| | | published Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | 594 Views :: 0 Comments |
By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer on Tue, Jun 21, 2011
Nuclear weapons program managers need to resolve questions about
earthquake safety before they begin construction of a new plutonium
laboratory at Los Alamos, a key House committee decided last week.
In approving a 3 percent spending increase for the U.S. nuclear weapons
program, the House Appropriations Committee put a hold on funding that
would have been used to start early construction activities on the
Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement building.
The committee’s allocation of $7.1 billion for the National Nuclear
Security Administration’s nuclear weapons work is a $200 million
increase over this year’s levels, but falls well short of the 11 percent
increase the Obama administration had requested, leading some to call
the spending plan a budget cut.
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| | | published Friday, May 27, 2011 | 838 Views :: 0 Comments |
May 27, 2011
By Phil Parker From the Albuquerque Journal
Warnings of death and devastation echoed Thursday night as dozens of speakers took turns decrying Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plan to construct a new plutonium lab.
“I feel like I’m standing on a train track, and the train is coming full speed ahead,” said Santa Fean Adele Caruthers.
Officially, the meeting held at Santa Fe Community College for public comment was a federally mandated part of the supplemental environmental impact study being conducted by the National Nuclear Security Administration as it prepares to build a Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at LANL.
The building is projected to cost $5.8 billion and scheduled to be completed sometime after 2020.
The meeting was the last of four such meetings held around the state this week, and almost every one of the dozens of speakers Thursday was against the lab.
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| | | published Friday, May 27, 2011 | 700 Views :: 0 Comments |
May 27, 2011
By John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
A 56-year-old nuclear weapons program veteran will take over the helm of Los Alamos National Laboratory next week, inheriting a tradition that goes back to the famed tenure of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
"This laboratory is rich with history, full of intellectual vitality, and singularly endowed with an innovative spirit," said Charles McMillan in a statement issued Thursday afternoon after officials announced his selection as the lab's new director.
McMillan succeeds Michael Anastasio on June 1 to head the northern New Mexico institution that designed and built the first atom bomb and that today bears major responsibility for building and maintaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
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