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| | | published Wednesday, August 22, 2012 | 1570 Views :: 2 Comments |
Aug 22, 2012 By Associated Press
LOS ALAMOS — Anti-nuclear activists are questioning a proposal to ship more plutonium to New Mexico.
Several activists lined up Tuesday evening in Los Alamos for the first in a series of public hearings on how best to dispose of surplus plutonium from the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
One plan being studied by the Department of Energy calls for the shipment of 7 metric tons — or what one activist estimates is enough to power nearly 3,000 warheads — to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River site in South Carolina for processing into fuel for commercial nuclear reactors.
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| | | published Saturday, July 28, 2012 | 1275 Views :: 0 Comments |
Jul 28, 2012 By John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer After spending $382 million on a failed 13-year effort to build a plant in South Carolina to dismantle plutonium parts from old nuclear warheads, the federal government is now considering doing the work in an existing building at Los Alamos National Laboratory. An announcement Friday on the latest effort to dispose of the nation’s surplus plutonium also raises the possibility of sending some leftovers to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico. Three public hearings on the proposal are scheduled in New Mexico next month.
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| | | published Friday, February 17, 2012 | 1752 Views :: 2 Comments |
February 17, 2012
By Michael Coleman and John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
WASHINGTON — U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu offered scant hope for a stalled plutonium project at Los Alamos National Laboratory on Thursday, but he did offer some encouragement for those who want to store additional nuclear waste near Carlsbad.
Chu told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the Department of Energy decided to abandon — at least for now — a planned LANL plutonium lab because of budget constraints. However, he said design work at the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility will continue until it is 90 percent complete.
“That’s very prudent because for a number of reasons, before you start construction it is best to have most of it designed,” Chu said at the hearing to examine President Barack Obama’s 2013 DOE budget.
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| | | published Wednesday, February 01, 2012 | 695 Views :: 0 Comments |
The following piece contains a quote from Don Hancock, longtime ANA members and Director of the Southwest Research & Information Center's Nuclear Waste program. Don has been watchdogging nuclear waste "disposal" at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico from the beginning of the disposal program.
Feb. 1, 2012
By John FleckFrom the Albuquerque Journal
The New Mexico Environment Department on Tuesday rejected a federal proposal to begin mixing highly radioactive waste among the low-dose waste that makes up the bulk of the material at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad.
But the decision leaves the door open for the issue to be reconsidered.
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| | | published Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | 1766 Views :: 2 Comments |
Press Conference Advisory: Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:15 am Rotunda, Roundhouse at the corner of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo de Peralta Topic: Map Documenting Community Water Concerns to be Released as Part of Legislative Day for People of Faith Concerned about Clean Air, Water and Earth Contact: Joan Brown, Partnership for Earth Spirituality 505-266-6966 (Albuquerque), joankansas@swcp.com Joni Arends, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety 505-986-1973 (Santa Fe), jarends@nuclearactive.org A map documenting community and people of faith concerns for water will be released Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 9:15 in the Rotunda of the State Capitol. The document release is part of a Legislative Day for People of Faith Concerned for Water, Land, Air and People. The project was initiated by people of faith and communities concerned about water and funded by the Catholic Sisters of Mercy – Northeast Community.
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| | | published Thursday, January 12, 2012 | 1089 Views :: 1 Comments |
The following article quotes ANA Director Susan Gordon as she analyses cleanup agreements made between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the State of New Mexico.
LANL’s new cleanup agreement: a bold step in the wrong direction?
Jan. 11, 2012
By Wren Abbott
From the Santa Fe Reporter
A new agreement between the state Environment Department and Los Alamos National Laboratory would accelerate shipments of radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad (pictured)—but would also leave more than half the waste on the hill indefinitely.
Los Alamos National Laboratory is trumpeting a new radioactive waste cleanup agreement that would allow it to leave half of its radioactive waste in place indefinitely—and defy federal environmental protection guidelines.
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| | | published Monday, January 09, 2012 | 1181 Views :: 0 Comments |
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 Monday, November 28, 2011 | 1438 Views :: 0 Comments |
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 Friday, November 11, 2011 | 969 Views :: 0 Comments |
Nov. 11, 2011
By Annette Cary
From the Tri-City Herald
Hanford official Joe Franco has been named to lead the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for the Department of Energy.
Franco, the DOE assistant manager for the Hanford river corridor, will become manager for the DOE Carlsbad Field Office.
The office oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, the nation's repository for transuranic waste generated during the research and production of nuclear weapons. It's where Hanford's transuranic waste, typically debris contaminated with plutonium, is sent for disposal in rooms mined out of an ancient salt formation 2,150 feet below ground.
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| | | published Wednesday, November 09, 2011 | 1452 Views :: 0 Comments |
This article, which exposes the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant's inability to meet it's performance milestones - and new strategy of simply doing away with performance metrics - features quotes and research from ANA's member group the Southwest Research and Information Center.
Oct 11, 2011
By John Fleck From the Albuquerque Journal
Cutting the federal budget seems all the rage in political circles these days.
The problem, as is becoming increasingly obvious, is that all that money is currently going to someone. Those people very much seem to want to continue to receive it or, if possible, get more.
As an example, consider the tug of war over money the Department of Energy is spending in southeastern New Mexico to dispose of its backlog of radioactive waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad.
Congressional budget cutters have proposed modest spending reductions. The project’s defenders have gone into hyperdrive.
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