New & Updated

Documentary Planned about Health Effects in New Mexico Counties Adjacent to Trinity Test Site

The atomic bomb, in its first test, was exploded at the Trinity Test Site near Tularosa, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Its success permitted the United States to bomb Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th of that same year.  In  New Mexico, however, the population was not given advance warning of the test nor did the U.S. government ever return to advise the population on precautions they needed to take with their water, livestock or produce.  According  to Tina Cordova, from a Tularosa family and founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, the people were “unknowing, unwilling, and uncompensated participants in the world’s greatest science experiment.”

Documentary film-maker Dennis Carroll, taking up the cause of the Tularosa Downwinders, is planning a film called “America’s Children of the Bomb” and seeking to raise funding for the project. According to Carroll, the story of the New Mexicans who carry health effects from generation to generation is one of the most remarkable omissions in the history of New Mexico and of the nuclear age. A short video of his project can be viewed on the website .  

New Defense Guidance Undermines Need for New Nuclear Weapons Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos

Pentagon President Barak Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released a new defense strategy reflecting the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the need to achieve more than $450 billion in budget savings over the next decade. While specific military programs were not marked for cuts, the strategy document “U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense” notes that “It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear force, which would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as well as their role in U.S. national security strategy.” 

Jay Coghlan, NukeWatch Director, commented, “We welcome the Administration’s acknowledgment that massive budget savings much be achieved and that our nuclear forces could be further reduced. Cancelling the CMRR-Nuclear Facility is one way to begin to achieve both, immediately saving around 5 billion dollars. More importantly, cancelling the CMRR-Facility is also a decision to not expand plutonium pit production, when expansion is simply not needed and would be inconsistent with America’s global nonproliferation goals. Hundred’s of billions of dollars could be saved over the next half-century by not expanding plutonium pit production to produce new nuclear weapons, when that money is badly needed for true national priorities.”

U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense is available here.

Our Press Release is here.

More “Hot” Waste Planned for WIPP

The Department of Energy (DOE) opened the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in 1999 when “Remote-Handled” (RH) transuranic (TRU-plutonium-contaminated) waste was prohibited.  Since RH waste has been permitted, DOE still has not shipped RH waste at a rate to use the available capacity.  Consequently, about one-half of the planned RH space in the walls of the underground rooms cannot be used because contact-handled (CH) waste has been emplaced.  DOE now wants to bring more RH waste than fits in the remaining designated space.

The complete permit modification request can be found here.  (1MB pdf)

Read the fact sheet here. (doc)

Read the sample letter here. (doc)

NNSA issues Record Of Indecision for Nuclear Facility

For further background please see our CMRR fact sheet here.

And see our LANL Primer here.

The CMRR Amended Record Of Decision is here.

"Farewell to Arms,"by Mikhail Gorbachev

See the op-ed at Project Syndicate by Mikhail Gorbachev, "Farewell to Arms,"
on this week's 25th anniversary of the 1986 Reykjavik Summit. Excerpts below.
 
MOSCOW – Twenty-five years ago this month, I sat across from Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland to negotiate a deal that would have reduced, and could have ultimately eliminated by 2000, the fearsome arsenals of nuclear weapons held by the United States and the Soviet Union.

For all our differences, Reagan and I shared the strong conviction that civilized countries should not make such barbaric weapons the linchpin of their security. Even though we failed to achieve our highest aspirations in Reykjavik, the summit was nonetheless, in the words of my former counterpart, “a major turning point in the quest for a safer and secure world.”

The next few years may well determine if our shared dream of ridding the world of nuclear weapons will ever be realized.

...[much more, read here]...

US President John F. Kennedy once warned that “every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment.” For more than 50 years, humanity has warily eyed that lethal pendulum while statesmen debated how to
mend its fraying cords. The example of Reykjavik should remind us that palliative measures are not enough. Our efforts 25 years ago can be vindicated only when the Bomb ends up beside the slave trader’s manacles and the Great War’s mustard gas in the museum of bygone savagery.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the USSR, founded Green Cross International, the independent non-profit and nongovernmental organization working to address the inter-connected global challenges of security, poverty eradication, and environmental degradation.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011. www.project-syndicate.org [Exerpts Used by Permission]
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gorbachev8/English

Freeze the Nukes, Fund the Future

The 'nuclear option' to cut deficit By: Rep. Ed Markey

The Cold War arms race is over, but the fight for America’s priorities has just begun. It’s time to end the plutonium plutocracy and deploy this financial weapon against waste. Fewer weapons, more wealth — a real solution for our deficit crisis.

The congressional supercommittee was established to make recommendations for at least $1.2 trillion in cuts to our federal deficit. In the next few weeks, the panel is due to finalize its plan to put America back on a sound financial footing. Our outdated bombs must serve as the “nuclear option” — we can cut at least $20 billion per year from the $50 billion nuclear weapons budget, or $200 billion over the next 10 years.

We can use those savings to cut the deficit and save programs that help the poor, care for our seniors, educate our students and create new jobs.

Already, 64 House members have signed on to support this nuclear option.

The New START agreement, signed by America and Russia in 2010 and ratified by the Senate in 2011, is designed to reduce U.S. deployed strategic warheads to 1,550. This is a 25 percent cut from today’s levels. Fewer nuclear weapons should equal less funding — not an unending trust fund.

We can cut the deficit without undercutting our national security. At $50 billion per year for 5,000 nuclear warheads, each nuke costs the U.S. taxpayer about $10 million.

Invest in the future; don’t waste money on the past.

Read the article here.

The Letter From Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) to the Budget "Super Committee"-

Dear Members of the Super Committee:

The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union crumbled. The Cold War ended. Yet 20 years later, we continue to spend over $50 billion a year on the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This makes no sense. These funds are a drain on our budget and a disservice to the next generation of Americans. We are robbing the future to pay for the unneeded weapons of the past. Now is the time to stop fighting last century’s war. Now is the time to reset our priorities. Now is the time to invest in the people and the programs to get America back on track...[Snip]...

We should not cut entitlement programs first. We should not target our seniors, our children, and our sick first. Instead we should target outdated and unnecessary nuclear weapons. Let’s freeze the nukes so we can fund the future.

Read the Entire Letter Here

Thanks To Those Who Attended the

Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)

12th CMRR Project Update Public Meeting, Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Our Presentation From That Evening Is Here (September 20,2011, 5.2 MB)

See our new fact sheet

NNSA Hides Behind Final Enviro Statement To Press On
With Unneeded And Exorbitant Plutonium Facility

Read Our Press Release here.

Find the Final SEIS in Volumes on the DOE Site here.

Download Our Handy Combined SEIS here. (August 26, 2011, 25MB)

NukeWatch Comments on Draft CMRR-NF Environmental Impact Statement

Nuclear Watch New Mexico Comments on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Nuclear Facility Portion of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico.

We appreciate public involvement in the NEPA process. We also support safe, monitored storage of radioactive wastes as a matter of national security and environmental protection. However, these should not be interpreted as support for more nuclear weapons, pit production, nuclear power, or the generation of more nuclear wastes. In our view, the best way to deal with the environmental impacts of nuclear waste is to not produce it to begin with.

We look forward to the agency’s withdrawal of this draft for the reasons stated in the linked document, and look forward to further comment once NNSA puts out a serious draft without an un-predetermined outcome.

Summary of Comments

Full Comments

Environmental Impact of Nuclear Facility

A System Out of Control- The Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Lab are gaming the National Environmental Policy Act process for a proposed new Nuclear Facility. The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is premature, the narrow range of alternatives considered is bogus, the final designs are not mature and seismic issues are still outstanding. The NEPA process is being subverted.

It would be unsafe for northern New Mexico if LANL were to proceed with this building.

Radioactive Waste with Nowhere to Go

DOE has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) Low-Level Radioactive Waste and GTCC-Like Waste. The United States has created nuclear waste that it does not know what to do with. For a large portion of that waste – 160,000,000 curies – from commercial nuclear power plants, the Department of Energy (DOE) is considering burying it in the ground.

Key points DOE must consider are:

• Hardened On-site Storage (HOSS) must be considered as an alternative.
• Do not send GTCC waste to DOE sites. Nation-wide, DOE sites are still facing 100’s of billions of dollars and decades worth of cleanup from the Cold War.
  

Public Hearings on the Environmental Impact of LANL’s Proposed Expansion of its Plutonium Production Complex

The Public Comment period for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project can be used as an opportunity to challenge the need for the facility as well as voice concerns about the narrow range of alternatives the Department of Energy is evaluating in it's plans. Additionally, comments are a way to express specific environmental issues about the consequences of building and operating this addition to the plutonium complex at LANL, as well as to point out deficiencies in the analysis of environmental impacts. Going on record in written or oral comments during this process sets up the condition for future actions.

NWNM Sample Comments on the draft SEIS (.doc) -June 16, 2011

Comments on the Draft CMRR–NF SEIS can be submitted by email at:  NEPALASO@doeal.gov

NWNM Talking Points on the draft SEIS -May 25, 2011

Brief Background

The main purpose of the CMRR Project is to create an expanded plutonium pit production complex at LANL capable of quadrupling the current production level of ~20 pits per year to 80. In the recent past, proposed expanded plutonium pit production was all about producing newdesign nuclear weapons, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warheads (RRWs). Congress decisively rejected RRWs, and we assert that no RRWs equals no need for the CMRR-Nuclear Facility. However, the U.S. nuclear weapons labs are still pushing for new “replacement” components, including plutonium pits that could be heavily modified from originally tested designs. This too should be avoided because it would inherently undermine confidence in the extensively tested reliable stockpile. It therefore follows that the CMRR-Nuclear Facility is still not needed.

Backgrounder on Early Construction of the Nuclear Facility

More Background information on Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project

The Supplemental EIS and its Reference Documents are available here.

30 Non-Governmental Organizations Oppose Short Schedule and Inadequate Number of Public Hearings for Controversial Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos

Following the release this week of the Department of Energy's (DOE) draft Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project-Nuclear Facility Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement thirty non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from New Mexico and around the country wrote to DOE calling for three additional public hearings, and an extension of 75 days for the comment period past the proposed June 13 Deadline. New Mexico Senators and Representatives have been approached for assistance with the requests.

Press Release -May 5, 2011

Letter to DOE -May 5, 2011

CMRR SEIS Hearing Schedule
Monday May 23 – 5 to 9 pm ABQ at the Albuquerque Marriott, Louisiana and I-40
Tuesday, May 24 – 5 to 9 pm Los Alamos at the Holiday Inn Express, 60 Entrada Drive.
Wednesday, May 25 – 5 to 9 pm Espanola at the Santa Claran Hotel
Thursday, May 26 – 5 to 9 pm Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Rooms

Please come to at least one hearing and give oral comments!

New Mexicans Must Again Say No to DOE’s Proposals for Commercial Radioactive Waste Disposal.

The Department Of Energy has plans to ship more radioactive waste to New Mexico. But three sites under consideration are in New Mexico of the seven sites in new plans for disposal of nuclear power plant waste and disused radioactive sealed sources that are used in medical treatments and other applications. This includes the possibility of adding it to the inventory of waste headed for WIPP outside Carlsbad. A second site near WIPP is also on the list of possible locations, as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory. We can stop wasting NM!

See our general fact sheet

See our LANL and NM specific Fact Sheet

Los Alamos Lab to Release Plans for Plutonium Bomb Plant on Good Friday and Earth Day

Friday, April 22, is both Earth Day and Good Friday. During this extended Easter weekend some 10,000 pilgrims walk many miles to the famous Catholic Santuario in Chimayo as both penance and in celebration of the Peacemaker’s resurrection. Twenty-five miles to the west and a 1,000 feet higher sits the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). An official has stated that on Good Friday and Earth Day the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will release an environmental impact statement for a huge new plutonium facility at LANL. This facility will be the keystone of an expanded production complex for plutonium pit “triggers” for nuclear weapons.

This Friday is not a good Friday for either the earth or world peace. During this holy week it is fitting to remember that “blessed are the peacemakers” and work to end nuclear weapons production and contamination rather than increasing them.

Lab Director Links Los Alamos Seismic Risks to Japan

Santa Fe, NM – Two days ago, while arguing for an exorbitant new plutonium facility, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Director Michael Anastasio testified to Congress, “With a delay, we’ll of course have to continue to work in our old facility, which right now is almost 60 years old. And it happens to be, literally, on top of an earthquake fault – not the best place for a nuclear facility. A reminder of that is to look what’s happening in Japan.” Following that, he immediately added, “By delaying it also we put at risk when we will be able to really increase capacity for pit production at the Laboratory.”

Nuclear Watch is pleased that even Los Alamos Director Michael Anastasio is sobered by the escalating tragedy in Japan as a lesson learned in nuclear safety. However, he is using the opportunity to advocate for expanded nuclear weapons production through an exorbitant new facility that will store up to six metric tons of plutonium in a volatile seismic area.

Full Press Release -April 1, 2011

LANL Director Anastasio 3/30/11 quotes can be heard at the 119 minute marker.

The quote predicting a 7.0 earthquake is from “Rio Grande Rift F.A.Q” by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Dangerous Levels of Radiation Outside Fukushima Reactors

Although it continues to be challenging to make sense out of information from different sources about radiation levels and radionuclides found at different times and places around the Fukushima reactors there has been disturbing news of upward trends.

Particularly troubling are reports that radioactive water has been found outside the containment buildings of all four reactors. In one instance water adjacent to reactor #2 measured 1,000 milliSieverts (the equivalent of 100 full body CT scans per hour) which is four times the limit set by the government for emergency worker exposure and is enough to cause radiation sickness. This understandably complicates any work that needs to be done in the area. Currently there is not even any place to store the radioactive water if it is pumped away. Although it is uncertain if the radioactive water escaped from the reactor containment by way of leaking pipes or that it is runoff from the irrigation of the spent fuel pools, officials maintain that the primary containment has not been breached.

21 NGOs Oppose the Release of the Biological Safety Level-3 Environmental Impact Statement Without New Scoping

Joint Press Release -March 4, 2011

Detailed letter to DOE - February 25, 2011

Obama Increases Funding for Modified Nuclear Weapons & New Production Facilities

Santa Fe, NM – In his April 2009 Prague speech President Barack Obama called for a nuclear weapons-free world, for which in part he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Today he has released his Administration’s FY 2012 Congressional Budget Request that follows up on the deal made to placate a Republican minority in the Senate for ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia. In exchange, Obama pledged to increase funding for new U.S. nuclear weapons production facilities and massive improvements to the nuclear arsenal. These increases total $85 billion over the next decade to “modernize” the nuclear weapons research and production complex, and $100 billion for new heavy bombers, ballistic missiles and strategic submarines.

NukeWatch press release on Budget Request

See NukeWatch’s detailed tabulation of the NNSA’s FY 2012 Budget Request

Historic levels of funding for DOE/NNSA nuclear weapons programs since 1989 and Obama Administration funding projections out to FY 2018

Lab’s Cold War Mortgage Is Past Due – New Remediation Estimates Range Up To $32 Billion

Santa Fe - A recently released report from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) sharply increases cost estimates for various remediation alternatives for the Lab’s largest radioactive waste dump. This is revision 2 of a corrective measures evaluation (CME) conducted for Material Disposal Area (MDA) G. This CME increases the cost estimates for all proposed alternatives including the most expensive option, total excavation and disposal of the wastes offsite, now estimated at over $32 billion.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico urges NMED to approve the excavation of LANL MDA G pits and shafts with on-site disposal in an approved landfill. The estimated 58 million worker-hours to accomplish this alternative would provide would equal some 1,000 jobs for 30 yrs. The average budget for this would be around $600 million per year. This may seem like an extravagant amount, but is only about ¼ of the Lab’s current annual budget and less than ½ of its current annual budget spent on nuclear weapons activities for “National Security.”

We argue that we don’t need more nuclear weapons – - for real security we need a clean environment and sustainable jobs.

Full Press Release

MDA G CME Report, Revision 2 [8 MB]

Join the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability's 23rd annual DC Days!

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) will be bringing anti-nuclear activists, including Nuclear Watch New Mexico, from around the country to DC April 3rd-6th to deliver some "Nuclear Reality Check$" to Congress and the Obama Administration. This is the perfect opportunity for new or seasoned disarmament and environmental activists to reject Obama's nuclear give-away, encourage fiscal responsibility, and have fun with other activists from across the country.

Early bird registration is only $125, but ends March 1. After March 1st, registration will be $150. Student registration is $50.  Click here to register online!

Registration covers the costs of a comprehensive training on Sunday, April 3rd; entry to our awards reception on Tuesday, April 5th; and snacks and expert support during the week. ANA will also host a pizza party on Monday, April 4th. DC Days 2011 will be during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the most popular time to visit DC, so book your travel and lodging in advance!

Visit www.ANAnuclear.org or email Katherine Fuchs for more information.  

With New START Ratified
It’s Time to Examine the National Security and Economic Costs of “Modernization”

Santa Fe, NM – Nuclear Watch New Mexico applauds Senate ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). While this arms reduction treaty is modest in scope, we nevertheless believe its ratification is an absolutely essential step toward subsequent treaties that 1) progressively make deeper cuts to strategic weapons; 2) cut tactical (battlefield) weapons, which are particularly prone to theft and diversion; and 3) lead to multilateral negotiations involving all nuclear powers.

But with ratification now accomplished, the nation should seriously question the national security and economic costs of so-called “modernization” of the nuclear weapons stockpile and its supporting research and production complex. New START ratification has come with a heavy price, that being the massive rebuilding of the production side of U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the future makeover of an extensively tested nuclear stockpile that is known to be reliable.

Wasting money on vastly expensive new facilities and serious modifications to already safe and highly effective nuclear weapons will undermine our own national security. It also means diverting funding from other programs that could help rebuild America and keep its citizens healthy and prosperous. Reducing the federal debt is in the real interests the nation’s security, not shoveling more money into unneeded, badly managed, provocative nuclear weapons programs.

For more…
And related…

Following the New Money

Under the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2010 the President has provided Congress the classified Section 1251 Report as a plan to modernize the Nuclear Weapons Complex. This is the first year this report has been required. In November the Administration already released their second version of the plan, which increased the estimates over the original May version to an average of $8.6B per year for the next 10 years. This is in contrast to the previous 20-year average of $6.2B and the $5.1B average during the Cold War. The increase resulted from trading more nuclear weapons spending for Senate ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia.

See our fact sheet for details -November 24, 2010

Nuclear Watch Scoping Comments for CMRR Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)

NWNM CMRR SEIS Scoping Comments (full version) -November 16, 2010

To assist in preparing your written comments NukeWatch has provided shortened language in this letter (linked Word doc). Information about where to submit your comments is at the head of this letter.

NNSA Extends Public Scoping Period for CMRR Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)

In response to requests from interested parties the National Nuclear Security Administration has extended the public scoping period for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) Supplemental Environmental Impact Study through November 16, 2010.

Additionally, Energy Secretary Chu has called for an independent review of the requirements for both the CMRR-NF at Los Alamos and the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, TN. This process will begin November 22 and is intended to inform the Department of Energy on accurate cost estimates for these projects in time for fiscal year 2012 Budget Request. We suggest that the budgetary belt-tightening felt by many federal programs could be applied here as well.

More at the NNSA site for the SEIS

Environmental Impacts of Proposed Plutonium “Nuclear Facility” at Los Alamos to be Reconsidered - No-Build Alternative is Back on the Table

Santa Fe, NM – On October 1, 2010 the Energy Department’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the NNSA, will issue a formal Notice of Intent that it will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for its expanded plutonium pit production complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). At issue now is a massive “Nuclear Facility” that in combination with LANL’s existing plutonium facility will quadruple production capability from the currently approved level of 20 pits per year to 80. The first legally-required environmental review of the CMRR Project was completed in 2003. Since then the project has grown 50% larger while estimated costs have increased seven-fold from $660 million in 2004 to $4.5 billion and still climbing today. Because of that, on May 4 Nuclear Watch asked NNSA to begin the process of preparing a supplemental EIS. On June 4 NNSA agreed in writing to Nuclear Watch that it would review the 2003 CMRR EIS for current relevance. NNSA has now correctly concluded that a very substantial supplement is needed, a positive decision that we believe is the only legal choice possible.

In its Notice of Intent the NNSA lists three alternatives for the Nuclear Facility: 1. To proceed with construction as currently planned; 2. To not build it and use the old Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Building without upgrading it; and 3. Not build the Nuclear Facility but upgrade the old CMR Building to sustain operations for 20-30 years. Nuclear Watch advocates a fourth alternative – stop operations at the dangerous CMR Building and do not build the Nuclear Facility.

Notice of Intent in Federal Register

Bipartisan for a Price – Committee Resolves to Ratification of New START

In a 14-4 vote that is seen by many as a bipartisan effort to put national security above politics the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the arms control treaty signed with Russia in April of this year. Unfortunately the perceived bipartisan passage of the treaty is still held hostage. The ransom paid is likely to be the $80 billion demanded by Senator Kyl and cronies like Bob Corker of Tennessee for expensive new weapons facilities such as CMRR-NF at LANL and the UPF at Y-12. (more)

Civil Resistance at KCP Groundbreaking gets Close Air Support from NukeWatch

photo- Robyn Haas, of Holy Family Catholic Worker in Kansas City, MO

Kansas City, MO – On September 8, 2010 officials ceremoniously broke ground for the first new major manufacturing facility for nuclear weapons parts to be built since the Cold War ended. Touting the purported benefits of these dead–end weapons jobs the mayor and other dignitaries also fell back on the time-worn and now-empty rhetoric that maintaining a vast atomic arsenal is an asset in deterring some actual current enemy.  However, there is a growing public awareness that these deadly relics of nuclear madness are now liabilities for accident or terrorism and thinly disguised, flag-draped vehicles for corporatized, defense industry plunder of our national wealth.  As an ongoing process of civil resistance to building the new plant, eighty activists protested at the groundbreaking. Although kept well away from the formal ceremonies the “Peace Planters” stood their ground and delayed the arrival of buses carrying local, state and federal officials. Eight activists were arrested for refusing to yield the way. In support of the resistance a Nuclear Watch sponsored plane carried the message “No Nuke Bomb Plant” on a banner overhead during the action.

The Monster Being Built on City Property in KCMO

On September 8, 10:00 am central time, federal, congressional and municipal officials will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Kansas City Plant (KCP), despite the fact that there are no plans to comprehensively clean up the old contaminated plant. This new production facility will manufacture and/or procure 85% of all nonnuclear components for U.S. nuclear weapons (such as fuzes, radars, electrical circuits, etc.). The local Kansas City, MO government is subsidizing private developers who will build and eventually own the plant with over $750 million in municipal bonds, even as the City closes many of its schools and hospitals. The new KCP is planned as part of a complete rebuild of the federal U.S. nuclear weapons production complex, which will include two other huge future facilities, one for plutonium components in Los Alamos, NM and another for highly enriched uranium components in Oak Ridge, TN, costing up to $10 billion.

For more, contact Jane Stoever, check our KCP page, or join the group action list below:

Subscribe to kcnukewatch

Email:

Visit this group

Protesters Delay Site Prep at the New Kansas City Nuclear Weapons Plant

Kansas City, MO - Peace activists converged here this weekend from across the country to build awareness of the fact that the U.S. is building up its nuclear weapons production capacity at three new facilities. Acts of civil disobedience on August 17th at the end of the three day conference provided direct resistance to site preparation for the plant. 14 activists were arrested.

Nuclear Watch Executive Director Jay Coghlan and Ann Sullentrop of KC Physicians for Social Responsibility (below) address the crowd gathered at the site.

-photos courtesy of Joshua McElwee, Staff Writer for National Catholic Reporter (article)

(more photos)

Updated presentation on the Kansas City Plant and the convoluted development agreement [4MB PDF] -August 13, 2010

Remembering Nagasaki: Attacked with a Plutonium Bomb

Sixty-five years ago today the Japanese city of Nagasaki was destroyed by a nuclear weapon powered by plutonium. As we remember the 70,000 dead… and the tragedy, suffering and terror caused by the use of atomic bombs let us heed the growing global call to rid the world of these terrible weapons. Let us take action, NOW, towards that goal by stopping the needless expansion of the plutonium complex at Los Alamos. The proposed 4.5 billion-dollar CMRR Nuclear Facility is too expensive, excessive and even dangerous in a world on the path towards less, rather than more nuclear weapons. The impact of building this facility is not known and should be carefully reconsidered. Serious questions must be asked before the greedy momentum to rebuild the obsolete cold-war nuclear weapons industry proceeds. Among them: Does Northern New Mexico (or the world) really need a modern, expanded plutonium bomb complex? Should Los Alamos National Lab base its future on plutonium? Perhaps reflecting on the legacy of Nagasaki will guide our actions.

Private Developers Break Ground on Kansas City Bomb Plant

- First New U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Plant in 32 Years

Kansas City, MO - Private developers have broken ground with mass earth excavation in the initial phase of construction for the first new major U.S. nuclear weapons production plant in 32 years, the new Kansas City Plant (KCP).  It will continue the mission of the heavily contaminated existing plant that produces and/or procures most nonnuclear components for nuclear weapons. While closing many public schools and hospitals, the Kansas City, MO municipal government is aggressively subsidizing this new federal nuclear weapons production plant through a convoluted financing scheme. Our national and global security ultimately lies in getting rid of nuclear weapons instead of indefinitely preserving them. Kansas City needs sustainable jobs, not nuclear weapons jobs. The city should create jobs by holding the federal government’s feet to the fire to make them clean up so that the old plant can be reused, and not let them build up the nuclear weapons bomb-making complex!

More detailed advisory [106KB] –July 29, 2010

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO (Nuclear Weapons)

NEW MEXICO / Santa Fe CCA Cinematheque/1050 Old Pecos Tr. Santa Fe, NM

The film traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. Written and directed by acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (TheDevil's Playground, Blindsight), the film features an array of important international statesmen, including President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Tony Blair. It makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever with the Obama administration working to revive this goal today. The film was produced by Academy Award® winner and current nominee Lawrence Bender (Inglourious Basterds, An Inconvenient Truth) and developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media, together with World Security Institute. Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann, Bruce Blair and Matt Brown are the film's executive producer

Countdown to Zero: Opening Night Fundraiser featured an introduction by Valerie Plame Wilson and a panel discussion: New Mexico and the Bomb featuring Jay Coghlan (Nuclear Watch), Rev. Holly Beaumont (Las Mujeres Hablan) and Liz Woodruff (Think Outside the Bomb) Moderated by Susan Gordon (Alliance for Nuclear Accountability)

Countdown to Zero is showing around the country. Check for locations and showtimes.

New Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Stewardship Plan is Backwards

Santa Fe, NM – The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) FY 2011 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan specifies that a large nuclear arsenal will be maintained, weapon dismantlements are facing bottlenecks, plutonium pit production at Los Alamos will be expanded and new radioactive waste dumps and treatment facilities will be built to handle the increased production levels. Instead of this Plan, a conservative curatorship program should be followed to prudently maintain the stockpile while simultaneously demonstrating genuine leadership against nuclear weapons and materials proliferation - saving American taxpayers precious dollars.

Read our press release for more on the FY2011 SSM Plan - July 13, 2010

Our Analyses:

NWNMAnalysis FY11-SSM Plan -July 13, 2010

NWNMAnalysis FY11-SSM Plan Future Radioactive Waste Operations -July 13, 2010

Nuclear Watch Anotated Excerpts from the 2011 NNSA SSM Plans.

The FY2011 NNSA SSM Plans can be downloaded here:

FY 2011 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan - Summary

FY 2011 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan - Annex A

(Annex B and C are classified)

FY 2011 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan - Annex D

Resistance for a Nuclear Free Future

Maryville TN- Over the July Forth weekend, Jay Coghlan, and many others, joined The Nuclear Resister, Nukewatch (the Wisconsin-based environmental and peace action group) and the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) for a national gathering, that culminated with nonviolent anti-nuclear direct action declaring independence from nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The gathering was held at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, with protest and action at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in nearby Oak Ridge, where OREPA has sustained a nonviolent campaign for over 20 years.

Jay Coghlan, Executive Director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico gave two presentations:
A Dubious Bargain - The current status of nuclear weapons in the U.S. (ppt: 1.7MB)

An Enduring Nuclear Stockpile - Where the nuclear weapons complex is heading and what can be done to stop it. (ppt: 8.1MB

Following the Money

A chart of Energy Department Weapons Activities Budgets compared to the average spent during the Cold War. Is this the direction we want spending to go for Nuclear Weapons?

See our fact sheet for details - June 7, 2010

Our Fact Sheet about the three new production facilities  

Obama Bails Out Arms Reduction Treaty
by Dramatically Increasing Nuclear Weapons Budgets

Santa Fe, NM – Yesterday President Obama submitted the new bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia to the Senate for ratification. At the same time he submitted a modernization plan required by Congress that “includes investments of $80 billion to sustain and modernize the [U.S.] nuclear weapons complex over the next decade.”

In order to extract increased funding, NNSA and the nuclear weapons labs are trying to shift the debate over maintaining the stockpile from technical arguments over warhead safety and reliability to subjective arguments over maintaining an exorbitant research and production complex and workforce. This will not only cost enormous sums of money, which is what the labs seek, but will also perversely undermine confidence in the stockpile because of planned changes, including new military capabilities, that will be made to existing, previously tested weapons.

Giving the nuclear weapons labs a blank check contradicts Obama’s declared national security goal of a future nuclear weapons-free world. Instead, he should be redirecting the labs into dramatically increased nonproliferation programs, cleanup of cold war waste, and meeting today’s national security threats of nuclear terrorism, energy dependence and climate change.

Nuclear Watch Press Release –May 14, 2010

Congress Should Cut the Nuclear Pork!

Congress is considering the budget for next year. It imposes a spending freeze for most domestic programs, yet they are acting as if there is money to spare when it comes to nuclear weapons pork. The budget request for nuclear weapon activities next year is $7 billion, which is a 14% increase over last year’s budget for the same programs, and 40% over the average spending during the Cold War (which was $5 billion in 2011 dollars) Exercise your rights. Please call or email now and ask YOUR elected officials to cut the nuclear weapons budget and to fund other, much more urgent priorities instead.

Read about the three new production facilities  -April 29, 2010

Focus on the Proposed New Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos - April 29, 2010

In New Mexico you can email our Senators via their websites:
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Tom Udall
For other areas, or if you want help, Peace Action West has a handy tool for identifying your legislators and officials. Thank you for speaking out and making your voice heard. 

Nuclear Posture Review Calls For Rebuild of
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Production Capacity

Modern nuclear weapons are comprised of three general types of components: plutonium pit primaries, uranium/lithium secondaries that are triggered by the primaries, and the 1,000’s of non-nuclear components that create deliverable weapons of mass destruction (fuzes, radar, bomb cases, etc.). The U.S. is aggressively pursuing major new production facilities for all three types.

This triad of new production facilities will likely cost over $9 billion and is unnecessary for maintaining the safety, security and reliability of the stockpile and undermines the international nonproliferation regime. With these new facilities, the United States will be able to quadruple its current nuclear warhead production capacity from 20 to 80 per year.

NPR Calls for Surge Weapons Production Capacity, Funding for CMRR and Full Range Life Extensions

April 6, 2010- The first unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released today, sets the direction of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and plans for maintaining the stockpile. Of importance to northern New Mexico is the intention to fund the $4.5 billion Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Apparently bowing to pressure from the weapons laboratories and holdovers from the previous administration, the NPR states that the CMRR is needed to sustain the nuclear arsenal. But it also goes past that and calls for “some modest capacity [that] will be put in place for surge production in the event of significant geopolitical “surprise.” Once that capacity is installed we believe the door remains open for expanded plutonium pit production at LANL.

The NPR also falls short of the conservative approach to maintaining the existing arsenal with minimum modifications to original tested design specifications. NukeWatch advocates “curatorship” of the nuclear stockpile, which involves robust surveillance and maintenance of the stockpile but avoids new-design components and obviates expanded production capacity or new facilities to make them. The NPR calls for a full range of Life Extension Programs, including refurbishment of existing warheads, reuse of nuclear components from different warheads, and replacement of nuclear components. NukeWatch is deeply concerned that these Life Extension Programs will be used to endow existing nuclear weapons with new military capabilities, as has been done in the past, despite claims made to the contrary in the NPR.

Nuclear Watch Press Release -April 6 2010

The Promise of Prague

April 5, 2010- Early in a year when nuclear weapons issues have become more visible in the public arena, and on the eve of the release of the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, we would like to take a moment and reflect on a significant event a year ago. It was this day, April 5, 2009 when President Obama spoke to a crowd gathered in Prague pledging to "seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." Let’s continue the work of keeping that promise.

Public Hearing for the LANL Hazardous Waste Permit

The first Public Hearings in 20 years regarding the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Hazardous Waste Permit from the State’s Environment Department will begin Monday April 5th at 9:00AM in the Jemez Rooms of the Santa Fe Community College, 6401 Richards Ave., Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508.

Come support NMED’s position on disallowing OPEN BURNING at the Lab. Help insist on FINANCIAL ASSURANCE for future cleanup and closure of the dump sites. (more)

Stewart Udall: In Memory and Deed, This Man Remains

A champion of the early environmental movement, Stewart Udall died March 20th, at his home in Santa Fe. As a former Member of the House of Representatives and Secretary of Interior under two Presidents, he was an early visionary on environmental issues and was a good steward of the country’s natural resources. Udall recognized that the world is on the verge of an environmental crisis and called for long-range plans for energy conservation and energy efficiency.

It would be worthy of Udall’s vision if the Labs here in New Mexico could play a vital role in developing those solutions. LANL has always had energy-efficiency programs. We want to see them augmented and the science of climate modeling advanced at the lab.  Our long-range national, and global security will depend on it.

Congressional Budget - Two-Thirds of Lab's Request is for Nuclear Weapons

The DOE has requested $2.2 billion for LANL for fiscal year 2011, of which $1.64 billion is for nuclear weapons research and production. There will be an estimated $300 million in funding from non-DOE sources, bringing the Lab’s total institutional budget to around $2.5 billion. Of that, a full two-thirds is for core research, testing and production programs for nuclear weapons.

See the Chart [93KB] - February 19, 2010

What is Los Alamos? Read our Primer [452 KB] - February 19, 2010

Obama's Budget Increases Funding for New Nuclear Weapons Production Facilities; Cuts Dismantlements

In the new budget request for 2011 the Obama Administration proposes to freeze discretionary domestic spending for programs such as education, nutrition, air traffic control and national parks for three years while dramatically increasing funding for new US nuclear weapons production facilities. Obama is preemptively surrendering to the nuclear weapons labs, the for-profit private corporations running those labs, and the 2/3rd’s Senate majority needed for treaty ratifications. All of these special interests explicitly seek to extract more taxpayer funding for nuclear weapons programs in exchange for ratification of a renewed bilateral arms control treaty with Russia and a long-sought-for Test Ban Treaty. (more)

Nuclear Watch Tabulation of NNSA Weapons Funding [100KB] -February 2, 2010

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