Peace Week: Outer Space as a Global Commons

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has not investigated ProjectRanger complaints that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 6referred to it, according to NMED's own records. Project Ranger is CastelionCorporation's 1,000-acre hypersonic weapons and rocket-motor testing campus inSandoval County. It sits over a Calabacillas watershed aquifer recharge zone, abouthalf a mile from Rio Rancho homes.

Under the President’s Executive Order, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, orNRC, is at it again. This time, during a 30-day comment period, the NRC is proposing amultitude of exemptions to an existing rule in order to deregulate or decontrol nuclearwaste and nuclear materials. Recall its previous efforts to deregulate nuclear waste andmaterials under terms such as “below regulatory concern,” BRC, “beneficial use,” “deminimus,” “linguistic detoxification,” and “very low level radioactive waste,” or VLLW.

On Wednesday, October 21 st , the public learned, with just one day’s notice, thatthe New Mexico State Emergency Response Committee (SERC) meeting wascanceled. No reason was given. As a result, no public comments about Project Ranger,a 1,000-acre hypersonic missile motor manufacturing and static firing testing complex –the largest in the United States – under construction on the West Mesa near RioRancho, New Mexico, will be heard. The meeting must be rescheduled as soon aspossible.

Did you know that this week Tessa Snyder, the Hazardous MaterialsCoordinator, confirmed in writing that she recently met privately with CastelionCorporation about their Project Ranger, a 1,000-acre hypersonic missile motormanufacturing and static-firing testing complex on the West Mesa near Rio Rancho,New Mexico?

The U.S. Navy has ordered 444 fully functional Blackbeard hypersonic missilesfrom Castelion Corporation. The government has assigned 80% of the contract work tobe done in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where Project Ranger is nearing completion.Project Ranger is a 1,000-acre hypersonic manufacturing campus, designed to supportproduction of solid rocket motors, static testing of those motors and final assembly ofhypersonic weapons.

From Saturday, October 3 rd through Saturday, October 10 th , people around theworld are organizing local events to bring outer space to greater public attention byproclaiming “Keep Space for Peace.” However, on Monday, September 14 th , the Trumpadministration announced it had placed weapons in orbit around the Earth in a majoreffort to militarize space. U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink followed up by saying theUnited States, “now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the jointforce against hostile adversary action.” He refused to say what the weapons are, howmany there are or when they were launched.

On Monday, September 14 th , Veterans for Peace lit their new electronic billboardfeaturing Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the reader and saying, “I want you to refuseunlawful orders.” The billboard is located on the south side of the I-40 exit at WyomingBoulevard in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Last week residents of Ypsilanti Township expressed their anger over aproposed high-performance computing facility near the Huron River in a partnershipbetween the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).Residents are concerned that the proposed project would fuel research into the nucleararms race.

From 1946 to 1969, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was used as the station fortop-secret nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. It was also the place wheredecontamination was done on the ships used in hydrogen bomb tests. Radioactive andtoxic waste was disposed there.

Why does it matter whether plutonium pits are “aging” before their time? We allage. We get old and we die. But that’s not what the Department of Energy (DOE) andNational Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) want for their plutonium pits. Theywant to make sure that they will “live” forever.