WIPP Opened 25 Years Ago; It Was Supposed to Close Next Week

This week, CCNS highlights portions of a recent press release by Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CARES), and the Savannah River Site Watch about the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Their piece suggests NNSA does not have its priorities straight in neither producing up-to-date information on the way plutonium appears to age nor providing this information in a timely manner to the public. The entire press release is posted at nuclearactive.org --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

Recent monthly reports by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board relate disturbing stories about near-miss operational incidents in the fifth shaft, under construction, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The underground federal radioactive waste disposal site is located 2,150 feet below ground surface in a salt formation almost 30 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The Board has reported broken cables, misaligned transport platforms for workers to reach the underground, and workers stuck in the new shaft. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

The Coalition invites you to join the Saturday, April 6 th Caravan in your vehicle at the Camel Rock geologic formation on the Camel Rock Frontage Road in Tesuque at 9:30 am. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

Did you know that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) was supposed to complete its 25-year waste disposal mission and begin closing on Tuesday, March 26 th ? You may know about it because WIPP officials had a party. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

Did you know that on Friday, March 26, 1999, the first shipment of plutonium- contaminated nuclear weapons waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) reached the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

Thursday, March 28 th marks the 45 th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in Pennsylvania. A new documentary, “RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island,” tells the harrowing story of the 1979 accident involving the release of radioactive and toxic materials into the air, soils, water and into bodies young and old. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

For twenty years, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has struggled to contain the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium plume in the regional drinking water aquifer below the nuclear weapons site. The horizontal and vertical reach of the deep plume covers an area of unknown size and the depth of the contamination is unknown. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

Members of Indigenous communities provided testimony to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at a historic hearing in Washington, DC this week about the impacts of uranium exploitation on their human rights. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

This week, at the same time as the National Nuclear Security Administrative was requesting public comments about its need for 173 megawatts (MW) of electricity, the County of Los Alamos Board of Public Utilities was considering a proposal for 170 megawatts from the proposed Foxtail Flats Solar and Battery Energy Storage System in San Juan County, New Mexico. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support

CCNS has prepared talking points and a sample public comment letter you can use to craft your oral and written comments about the proposed 14-mile long, 115-kilovolt electrical line across the Caja del Rio before it would cross the Rio Grande to Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ccnsupdate/support