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Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

CONTACT

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Joni Arends

505 986 1973

Sante Fe, New Mexico

USA

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

ABOUT

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (CCNS) was founded in 1988 to address community concerns about the transportation of radioactive, toxic, and hazardous waste through the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Since then, CCNS has served as a non-governmental which adheres to environmental justice principles. CCNS engages in community organizing and media outreach, provides legal expertise, and takes legal action to protect New Mexico communities and environments from the air emission, surface and ground water discharge, and dumping of radioactive, toxic, and hazardous materials by the nuclear weapons industry into the environment. CCNS monitors, challenges, and encourages public participation in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes and federal and state permitting matters involving the Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities in the region, including LANL, WIPP, and Sandia National Laboratories.

CURRENT WORK

  • Opposing 2019 proposals to expand pit production at LANL from 20 to 30 annually – a 50% increase – through grassroots education and organizing, media outreach, and providing informed public comments. 

  • Long-term, encourage transition of LANL’s mission away from nuclear weapons work. Legal action against nuclear facilities 

  • November 2019 – Public hearing about a New Mexico draft groundwater discharge permit for the Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility at LANL, a key support facility for plutonium pit (triggers for nuclear weapons) manufacturing. A citizens’ coalition is arguing for regulation by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), not the Clean Water Act. 

  • A 2018 permit modification for WIPP to increase the volume of radioactive and hazardous waste for disposal by 30% is currently before the New Mexico Court of Appeals. 

  • CCNS issues include the discriminatory manner in which the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) handled the public participation process. 

  • In 2010, CCNS challenged and participated in extensive negotiations about the NMED draft 10-year hazardous waste permit renewal for LANL. Challenges to the LANL permit are on-going in federal and state courts. Permit renewal activities are beginning again in December 2019. 


Education and Awareness 

  • CCNS has broadcast its CCNS News Update since 1988 on local radio stations. The Update raises awareness of nuclear safety issues locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. News updates are aired on the local NPR station, posted online, and distributed through social media. 

  • CCNS prepares Action Alerts, including sample public comments for the public to use. 

  • CCNS gives public presentations, makes public comments, and keeps communities and elected officials informed about state and federal legislative processes, and administrative processes.

SUCCESSES

  • 1989 – Preventing the restart of a hazardous waste incinerator at LANL that would have produced dangerous emissions (dioxins and furans) and harmed nearby downwind and downstream communities and environments. In 1995, the incinerator was finally cancelled as a result of budget cuts to DOE’s waste management program. This work led to the successful CCNS citizens’ suit against DOE for violations of the Clean Air Act radioactive emission requirements at 40 C.F.R. §§ 61.90 – 61.97 (Subpart H) at LANL. 

  • 2006 – In coalition with the diverse and multicultural Communities for Clean Water (CCW), successfully sued the DOE for violations of the Clean Water Act’s stormwater pollution prevention requirements and negotiated the strongest individual stormwater permit in the country for more than 400 LANL dumpsites. 

  • 2017 – New Mexico Court of Appeals orders a previously denied public hearing for a New Mexico groundwater discharge permit for LANL involving the “remediated” hexavalent chromium plume waters in the regional drinking water aquifer. The hearing was held in November 2018, presided over by a disqualified hearing officer, who had a conflict of interest due to accepting a job with DOE at LANL prior to the hearing. CCNS successfully fought for a new public hearing, now scheduled for March 2020.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION

Resources CCNS can provide to others: Experience with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board with regard to transportation of radioactive and hazardous materials; Experience organizing Count the Nuclear Weapons Money events in collaboration with Move the Nuclear Weapons Money; Experience addressing state and federal regulatory agencies; and Experience encouraging celebration of victories – they are few and far between and it is important to celebrate them! Resources Needed and other Opportunities for Collaboration Working to identify, train and hire new staff and/or volunteers, especially those with a legal background, to continue operations and advocacy efforts. Creating a “DOE playbook” to help laypeople understand the systems, language, and processes of DOE, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the nuclear weapons industry and its contractors, and how to interpret and act to successfully oppose their proposals for more nuclear weapons and inadequate cleanup. In addition, the playbook would document successful campaigns and lessons learned. Collaborating with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and other efforts and organizations working to secure remediation and compensation for victims of nuclear testing and other nuclear exposure. Providing platforms for impacted communities and individuals in New Mexico to share their stories with decision makers and those in power.
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