Don’t let New Mexico become a
National Nuclear Sacrifice Zone.
Ask the Department of Energy questions about its
* plans to expand WIPP indefinitely
* proposed closure date of 2083 at the earliest
* plans to ship powdered plutonium to WIPP
* plans to build another required repository
For more information
Your voice is needed to speak up against the Department Of Energy (DOE) plans to extend the operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) from 2024 until 2083, or beyond.
Located in southeast New Mexico, DOE’s WIPP is the nation’s only deep geologic repository for the disposal of nuclear waste. DOE estimates WIPP’s existing physical space will be full around 2025, and DOE faces a statutory limitation on how much waste can be disposed of at WIPP. The repository is designed to dispose of a specific type of defense-related nuclear waste, referred to as transuranic (TRU) waste, generated by DOE nuclear weapons research and production and cleanup activities at sites across the country. The TRU waste is disposed of in underground “panels,” made up of rooms, that are mined out of a salt formation more than 2,000 feet below the earth’s surface. The current operating permit at WIPP expires in 2024.
Part of the plan to expand WIPP is to send surplus plutonium in metallic form along northern NM highways to be processed at Los Alamos into a powder and then back along the same routes to South Carolina, then back to WIPP.
Congress charged DOE with the responsibility to site, build and operate other regional waste repositories for defense nuclear waste. WIPP is not supposed to be the only repository. DOE promised New Mexicans that it would be able to clean up all the transuranic, or plutonium contaminated waste, across the nuclear weapons sites across the country in 25 years and close WIPP.
Here’s the official invitation —
WIPP Community Forum & Open House
In person and virtual
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) and
Nuclear Waste Partnership LLC (NWP)
CBFO and NWP will host an in person and virtual meeting
to provide an update on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
Open house to follow where stakeholders
can meet the WIPP leadership team.
In Person
Santa Fe Convention Center – Okeefe & Milagro Rooms
(201 West Marcy Street Santa Fe, NM 87501)
Thursday, July 7, 2022, starts at 5.30 p.m. [Mountain Time, which is 7:30 pm Eastern/6:30 pm Central/4:30 pm Pacific]
Virtual
REGISTER HERE
For questions regarding this meeting and open house please contact the
WIPP Information Center at
infocntr@wipp.ws or by calling 1-800-336-9477.
For more information:
We envision a future of fairness and safety where New Mexicans are informed and involved in protecting public health and the environment.
Help us stop the expansion of the WIPP nuclear waste dump site in New Mexico.
Nuclear Waste Disposal: Better Planning Needed to Avoid Potential Disruptions at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant GAO-21-48 Published: Nov 19, 2020.
Please consider supporting our vital work! You can mail a check to: Nuclear Watch New Mexico, 903 W. Alameda #325, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Please make check out to “SRIC”, our fiscal agent. You can also donate online using the button below. All donations are fully tax deductible. Please be as generous as you can.
Thank you!
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director
Scott Kovac, Research Director
Sophie Stroud, Digital Content Manager and Youth Specialist
Please mail a check today to: Nuclear Watch New Mexico, 903 W. Alameda #325, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Please make check out to “SRIC”, our fiscal agent. You can also donate online using the button below. All donations are fully tax deductible. Please be as generous as you can.
