Dear Friends,Thanks to ongoing community efforts, New Mexico officials are taking action to require DOE, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) to prioritize sending LANL’s “Legacy” nuclear waste to WIPP for disposal. “Legacy Waste” is Cold War nuclear waste, created during decades of nuclear weapons research, design and fabrication.
DOE promised New Mexicans that if we allowed WIPP to be built in our state, Cold War and other radioactive waste, then stored at LANL, would have priority to be disposed in WIPP. DOE has continually broken this promise over the years. New Mexico is usually far behind other states in disposing LANL's Legacy Waste in WIPP.
This has led to, among other problems, about 2500 drums of plutonium-contaminated Legacy Waste languishing for decades in tents in "Area G" in a wildfire zone.
The red area shows the combined burn area of 8 wildfires between 1977 and 2022
three of which burned over LANL property.
For more information about these fires, including an interactive map,
On April 23, our New Mexico Environment Department (NMED)
issued an important permit modification to WIPP’s 2023 Renewal Permit,
holding LANL and DOE accountable for not prioritizing this Legacy Waste disposal
as required in the 2023 WIPP Permit Renewal.
Important Points in the Proposed Permit Modification
• All Legacy Waste currently stored above-ground at LANL’s Area G shall be disposed in WIPP by July 1, 2028. (This would include the plutonium-contaminated Legacy Waste stored in the tents.)
• From January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2031, at least 55% of the total volume of all waste disposed in WIPP from all national sites must be LANL Legacy Waste.
• Beginning January 1, 2032, and until all LANL legacy waste has been disposed in WIPP, LANL legacy waste must be at least 75% of the total volume of waste disposed in WIPP from all national sites.
• If at any point any of those conditions are not met, all shipments, other than those from LANL, must cease until all deficiencies are cured.
NMED
needs to hear that we are
in support of this permit modification.
Our full support is especially necessary because
DOE is strongly opposing the
modification.
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Members of the Stop Forever WIPP Coalition and Fire on the Mountain as well as other community groups
support this action and urge people to
submit written comments in support of NMED's action
by Monday, June 8 at 5 PM.
How to submit comments
• NMED has asked that we submit comments directly through their portal here.
• But if you find that a little intimidating you can email your comments to:
• Or even snail mail them to NMED at: 
Megan McLean, WIPP Program Manager
Hazardous Waste Bureau
New Mexico Environment Department
2905 Rodeo Park Drive East, Building 1
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505-6303
