Welcome to our informative blog dedicated to giving the public what the DOE isn’t: awareness about the dangers of legacy waste at LANL. Here, we share crucial information about the hazardous legacy waste at LANL, its potential impact, and what steps can be taken to address this pressing issue.

Fire on the Mountain Videos:

The Problem – How Plutonium Affects a Community – The Solution

On Earth Day this past April Cindy Weehler gave a presentation on the problem of nuclear weapons waste stored on the mountainside at LANL, how plutonium affects the community, and the solution to the problem.

Part 1: The Problem

Nuclear waste is stored at LANL, unprotected, in a wildfire zone.

Part 2: How Plutonium Affects a Community

Plutonium vaporized in a fire affects your health and property. We can choose to forget about nuclear waste, but it doesn’t forget about us.

Part 3: The Solution

If a disaster is so bad that it cannot be fixed, the solution is to not let it happen.

“Low-Hanging Fruit”

The Low-Hanging Fruit Is Easier.

In the last days of March 2025, we met with a DOE official at LANL about getting the waste in the forest at LANL to WIPP, where it will be safer underground. We were told there are now 2,500 drums of old waste in tents. This is down from the 40,000-some drums at the beginning. Removing so many drums is a vast improvement, but the 2,500 left are the ones LANL doesn’t want to work on because they are unlabeled and “characterizing” them will take a lot of work and time. Characterizing means determining exactly what’s in them and how much. This is a requirement for WIPP.

The Harder-to-Get Fruit Is Just as Radioactive.

DOE often says it has removed the low-hanging fruit. That ignores the fact that the hard-to-get fruit is just as radioactive as the low-hanging fruit. DOE officials at LANL indicated that it will take decades to finish moving these last 2,500 drums.

How to Use DOE’s Community Forums So They Don’t Use Us

The DOE and WIPP held the first Community Forum this year on April 30 in Carlsbad. It was virtual; people around the state attended. As usual, the audio/visual system was so poor that the program had to be halted at one point.

Two months prior to this event, we gave DOE and WIPP officials specific questions we want answered. These were topics we thought the public would be most interested in:

• Why is DOE not removing the radioactive waste in tents from the forest?

• What needs to change so that it may be removed in a reasonable time (before the next forest fire)?

• DOE should not assume WIPP will stay open until 2083, when New Mexico hasn’t given it permission to operate that long.

DOE ignored these questions, even when asked directly at the forum. It is amazing to watch DOE do this. It diverts, clouds the facts, acts confused, and gaslights. If you have questions, you’ll have the opportunity to ask them by attending on July 30.

This is frustrating but useful. DOE clearly doesn’t want its plans made public, which people might protest.

DOE is famous for not sharing what it’s planning. NGOs fought for community forums so people would have a way to confront DOE publicly and we ask you to use them. They are your tools for knowing what DOE has planned for you. The next community forum will be on July 30.

Dangers of Legacy Waste at LANL

New Mexicans are at risk from nuclear waste that sits in the forest at Los Alamos National Labs (LANL). This highly radioactive waste is in canvas tents in a wildfire zone. It should be moved to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which the federal government has already agreed to do. WIPP is the appropriate place to store radioactive waste because it’s not vulnerable to natural disasters.

Radiation in the drums comes from plutonium-239. When released in a fire, plutonium is vaporized into tiny particles and inhaled. Particles remain in the lungs, irradiating cells for years. The Nobel Prize winning group, International Physicians for the

Prevention of Nuclear War, says that there is no safe level of plutonium and that, when inhaled as particles, it causes cancer 100% of the time.

These particles would blanket northern New Mexico. A report by Sandia Labs states that particulate plutonium is almost impossible to clean up, so a release would permanently contaminate the land. Buildings would need to be abandoned; you couldn’t live in your home or sell it and there is no insurance, public or private, to protect you against radioactive contamination. The contaminated land would still be heartbreakingly beautiful but would have to be seen at a distance because you couldn’t go there. The Land of Enchantment would become the Land of Contaminants.

In the last 50 years, forest fires have almost reached this waste four times. Climate change makes fires more likely, and the federal cuts in forest service personnel further reduces our ability to respond to them.

The good news is that we can avoid this disaster. New Mexico can require the Department of Energy (DOE) to move the waste to WIPP before a catastrophe occurs. New Mexico’s Governor and Environment Department (NMED) have the authority and tools to make DOE move the waste now. Join us in pressuring the state to protect us. We have nothing to lose but our land and health.

Join us. Get involved!

Mini Info Lesson You Can Tell Those Who Ask:

Our community is in danger because nuclear waste sits, unprotected on the mountain at LANL, in canvas tents in a wildfire zone. They’ve almost been reached by fires and would blanket northern NM if they are. The inept Department of Energy (D.O.E.zo the Clown) needs to move the waste to a safer, underground repository and the governor can make this happen, but she needs to hear from us.