Nuclear Waste Program

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When it looked like the federal government was about to open an underground repository for the military’s radiation-contaminated garbage in the early 1980s, SRIC staff met the calls of community leaders, local emergency planners, healthcare providers, and prominent scientists to “make WIPP safe.” As a result of SRIC’s scientific analysis and legal actions, federal health and safety requirements were imposed on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), delaying its opening until 1999. Today, SRIC is still watching to ensure that WIPP complies with those requirements and its mission is not expanded.

The Nuclear Waste Program provides technical assistance to community groups and information to the public and policymakers regarding nuclear weapons production facilities, including Los Alamos National Lab and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, and nuclear waste facilities, especially WIPP in New Mexico and sites that ship to WIPP. The program ensures effective citizen involvement in decisions about the future of the nuclear weapons complex relative to stopping approval of new production facilities and promoting disarmament and safer waste management and disposal at Department of Energy (DOE) sites.

SRIC also is an active member of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a national network of organizations working to address issues of nuclear weapons production and waste cleanup.

Program Goal

  1. Provide technical assistance to community groups and detailed, accurate information to the public regarding nuclear weapons production facilities, especially Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico and on WIPP;
  2. ensure strong citizen involvement in decisions about the future of nuclear waste storage and disposal and the nuclear weapons complex, both to prevent new production facilities and to promote safer waste management and disposal, including disposal of dismantled warheads; and
  3. assist affected citizens to increase their effective participation in the long-term process of disarmament and cleanup of DOE facilities.

Program Objectives

  • Support the health and safety requirements of the WIPP operating permit and prevent WIPP’s expansion for high-level and commercial waste.
  • Support independent investigations of the 2014 WIPP radiation release to ensure that the cause(s) are known and a future release would not occur.
  • Work nationally with citizen groups, states, and tribes to bring about a new nuclear waste policy to replace the defunct Yucca Mountain dump.
  • Stop the new plutonium bomb plant at Los Alamos and support nuclear weapons reduction treaties.
  • Support effective cleanup of Area G, the nuclear waste dump at Los Alamos, and address water contamination at Sandia National Lab in Albuquerque

Other Nuclear Waste Groups

The following are a list of groups that work on various aspects of the nuclear waste debate:

The Coalition Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) :
Other Places of Interest

The Center for Defense Information Web site.

A new WasteLink internet site directory, www.radwaste.org has been launched listing grass-roots, government, et al. web sites, with emphasis on radioactive waste, nuclear power and environmental issues.

We will be periodically updating this site. Please visit often. For further information contact us at sricdon@earthlink.net or call (505) 262-1862, fax: (505) 262-1864.