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    Anti-nuclear activists and residents of Santa Fe County have been raising concerns that more nuclear waste shipments will soon be traveling through their county on the way to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) which is the only long-term storage facility in the U.S. for transuranic radioactive waste. The WIPP is located near Carlsbad, New Mexico and it receives waste from the manufacture of nuclear warheads.
     Two recent town halls regarding transport of nuclear materials were hosted by Santa Fe County officials and anti-nuclear activists. Serious questions and foreboding answers were presented at the town halls. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has released little information about their plans for the transport of nuclear materials though Santa Fe County. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the Governor of New Mexico. She said that expansion of shipments would be limited to the ability of state vehicle inspection capability to handle the increased shipments.
     The DoE must submit all nuclear materials shipments leaving Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) destined for the WIPP to state inspection under an intergovernmental agreement. New Mexico State Police carry out those inspections. Currently, there are about seven shipments a week. The state system has the ability to conduct up to twenty such inspections per week. At this point, the state agency has no plans to hire additional staff to increase their inspection capacity.
     The DoE said that the rate of shipments to the WIPP is “expected to increase to 10-12 shipments per week” over the next few months. The DoE has also put in requests with the State of New Mexico to expand the WIPP facility. Earlier this year, the DoE announced that it was working on the preparation of an environmental impact statement to dispose of surplus plutonium at the WIPP.
     A spokesperson for the New Mexico governor says that the governor is worried about the possibility of future WIPP expansion. She is also worried about the idea of increased nuclear materials shipments through the state. The governor believes that there is a more pressing, immediate problem with respect to New Mexico’s long relationship with the nuclear industry.
      The governor’s spokesperson said that the governor’s biggest concern is that the DoE “continues to prioritize shipments from other states to…WIPP while failing to expedite cleanup of waste at Los Alamos.” The governor said that the DoE’s position is just unacceptable.
     Last February, the New Mexico Environment Department sued DoE over a “continuing pattern of delay and noncompliance” of legacy waste cleanup at LANL. The state is asking for a court-supervised process to resolve the issue. DoE responded to the suit by claiming that New Mexico is not entitled to the relief it seeks. There are ongoing negotiations in federal court over settlement terms.
     In Santa Fe County, the fact that there are state imposed inspection limitations eases some minds. Commissioner Hank Hughes and Commissioner Anna Hamilton hosted the first town hall in August. Commissioner Anna Hansen hosted the second town hall in October.
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