Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice 202 Harvard SE Albuquerque, NM 87106 505-268-9557

The Nukes Next Door

The Nukes Next Door Pages 10 and 11 This is a story about the current state of abandoned waste generated as a result of the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. This type of waste generated during the making of the world's first atomic bomb and from hundreds of other experimental detonations during the Cold War years is called “legacy waste.” The Mixed Waste Landfill, located at the edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico, at Sandia National Laboratories, is one such legacy waste site where waste from nuclear weapons production was haphazardly disposed of in makeshift landfills or “dumps.” The land where the Mixed Waste Landfill sits wasn't always used to dispose of waste from nuclear weapons production; for thousands of years it was home to a great many people of different races. Indigenous peoples once made a way of life here, hunting, gathering, and planting crops. Close to 300 prehistoric sites have been identified in this area, but only a few archaeological sites have actually been excavated. In the 1600s Spanish farmers colonized the land, and found a wealth of natural resources. Albuquerque's first airport was built in the 1920s, and soon after, Sandia National Laboratories began development and research of what would ultimately become the world's first atomic bomb. Massive quantities of laboratory wastes were generated as a result of nuclear weapons experiments at Sandia National Laboratories. Wastes were disposed of in the raw ground and dumps, containing huge amounts of contaminated material, were created. Radioactive and hazardous wastes from other U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities around the country were also shipped to Sandia National Laboratories and disposed of at the Mixed Waste Landfill. Similar landfills also exist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, our neighbor to the north. Wastes from legacy waste sites at Los Alamos have contaminated the ground water, rivers, lakes and streams, including the Rio Grande, Albuquerque's future source of drinking water. Nevertheless, Los Alamos plans to bury a projected 2.8 million drums of radioactive waste over the next 68-years in mesa tops above the Rio Grande. There are thousands more of these dumps at DOE facilities across the nation. Many have leaked their contents into underground aquifers, rivers, lakes and streams. The Mixed Waste Landfill is one of several waste sites at Sandia National Laboratories that have released contaminants into Albuquerque's aquifer. These waste sites are a tragic consequence of the Cold War and the continuation of a multi-million dollar industry in New Mexico known as the military industrial complex. This article serves to illustrate a small portion of a greater problem that we as a society are faced with today as well as tomorrow - the effects of waste generated by the nuclear weapons industry on human health and the environment. Waste generated from the design and production of new nuclear weapons today will become the nation's legacy waste of tomorrow. Pages 10 and 11

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