FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2025

LANL Radioactive Tritium Venting Fails to Provide Transparency, Assurance, and Respect for Local Communities

Santa Fe, NM — As NNSA and LANL continue operations to depressurize Flanged Tritium Waste Containers, Communities for Clean Water (CCW) calls out federal agencies for issuing vague assurances instead of transparent, verifiable data — and for dismissing community concerns with contradictory and incomplete statements that disregard what independent experts have found, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) own legal obligations, and the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) acknowledgment that LANL has a long record of compliance failures.

“How can our communities be expected to trust LANL when they won’t give us access to the raw, real-time monitoring data – independently verified by the EPA,” asks Joni Arends with Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. “Without this transparency, LANL is continuing a legacy of empty assurances, not accountability.”

Key Concerns:

• Lack of real-time transparency - Since Friday (Sept. 12), the public has been forced to rely on NMED’s Facebook page for piecemeal updates. While LANL’s website provides very brief daily summaries, no near-real-time monitoring dashboard from DOE, NNSA, or LANL has been made available.

• Vague assurances, not real information - NNSA’s updates claim “no tritium was released” while simultaneously telling the public to expect “very low levels of tritium” for subsequent venting. Without numbers, monitoring data, or detection thresholds, these phrases do not provide reassurance.

• Weather risks - LANL has not disclosed thresholds for wind, rain, or humidity that would postpone venting. Communities watch weather shifts in real time but are left in the dark about how safety decisions are being made.

• Dismissal of public health concerns - When asked for plain-language guidance that NMED stated LANL would provide, LANL responded only with “no offsite impact anticipated.” This is not meaningful and reassuring guidance, it’s a blanket dismissal that disregards independent expert findings and fails to meet DOE’s obligations to protect vulnerable populations.

• Ignoring daily lifeways - Avoiding Pueblo Feast Days is not enough. This is harvest season, when outdoor cultural events, youth programs, and farming are in full swing. LANL’s scheduling continues to disregard these realities.

Unanswered Questions
Independent experts and community advocates have raised critical unanswered questions:

• Unclear “depressurization” - LANL said “no internal pressure was found” in a container, but also claimed it was “depressurized.” If no pressure existed, what was released?

• Unanswered helium questions - NMED stated helium was released, but LANL has not explained its origin. Was it introduced at sealing of the outer container, or a decay product of tritium?

• Monitoring limits undisclosed - LANL has not disclosed the detection limits of its monitoring equipment. Readings “indistinguishable from zero” could still mask releases.

DOE NNSA Gives Misleading Statements on Native America Calling
On a recent Native America Calling program, DOE NNSA’s Los Alamos Field Office Deputy Director Pat Moss compared LANL venting to global natural tritium stocks. Independent expert Dr. Arjun Makhijani pointed out this comparison as misleading: “The problem is not global background, but local contamination. If venting occurs in rain and calm winds, local rainfall could exceed U.S. drinking water standards by hundreds to thousands of times.”

In their most recent public meeting, LANL admitted that infants could receive three times the radiation dose as adults. During the interview, Dr. Makhijani pressed this point – if adults are modeled at 6 mrem, that means infants could be at 18 mrem, nearly double the EPA’s 10 mrem compliance limit. Instead of addressing this directly, Mr. Moss provided a stock line, “We will be compliant with the regulatorily imposed release threshold and will be doing the calculations per the regulation.”

That is exactly the problem – hiding behind regulatory caps while ignoring clear evidence that infants, our most vulnerable, face exposures above legal limits.

DOE NNSA also pointed to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) – an independent federal oversight body created by Congress – as if it had declared the tritium venting operation as “fully protective of the public”. That is misleading. First, the DNFSB has been operating without a quorum for months, limiting its ability to issue independent recommendations. Second, what the Board staff said in its July 2025 presentation was that the overall nuclear safety risk to the public is low if DOE’s proposed controls are followed. The DNFSB has also flagged ongoing safety concerns at LANL including deficiencies in Area G’s safety analysis and risk to workers.

NNSA also dismissed cultural concerns around rainwater — disregarding scientific risks and Pueblo community concerns. The tritium in these containers is immense. If converted into tritiated water (HTO), it could contaminate more than one trillion gallons of water. Agencies’ vague statements and lack of daily disclosure only deepen mistrust.

You can listen to a recording of the episode here.

CCW Demands
Communities for Clean Water reiterates the following urgent demands:

• Real-time data: Public release of time-stamped monitoring results from LANL/EPA/NMED in near-real time, with a public dashboard. Daily disclosure of headspace contents (tritium, hydrogen, other gases), whether mixtures are explosive, how gases are captured, and how much is released — including fractions as T₂ gas versus HTO water vapor.

• Fixed venting schedule: Daily start/stop windows, with same-day pre- and post-event notices for Pueblos and the public.

“Transparency is not optional. Public health is not optional. Communities cannot be told to trust agencies that even NMED says have shown nearly 20 years of negligence,” said Kathy Sanchez with Tewa Women United.

Call to Action
Communities for Clean Water urges all concerned New Mexicans to make their voices heard. Please email the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), DOE NNSA, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Office and demand answers to these key questions:

1. When will DOE/NNSA and LANL provide a fixed daily venting schedule, with pre- and post-event notices, so families and Pueblos can plan and protect themselves?

2. Why hasn’t real-time tritium monitoring data been made available to the public through a transparent dashboard? What are the detection limits of the instruments being used?

3. What specific weather conditions (rain, wind, humidity) will trigger postponement of venting, and how will those decisions be communicated to communities in real time?

4. Why hasn’t plain-language public health guidance been issued for families, elders, infants, pregnant people, and farmworkers? What practical steps should residents take if venting occurs or if there is an accident?

5. What exactly is in the headspace of these containers — including tritium, hydrogen, and helium? Was helium introduced or is it the decay product of tritium? Was an explosive mixture present, and if so, how was it managed?

6. Why was the so-called “independent technical review” run by DOE NNSA itself, rather than by a truly independent body with multiple reviewers and no conflicts of interest?

Take Action Today:

• Email the New Mexico Environment Department: James.Kenney@env.nm.gov

• Email the DOE NNSA: theodore.wyka@nnsa.doe.gov

• Email Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Office: https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/ or call her office at 505-476-2200.

For Immediate Release: September 10, 2025

NMED Approves LANL Tritium Venting Plan — Radioactive Releases to Begin Saturday Despite Community Opposition

Los Alamos, NM — This Saturday, September 13, 2025, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will begin the depressurization of four Flanged Tritium Waste Containers (FTWCs), initiating the release of radioactive tritium into the air above northern New Mexico. The operation is scheduled to last two weeks.

On September 4, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) granted a temporary 180-day authorization for LANL to proceed. While NMED imposed new restrictions — including lowering the emissions limit, requiring pre-notice to Tribes and the public, and mandating a post-activity public meeting — the agency acknowledged in its letter that, “ the primary reason [DOE NNSA and LANL] requested a temporary authorization stems from the Permittees failure to properly manage hazardous waste at the time of generation followed by almost a 20-year disregard of compliance obligations under state laws and rules.”

NNSA and LANL announced that they selected the timing of the operation to “avoid impacting neighboring Pueblo Feast Days” and to consider weather conditions. Yet community members see this as a superficial gesture that fails to address the deeper risks of radioactive releases.

Community Response
Public health advocates, Pueblo communities, land-based communities, and environmental organizations warn that this action represents an immediate and unacceptable threat. Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, travels quickly through air, water, soil, and food. Once inside the human body, it can cause cancer, genetic damage, cross the placental barrier, and impact future generations.

“DOE and LANL are trying to portray this as safe and routine, but there is nothing routine about exposing entire populations to radiation,” said Kathy Sanchez with Tewa Women United. “Pregnancy, children, and breastfeeding are uniquely vulnerable because water is the medium of life. The same way rivers carry sustenance through the land, water flows through our bodies–amniotic fluid, breastmilk, blood. When tritium enters the cycle, it harms not just one person, but generations.” 

“This project is the direct result of decades of mismanagement,” said Joni Arends of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. “Instead of investing in real solutions like filtration or long-term storage until decay, DOE is forcing our communities to accept dangerous shortcuts.”

“Using LANL’s own limit of 8 millirem, or even the new NMED limit of 6 millirem,  for stopping venting for the year, doses to infants would be well over the regulatory limit of 10 millirem, ” said Dr. Arjun  Makhijani, Communities for Clean Water’s tritium technical expert. “ LANL acknowledged during the public meeting that infant doses would be three times adult doses. In effect, they are saying that for regulatory purposes infants are not members of the public and can be ignored.” 

A Pattern of Environmental Injustice
LANL’s website frames the FTWC Mitigation Project as “protective of worker safety, public health, and the environment.” But NMED’s own decision letter contradicts that narrative, citing DOE and LANL’s failure to meaningfully engage Tribes or the public, and reserving the right to suspend the authorization if health or safety are endangered.

“LANL’s manufactured negligence created this crisis,” said Marissa Naranjo with Honor Our Pueblo Existence. “No one can pretend this is safe. Children, elders, pregnant people, and families will be put at risk. Despite our Pueblos doing all they can to protect us, our communities and our lands will carry this burden long after LANL has moved on.”

“As a farmer, I know the importance of clean water,” said Olivia Chavez, a local grower from northern New Mexico who is also raising young children on her family’s farm. “Our fields, soil, and our irrigation systems are all interconnected with the water cycle. It’s about our livelihoods, our traditions, and our ability to feed our next generations safely.” 

Communities Demand Accountability
Communities for Clean Water and allied organizations demand:

• An immediate halt to tritium venting scheduled for two weeks, beginning on Saturday, September 13.

• Truly independent, conflict-free review of alternatives.

• Public and Tribal review of Tewa Women United’s technical reports documenting unique exposure pathways.

• A commitment to prioritize human health and environmental justice over nuclear weapons production.

“We are being asked yet again to sacrifice our health, our traditions, and our future,” said Talavi Denipah-Cook of Amigos Bravos. "We will not tolerate radioactive releases as a routine practice. Saturday must not signify yet another period of silence and contamination.”

September 4, 2025

NMED APPROVAL WITH MODIFICATIONS OF LANL’S TEMPORARY AUTHORIZATION REQUEST TO VENT TRITIUM

August 29, 2025

CCW Sent letter to NMED Urging NMED to Deny LANL’s Request for Temporary Authorization to Vent Tritium for the following reasons:

1. The Public Meeting Failed to Meet NMED’s Standards

2. The Technical Review Was Not Independent

3. Alternatives Analysis Remains Incomplete and Obscured

4. Procedural and Community Justice Failures

5. There Is No Emergency

July 9, 2025

CCW Sent letter to NMED with requests on the LANL Tritium Venting Temporary Authorization Prerequisites

Our letter details requests on the following:

1. Scope of Public and Tribal Participation

2. Alternatives to Venting

3. Tribal Consultation and All Pueblo Council of Governors Engagement

4. Public Hearing and Pre-Hearing Comment Period

5. Use of Settlement Funds to Support Oversight

July 9, 2025

LANL Response to June 9, 2025 Letter, Temporary Authorization Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Waste Facility Permit

Note the following in the letter hyperlinked above:

"As a response to the letter requiring prerequisites to any NMED action on the temporary authorization request, NA-LA and Triad are exercising the option to request an opportunity to meet and confer to resolve disagreement associated with the June 9, 2025 letter."

"NMED exceeded its authority in functionally denying Temporary Authorization for Flanged Tritium Waste Container pressure mitigation activities over which NMED has no jurisdiction and which are necessary for the protection of worker safety, human health, and the environment."

June 13, 2025
Local Communities and NMED Halt Tritium Release from LANL for the Time Being

Los Alamos, NM - On June 9, 2025, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) denied the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Temporary Authorization Request for venting radioactive tritium into the air from four flanged tritium waste containers (FTWCs) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

In the letter, NMED requests that DOE/NNSA meet the following criteria before submitting a “revised request for temporary authorization to NMED for consideration.”

1. Obtain an Independent Technical Review for alternative options for the depressurization of the FTWCs.

2. Hold a Public Meeting for interested stakeholders, which includes a review of the independent, third-party technical review for alternative options.

3. Conduct Tribal Consultation with interested tribal governments.

4. Conduct a Compliance Audit of hazardous waste and its operations, by an independent, third-party auditor.

The DOE/NNSA Notification of Planned Start of a Temporary Authorization Request Waste Management Activity to NMED was submitted on April 4, 2025 with an aim to begin venting on or after June 2, 2025. NMED’s decision to deny the request was in large part due to strong local advocacy, community and environmental health concerns, and lack of Tribal consultation. Local concern has continually grown with frequent rains across New Mexico in June thus far. Rain during venting would present a worst case scenario to public health and the environment, with adverse radiation impacts especially to pregnant women, infants and small children.

In response to the Temporary Authorization Request in April, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety and Communities for Clean Water started a petition against the venting, which garnered more than 2,300 signatures online.

On May 14, 2025, CCW requested a 60-day public comment period to NMED, to ensure impacted members of the public are informed of the risks of LANL’s proposed tritium venting project -
Re: Requesting Public Comment Opportunity on LANL Temporary Authorization Request, Hazardous Waste Facility Permit, EPA ID No. NM0890010515

On May 30, 2025 CCW sent a letter to NMED requesting that NMED withhold its regulatory consent until LANL responds to the independent technical reports that CCW and Tewa Women United contracted, which revealed impacts on infants and fetuses, as well as potential harmful impacts on the Rio Grande, groundwater and food systems. Around this time, NMED also received a letter of concern from San Felipe Pueblo.

It is important that we as a community continue to ensure that LANL meets the requirements that NMED is requesting. CCW also continues to advocate for a 60-day public commenting period which includes public meetings.

As CCW we thank the public for your continued advocacy, including the dedicated work of our partners, Tewa Women United, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Breath of My Heart Birthplace, Amigos Bravos, the New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, and Sovereign Energy.

ACT NOW:
Sign the Petition to Deny LANL’s Request to Release Radioactive Tritium into the Air

See the independent, technical reports about the impacts tritium venting could have on water at the bottom of this page.

See the independent, technical reports about tritium’s adverse impacts on infants, children and fetuses on Tewa Women United’s website.

About the Tritium Venting:

LANL has four waste containers filled with approximately 90,000 curies of radioactive tritium that they want to transport. They say that if they do not vent them into the air, there may be a tritium explosion. CCW has worked diligently since 2020 to hold LANL accountable to the harm that the venting of the tritium waste containers could have on our communities.

Here are the facts:

• LANL has not measured the gas and metal contents found in the headspace of the tritium waste containers - they do not know if it is actually necessary to vent the containers.

• LANL wants to vent 3 grams (30,000 curies) over the span of a few days and possibly over a single day. This is the same amount of tritium as Japan is dumping into the Pacific Ocean over the span of 30 years from the tsunami and nuclear reactor explosions at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In total as much as 90,000 curies - three times the Fukushima amount - may be emitted, though not more than 30,000 curies in any single year.

• One teaspoon of tritiated (HTO) water will contaminate about 100 billion gallons of water.

• When calculating the risk, LANL does so for adults - they are not required to do so for children, infants or pregnant women/fetuses. This does not properly represent the real impact on our communities. The author of one report, Bernd Franke, stated, “In the case of tritium, infants and small children get a radiation dose about three times greater than adults, with the same concentrations of tritium in air, water, and food.”

CCW’s work to prevent tritium venting continues our collaboration with Tewa Women United (TWU) since 2020, when TWU released a petition that totaled more than 3,000 signatures. Since the petition, Tewa Women United has continued working to prevent the tritium venting, commissioning two reports to study impacts and finding: “LANL Omitted Dose Calculations to Infants & Children in Their Compliance Application.”

LANL showed a list of 53 alternatives for the tritium venting to the EPA Region 6, but this has not been released to the public, despite Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by Tewa Women United. LANL has also failed to conduct independent studies on health and environmental impacts to waterways in the case of weather events. There has been no new public information about the venting given by LANL or DOE/NNSA since 2020.

In Tewa Women United’s November 2024 press release, Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, member of San Ildefonso Pueblo and one of Tewa Women United’s co-founders, said, “Tritium makes water, our sacred source of life, radioactive. We were shocked to learn that LANL’s compliance calculations did not take infants and other children into account.”

In 2020 the All Pueblo Council of Governors distributed a press release titled “Pueblos Concerned about Los Alamos National Laboratories Planned Release of Radioactive Vapors.”

For more information, read Searchlight New Mexico’s June 2024 article about LANL tritium venting.