* NM Environmental Department needs to enforce its own 2005 Final Order: "perform a 5-year review for the feasibility of excavating the Sandia Labs Mixed Waste Landfill".

* Sandia Labs must be required to clean up and safely store the hazardous high level nuclear and other toxic wastes which are now currently in the mixed waste landfill( unlined pits and trenches).

* Provide information to the public about what exactly is in the Mixed Waste Landfill, and what is being done to remedy this issue.

* A mandatory public hearing regarding this matter is required.

The Facts: Sandia Labs and the New Mexico Environment Department are trying to pull off an environmental crime in Albuquerque. They want to leave High Level Nuclear mixed waste in unlined pits and trenches in a dump that is contaminating our drinking water aquifer. The High Level Wastes will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years contaminating soil, air and water. These are among the most dangerous wastes on the planet – Plutonium, Americium, Depleted Uranium, Uranium-235, Mercury, Tritium, Beryllium, Sodium, TCE, PCBs and hundreds of other radionuclides, solvents and heavy metals.

High Level Waste that comes from irradiating nuclear fuel in a reactor is supposed to be contained in a deep geologic repository where it will remain safe for at least 10,000 years. The Department of Energy, Sandia and the Environment Department know that they are breaking environmental laws and regulations by not keeping these wastes safe for human health and the environment. It’s all about Lockheed Martin/Sandia and the Department of Energy saving money.

Sandia and the Environment Department have kept a big secret from the public. For decades, Sandia and the Environment Department told the public that only low level radioactive mixed waste was put into the Mixed Waste Landfill (MWL). It was a big lie. Radioactive waste in the dump is from the Nevada Test Site, the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown, Kwajalein atomic bomb tests, Kirtland AFB and commercial nuclear reactor meltdown tests performed at Sandia.

During the 1970s and 80s dozens of commercial nuclear fuel meltdown experiments were conducted in Sandia’s ACRR nuclear reactor. The meltdown experiments were conducted under various acronyms such as STAR, TRAN, EEOS, DF, FD and Debris Bed. The public was never informed of the names of these experiments and that high level radioactive wastes from the experiments was disposed of in the MWL dump. Sandia claimed that only low level mixed waste was in the MWL and the Environment Department gave permission to leave the waste under a dirt cover.

The fresh and irradiated fuel for the meltdown experiments came from around the world. The fuel was put into canisters and subjected to extreme temperatures that melted and puddled inside the canisters placed in the core of the ACRR reactor. Some fuel was so hot that it vaporized and plated the inside of the canisters. Some of the extremely radioactive canisters also contained highly corrosive metallic sodium and were placed into pits into the classified area of the MWL. Some canisters were put into small diameter holes drilled into the bottom of the MWL trenches. Other canisters were cut up in a Hot Cell Facility creating cross-contamination of the canisters along with further wastes that were dumped into trenches and pits in cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and drums that are breaking up and corroding in the dump.

Sandia was supposed to perform a 5-year review for the feasibility of excavating these dangerous wastes. But Sandia and the Environment Department cut a secret, closed door deal to postpone any review for excavation for 9 years. While a lawsuit is pending about the delay, Sandia filed a request, which the Environment Department intends to approve, so that Sandia will never to do any cleanup of the wastes. The Environment Department knows further that the groundwater monitoring network at the dump has been defective at all times up to the present so that contamination isn’t detected.