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The advocacy group, Tewa Women United, is warning nearby Pueblo citizens and other local residents about Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico releasing gas containing the weak radioactive substance, tritium. The group says, despite assurances by lab experts and regulators that the substance is safe in relatively small doses, it is a dangerous substance and could pose a threat to pregnant women and others. Tritium is a naturally occuring substance, but is also produced in quantities during nuclear power generation and is a key component in nuclear weapons. LANL says it is forced to release the radioactive gas because the containers they’ve been in for decades pose a risk. We’ll discuss what tritium does and whatever threat, if any, it poses.
GUESTS
Marissa Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo), deputy director of Sovereign Energy and a board member for Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE)
Pat Moss, deputy manager of National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos field office
Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. in nuclear fusion from the University of California at Berkeley and the president of the Institute of Energy and Environmental Research
Martha Izenson, a tribal attorney for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
Break 1 Music: Current (song) Chuck Copenace (artist) Oshki Manitou (album)
Break 2 Music: Capoeirablues (song) XOCÔ (artist) XOCÔ (album)
People are stunned about this and asking why they didn’t know about it when they could still affect the decision. This story should have aired weeks ago. The venting decision has been made and a story NOW is ineffective.
The idea is great and the guests, especially Arjun and Marissa, were great. However, Arjun asked a very clear question toward the end, “please answer if you are exposing children and babies to 18 millirems instead of 6 millirems, since you say you’ll only release 6 millirems, even as we know from data that any dose for babies and children is three times the dose for adults.” Pat Moss didn’t answer and instead gave a deliberately ambiguous response that avoided it. And the station interviewer did nothing. No recognition that the answer had been avoided, no insistence on an honest answer, no professional intervention to help the audience get Arjun’s point.
I want the station to clearly understand one thing: DOE knows how to play you and the truth. They are so good at it that you’d better bring your ‘A’ game next time because they’ll run circles around you as this did this time. Watching them get away with lying is so frustrating I may not listen to this show again.