A group of anti-nuclear activists used data from Los Alamos National Laboratory to map places where plutonium contamination has been found in areas near the lab.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico says that the data indicates plutonium contamination has migrated through the subsurface and into important water sources. The group called for comprehensive cleanup at LANL.

The data is publicly available and there are more than 100,000 samples for plutonium dating from 1970 to 2023. However, Sophia Stroud, a digital content manager for Nuclear Watch New Mexico, explained that they did not want to include samples on their map that could be linked to fallout from nuclear weapons testing rather than activities at the lab. 

They narrowed down the samples to remove plutonium samples that could have come from nuclear weapon testing. That left about 58,100 samples that were taken from below ground between 1992 and 2023.

Of those samples, about 70 percent of them were below detectable levels of plutonium.

While the majority of samples did not have detectable levels of plutonium, Nuclear Watch New Mexico says that does not mean there is no plutonium contamination there.

The map is now available on the Nuclear Watch New Mexico website.

Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said that the data shows plutonium has migrated into areas deeper than groundwater and can be found in Cochiti Lake.

And, if the plutonium has migrated, Coghlan said other contaminants have also been traveling away from the lab.

“But of all the elements, of all the contaminants, plutonium is relatively slow to migrate,” he said. “It tends to or it needs to kind of hitchhike on mud or colloidal particles.”

He said that if plutonium is being found in Cochiti Lake and the deep groundwater aquifer, Nuclear Watch “thinks it’s obvious that this should be of great concern to northern New Mexicans.”

Additionally, Coghlan said that it is “compelling evidence” for the need for comprehensive cleanup efforts at LANL.

Those come with a hefty price tag. 

LANL has proposed a “cap and cover” approach, but Coghlan said that will leave “more than 200,000 cubic yards of toxic and radioactive waste permanently buried in unlined pits and trenches.”

Cleaning up one area at LANL known as the Area C waste dump will cost about $12 million if the government goes with the cap and cover approach that Nuclear Watch New Mexico opposes. The cleanup operations that Nuclear Watch New Mexico supports would cost an estimated $805 million.

He said Nuclear Watch New Mexico believes comprehensive cleanup is imperative, especially in light of expanding nuclear weapons programs.

LANL is ramping up its capabilities to produce plutonium pits with the goal of being able to manufacture 30 pits annually by 2030. This comes following a directive from the National Nuclear Security Administration.

While it may be expensive, Coghlan said the cleanup effort would generate hundreds of high-paying jobs.

Coghlan noted that Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s mapping exercise doesn’t really uncover a lot of previously unknown news.

“The news that there’s plutonium contamination in Cochiti Lake, that’s not new news,” he said. “That’s been long known. There are lab studies on that very issue.”

Nor was it previously unknown that plutonium from activities at LANL could be found in groundwater or in the Rio Grande.

But he said that the general public does not know that the waterways they depend upon for drinking water have been impacted by plutonium migrating away from LANL. When asked about the safety of the drinking water, he said he believes the drinking water pulled from the Rio Grande is safe. Coghlan said the organization has found no evidence of the drinking water from the Buckman Direct Diversion being compromised. That is important because there are a cluster of samples showing plutonium in the Rio Grande near the Buckman Direct Diversion.

He said he could not weigh in on whether or not the private wells have safe drinking water in terms of plutonium.