Animal Tales from Sandia National LaboratoriesThe Animal Carcass Dump, Lake Christian, and the Donkey Death

Pit By Dave McCoy, Director, Citizen Action New Mexico Bizarre and cruel tests performed at Sandia National Laboratories resulted in the deaths of thousands of animals, according to Freedom of Information (FOIA) documents obtained by public advocacy group Citizen Action New Mexico.1 In a federal FOIA lawsuit victory, 2 the Santa Fe Federal District Court found that the National Nuclear Security Administration was engaging in a continuing pattern and practice of illegal delay in responding to Citizen Action FOIA requests related to Sandia Labs operations. The Federal District Court ordered the documents to be provided after two years of a labyrinthine and Kafkaesque delay process by the National Nuclear Safety Agency. The Department of Energy/Sandia records show that explosive tests and laboratory experiments created hundreds of toxic dumps and spread radioactivity and hazardous wastes into the buildings, soil, air and groundwater at Sandia and Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB). Sandia, KAFB and the US Forest Service have agreements that allowed Sandia to use portions of KAFB and surrounding US Forest Service lands. Sandia Labs and KAFB did little, if any, monitoring for the escape of the radionuclides and toxic wastes into the bordering City of Albuquerque, east mountains and Pueblo of Isleta. The Animal Carcass Dump3 Radioactive Burial Site 11 is an animal carcass dump operated from 1961 to 1970 by Sandia Labs with the Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute (ITRI). The dump contains the carcasses of thousands of animals that were used for testing radiation and other toxic chemicals. The dump has nine unlined, very shallow trenches up to a hundred feet long at a 4.5 acre near the Riding Club in the northwest region of Kirtland Air Force Base. The estimated types and numbers of animals killed with radiation and/or chemicals in the radioactive dump were 1000 to 1500 sheep; 60 to 75 burros; 40 to 50 goats, 4 to 10 cows, 40 to 60 dogs, 100 to 200 chickens and 500-1000 rats. The number of animals disposed of in the animal carcass dump could be far higher than the estimates reported in the FOIA records. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute began exposing beagles to inhalation of radionuclides such as strontium-90, Cesium-137 and later to Plutonium 238 and 239. At least 1750 beagles were part of the ITRI life span studies that http://www.radfreenm.org/ http://www.nmcourt.fed.us/Drs-Web/view-file?full-path-file-name=%2Fdata%2Fdrs %2Fdm%2Fdocuments%2Fndd%2F2008%2F03%2F31%2F0001499048-000000000006cv00726.pdf 3 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector P The Withdrawn Area - Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute (October 1995), pages 4.43-4.45
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resulted in cancer, disease and death for the animals. Numerous other national laboratories participated in these experiments that were designed to study the effects of inhalation and ingestion of radionuclides on over 6000 dogs, 30,000 rodents and 300 primates.4 Buried with the contaminated animal carcasses were radioactive materials such as radium-226, -228, Strontium-90 and Cesium-137. Other types of hazardous waste buried in the animal carcass dump include acids, mercury, cyanides, silver, fourteen different solvents and petroleum wastes. Radium-226 has a long half-life of 1602 years and emits cancer-causing gases during its decay. A 55-gallon drum of mercury was disposed of at the site. But there are poor records about the exact types and amounts of the disposed contaminants. Beryllium, a toxic metal that can cause lung disease was also found in surface soil samples alongside the trenches at the animal carcass dump. Los Alamos National Laboratory recently issued beryllium warnings for Area 41 to past workers and visitors.5 Groundwater monitoring required by federal law was never performed beneath the animal carcass dump even though the amounts of solvents and other dump contaminants were not completely known. Lake Christian6 Lake Christian was an artificial lake constructed at another site near Coyote Test Field in the southeastern part of Kirtland.7 Lake Christian was 40 feet deep and 100 by 200 feet in diameter. The man-made lake was constructed above shallow groundwater that was only 40 feet below the lake bottom. Lake Christian was used for over a decade for the unchristian activity of submerging animals to study the effects of underwater explosions on them. Although the lake was used from the 1950s to the mid-1960s, the records do not state the number and types of laboratory animals that were used, or whether the animals were alive when submerged. Different explosives such as TNT and pentolite were used. Heptachlor epoxide contamination from Lake Christian was discovered 1600 feet away in a well at a concentration that was above the Environmental Protection Agency standards to protect drinking water. Heptachlor epoxides toxicity to humans, especially newborns and children, includes carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental damage, and nerve damage. Ingesting or breathing contaminated soil or drinking water are exposure pathways. http://www.betaustur.org/NRA/radioarchive.html LANL Warns of Possible Toxic Exposure, Albuquerque Journal Metro Section, Raam Wong (1/29/2009). 6 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector Q- Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute (March 1996), page 9.43
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Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector Q- Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute (March 1996)
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The Donkey Death Pit and Mind Control According to the FOIA records, top secret experiments on donkeys and rats were conducted for the Navy by Sandia personnel in 1958 through 1959 on east Coyote Springs Road in an arroyo across from Building 9820.8 Donkeys involved in the experiments died as a result. Due to the highly classified nature of the experiments, the pit where the donkeys were buried was graded off so no visible evidence was left. (Given the sensitive nature of the experiments, it is possible the dates of experimentation are incorrect or have been manipulated or that both the CIA and the Navy were involved.) Since the donkey experiments were classified Top Secret, only a few individuals had direct knowledge of the nature of the experiments. Security guards were posted around the area during the experiments. One security guard interviewed by Sandia stated that radiation studies were conducted on the animals, but other Sandia interviews seem to contradict that. Sandia personnel who were involved in performing the experiments stated that the experiments involved the use of sophisticated electronic equipment and not any radiation. A radiation survey of the area conducted in 1993 revealed no radiation. In 1994, an equipment operator identified the location where he bulldozed the donkeys into the pit. However, all remains of the donkeys and other animals had been removed approximately five years earlier. No one interviewed knew details of the apparent excavation. It is possible that the US Navy and/or CIA was using the donkeys for early experiments in mind control using radio frequencies for electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB) using electrodes implanted in the brain as an antenna. The Office of Naval Intelligence interest in mind control began in 1947 or earlier. In 1952, during the Cold War, there was a secret meeting at the Sandia Corporation in New Mexico between U.S. and Soviet scientists involving the exchange of information regarding the biological hazards and safety levels of electro-magnetic radiation (EMR). Following experiments conducted by Jose Delgado, who stopped a wired-up charging bull in a Madrid bullring with the push of a button, a Dr. Ivor Browning set up a laboratory in New Mexico for electromagnetic behavior modification. The laboratory may well have been the Sandia location. Dr. Browning wired a radio receiver-amplifier into the hypothalamus or sweet spot of a donkeys brain. The receiver picked up a fivemicroamp signal that could be used to create intense happiness in the donkey. When the donkey proceeded thousands of feet up a steep New Mexico mountain, it was rewarded; when it deviated, the signal stopped. Youve never seen a donkey so eager to keep on course in your whole life, Dr. Browning exclaimed. 9 Albuquerque residents, east mountain residents and Pueblo Isletas Native Americans that border Sandia and Kirtland AFB may not have fared much better over the years than the animals. Sandia Labs conducted countless secret experiments that spread radiation
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Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector P http://www.raven1.net/mind-mk.htm 3

and hazardous metals and chemicals across Sandia soils, water and into the air pathway for Albuquerque. In the early 1960s, Sandia Labs conducted up to nine mid-air night time explosions called Moonlight Shots. The explosions dispersed depleted uranium (DU), mercury and other heavy metals over large areas that were poorly mapped. The amount of contamination from the depleted uranium aerosols and fine particulates blown over residential settings in Albuquerque was not measured.10 Withdrawn US Forest Service lands were used for containment tests involving mock up warheads that contained significant quantities of DU (one test was not contained). 11 Fifteen tests conducted for a Plutonium Dispersal Study released at least 27.6 kilograms of DU to the environment through detonations that aerosolized the DU. The explosives were dropped from tethered balloons, helicopters and tethered rockets. The location point for the control for the tests has not been identified. The DU aerosols and particles were too small to clean up from the ground surface. Several grass fires that can resuspend DU into the air were ignited by the ejected particles of burning DU. Wind can also spread the tiny particles throughout the community by picking up the DU along with dirt.12 Radiation toxicity from depleted uranium can occur from inhaled depleted uranium particles that reside in the lungs for long periods. The depleted uranium may damage lung cells and increase the possibility of lung cancer after many years. Kidney dysfunction is the main chemically-induced effect of uranium in humans. 13 Explosive tests at the Neutron Generator Test Facility released tritium and PCBs to floor drains. The amount of tritium that can be released from an explosive neutron generator test can be up to 4.8 curies.14 Biologically, a curie is an enormous amount of radiation since radiation exposure is usually measured in millionths or billionths of a curie. Tritium in water is especially dangerous to the fetus and cannot be removed from water by filtration. Both Sandia Labs and Kirtland AFB are requesting permits to continue their uncontrolled experiments with the public health and safety of bordering Albuquerque, Isleta Pueblo and east mountain residents. U.S. Department of Defense (Kirtland) is requesting permission to treat a maximum of approximately 80,000 Pounds (lbs) of hazardous waste per year in the Open Burn unit Unit, and 100,000 lbs of hazardous waste per year in the Open Detonation Unit at wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour.15 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector P, page 9.29 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector P, p 4.17 12 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 7 Sector P, pages 3.5-3.6 13 http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/du/en/ (World Health Organization) 14 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 2 Sectors 2E and 2G Areas !-V, pages 3.163.17.
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Sandia Labs is currently seeking a ten year permit from the New Mexico Environment Department to continue conducting open burning that will emit hazardous wastes to the open air either through burning or evaporation. Although much smaller quantities of waste will be burned than at Kirtland, Sandia is not revealing the full list of toxins that can be released. Depleted uranium, mercury and barium are commonly used in high explosives and other toxic metals may be present may be present in the fragments, powders and residues that are burned and released to Albuquerques air, groundwater and soil. There is potential for accidental explosions from the reactive wastes that will be treated.16 The FOIA documents reveal that Sandia employees carelessly handled and disposed of many toxic chemicals and radionuclides and contaminated their buildings and surrounding areas.17 The cancer causing solvent TCE that is now also suspected as being a cause of Parkinsons disease18 was dumped under a picnic table in one location. In 1951 weapons assembly areas stopped cleaning areas and equipment with carbon tetrachloride and switched to the use of TCE. Long time employees indicated that they sometimes got drunk on the carbon tetrachloride vapors. 19 The TCE was used like water for cleaning and employees opened the building doors for ventilation. 20 Collectively, billions of gallons of effluent contaminated by radionuclides and hazardous waste were released from Sandias buildings.21 Monitoring of groundwater was poor. Sandia documents obtained by Citizen Action show that 26 of its groundwater monitoring wells are defective.22

http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/hwb/kafb/Draft_permit/KAFB_Fact_Sheet__4-162007_.pdf at page 4. 16 http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/hwb/SNL/draft/draft_SNL_Permit_(8-20-2007).pdf, page 171. 17 http://www.radfreenm.org/pages/nr/pr-2008sep12a.pdf Sick Buildings and Untimely Deaths at Sandia National Laboratories 18 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080107181340.htm 19 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 2 Sectors 2E and 2G Areas !-V, pages 3.23 20 Workbook: Future Use Management Area 2 Sectors 2E and 2G Areas !-V, pages 2.25 and 3.15 21 http://www.radfreenm.org/pages/pc-2008feb08CAcomms26SNLdumps.doc 22 http://www.radfreenm.org/pages/nr/pr-2008apr29a.html
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