Town Hall meeting Tues Sept 17 in Santa Fe, noon, Capitol Rotunda; letters & calls needed to stop "$13 billion plutonium construction plan"

September 3, 2019

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Preceding letter: Please join us on Friday evening, August 23, at 6 pm at the Kit Carson Electric Coop in Taos, 118 Cruz Alta Road (map), for a lively discussion of LANL’s expansion plans and the critical role New Mexicans can play in halting the new nuclear arms race

Useful new resources from us:

• "Ending enchantment: LANL’s plans for plutonium pit production and weapons expansion," briefing slides, Taos, Aug 23, 2019
• Included charts about plutonium pit spending, with a short explanation, Aug 27, 2019
• Video of Taos presentation (47 min.)

• This is what we want most right now, transparency and environmental impact statements (plural): "Transparency & Environmental Impact Statements are needed," presentation to NM Gov Lujan Grisham, Aug 22, 2019, linked to our Aug 1 letter request letter. We need your help -- please see below.

• Letter to congressional colleagues, update on pit production and Los Alamos plans, Aug 21, 2019

(See previous letters for more background.)

And from others:

• US $13 billion plutonium construction plan [at LANL], International Construction, Sep 2, 2019
  
  
• Why do we need plutonium pits?, Walter Pincus, The Cipher Brief ($10 paywall), Sep 3, 2019, based in part on the recent CBO analysis of S. 1790, FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, Aug 23, 2019.
  

And, interestingly:

• White Rock Canyon looking north, LASG aerial photo ©2012.
  
  
• Engineering renderings of the proposed bridge over White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande (from: "NM State Road 594, Santa Fe to Los Alamos Corridor Study, Supplemental Draft EIS," Sep 18, 1990):
  
  
• The Chino Mesa Alternative, involving two bridge crossings: a 1,923 ft span across Ancho Canyon and a 3,113 ft span across the Rio Grande 810 ft above the river; and
  
• The Montoso Peak Alternative, involving three bridge crossings: a 640 ft span across Chaquehui Canyon, a bridge over Ancho Canyon, and a 2,790 ft span across the Rio Grande at a height of 1,020 ft from the river, 1,000 ft north of the northern boundary of Bandelier National Monument).
  
  
• Compare:
• Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (span: 1,280 ft., height 565 ft);
  
  
• Diamond Drive bridge (193 ft. high, 817 ft. long); and
  
  
• Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge at Hoover Dam (not as tall as the Montoso Peak alternative; much shorter span than any White Rock Canyon alternatives).
  
  
• List of bridges in the United States by height
  

• Here are some random snapshots of nuclear convoys we have seen in Santa Fe and Los Alamos. Personnel from these armored vehicles have followed us to our various destinations. We take pictures of them; they take pictures of us. Santa Fe and its suburbs will see a lot more nuclear waste and materials traffic with an industrial pit mission in place.
  

Dear chosen friends on our New Mexico activist list –

1. We need your help!

What we have, friends, is a $13 billion construction plan to build the infrastructure for a plutonium factory in the Santa Fe "back yard." That figure does NOT include 30+ miles of what is likely to be four-lane highways ("Plutonium Highways") and one of the highest, if not the highest, bridges in the United States, over a lovely, unspoiled reach of the Rio.

No plans for the "extreme makeover" of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have as yet been released although dozens of new buildings are planned, together costing more than six times what the Manhattan Project spent in this state and nearly doubling the replacement value of LANL as a whole (from $17 B to $30 B).

No EISs are as yet planned.

No public hearings are scheduled.

There are no commitments from any elected officials -- the Governor, the senators, the congresspersons -- to release these plans or make these EISs happen.

LANL and the National Nuclear Security Administration have been meeting secretly with the Governor and her cabinet about their plans, specifically with Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes and Environment Department Secretary James Kinney.

Meanwhile Senator Heinrich has been working with Senator Lindsay Graham and Trump officials to vastly increase the proposed production capacity of LANL from a nominal 30 pits per year (ppy) to "at least 80" ppy -- i.e. over 100 ppy on average (note 1 here).

LANL has not made a full-quality, "War Reserve" pit since 2011. LANL's plutonium facility needs years of upgrades to meet today's safety standards, if that is even possible. LANL's present pit production capacity is zero.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) thinks (pp. 9-10) the LANL pit mission will cost only $2.3 billion (B) in construction. LANL is proposing $13 B over the next decade overall; we can't tell how much of this is directly related to the pit mission. It is virtually all related, one way or another, to the new arms race that LANL -- and apparently our delegation -- so desire.

Congress has no idea what all this will cost. There is, at present, a bipartisan consensus for a "30 ppy" pit factory at LANL. As in, 30 going on 100.

This is a runaway Trump Administration program, a looming environmental disaster and an affront to world peace, fully supported by New Mexico Democrats.

Please write letters to the editors of our local papers, as well as to the Governor and senators demanding an end to these ridiculous plans, transparency about them in the meantime, and two environmental impact statements -- one national and one local -- we explained in our August 1 letter to the Governor.

2. Please come to our September 17, 2019 Town Hall in the State Capitol, at noon, on these plans and what we can do about them.

We will send more details about this Town Hall as the day approaches. Meanwhile, please mark it on your calendar.

Best wishes,

Greg