Group seeks impact statement for lab expansion plan

By Tris DeRoma
Monday, September 23, 2019 at 2:11 pm

An Albuquerque-based nuclear and environmental safety group alarmed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s talk of expansion plans wants a federal environmental impact statement done on those plans. The group also wants to see more transparency when it comes to its plans.

“Our two main demands at that this moment is for various forms of transparency,” Mello said.

LANL’s plans include the expansion of the lab’s plutonium pit manufacturing program and it’s oxidation of plutonium pits through a separate program. There has been talk among LANL’s top management about an additional transportation corridor to handle the number of commuters being added for the program.

Mello said another reason his group wants to see an environmental impact statement done is because of LANL’s plan to ramp up its plutonium pit oxidation program.

“In terms of material throughput, this dwarfs pit production,” Mello said. “…We’re appalled that the laboratory would even consider processing 26 tons of plutonium through PF-4, which is an old building that does not meet modern nuclear safety standards.”

According to the NNSA, LANL is already oxidizing more than two pounds of plutonium a year, through its weapons dismantling program.

“The ARIES program at Los Alamos is a key part of NNSA’s non-proliferation mission, and is not part of the plutonium pit production process; however they both take place at the same facility,” an NNSA spokesman said on Friday.

“NNSA is working to balance its plutonium pit production and surplus plutonium disposition missions at LANL, and as with any decades-long program, is identifying potential impacts and opportunities as they arise.”

In the same statement Friday, an NNSA spokesman said the agency is also currently reviewing National Environmental Policy Act requirements in regards to its plans for LANL’s plutonium pit and oxidation programs.

“NNSA will follow all National Environmental Policy Act  requirements, and is currently evaluating what NEPA analyses are required for the surplus plutonium disposition and plutonium pit production missions at LANL,” the spokesman said.

“NNSA plans to develop NEPA reviews of the Complex-wide and Los Alamos-specific activities needed to produce no fewer than 80 plutonium pits per year by 2030. Public participation opportunities will be provided at the relevant points in the NEPA process.”

As the lab ramps up its plutonium pit manufacturing program to meet goals set by the National Nuclear Security Administration, it will need not only better built and more modern facilities, but more transportation infrastructure to accommodate the lab’s expansion and modernization plans.

The Los Alamos Study Group has been against the laboratory’s plutonium pit manufacturing program ever since the NNSA presented a plan that will have LANL producing 30 pits by 2030.

At a town hall meeting in Santa Fe Tuesday, Mello cast doubt on the NNSA’s plans through a series of slides listing their concerns that included seismic activity in the region, aging facilities, being built in a place where the topography doesn’t support the infrastructure among other things.

As with actual pit production, Mello cited “bad conceptual design,” “high and uncertain cost,” “lack of a solid mission need” and other concerns.