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For immediate release 6 September 2019

Los Alamos Study Group to host town hall meeting on Los Alamos lab expansion, reinvestment

Plutonium factory complex planned, $13 billion in capital investment expected lab-wide, new highway proposed

Congressional delegation, Governor, cabinet officials & others invited

Contact: Greg Mello, 505-265-1200 office / 505-577-8563 cell

Permanent link * Previous press releases

Albuquerque, NM – The Los Alamos Study Group will be hosting a town hall meeting on Tuesday, September 17 in Santa Fe at noon in the State Capitol Rotunda, on the proposed expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

We are inviting a number of elected and appointed state and local officials, as well as representatives of our congressional delegation. Elected officials and cabinet secretaries will be given the opportunity to speak.

The proposed decade-long, $13 billion (B) expansion and re-investment plan does not include off-site, off-budget infrastructure deemed essential, including new highways to Los Alamos from Santa Fe and from I-25 at the top of La Bajada Hill, a high bridge over the Rio Grande south of White Rock, hundreds of new housing units in Los Alamos, and much more.

Possible additional or replacement nuclear facilities are also not included.

Dozens of major new LANL structures are planned. In the plan, some would be built by, and leased by government from, private developers.

The two new highways and the bridge over White Rock Canyon are a variation of plans proposed by state, local, and federal officials on a number of occasions since 1949 to overcome the isolation and inconvenience of the Los Alamos site while also providing a better evacuation and nuclear transport route.

These plans are the result of extensive internal planning discussions at LANL, including (according to our sources) at least two all-hands meetings. They have been discussed, according to LANL spokespersons, with Governor Grisham and members of her cabinet, specifically with Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes and Environment Department Secretary James Kenney as well as with other elected and appointed officials, university officials, and businesses, and of course with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Detailed plans for plutonium pit production at LANL at both a "30+" pits per year (ppy) (by 2026) and a "80+" ppy level (by 2030) were required by an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that was successfully co-sponsored by the New Mexico delegation last year. That new statutory requirement also mandates a crash ("surge") pit production program at LANL to meet Trump Administration pit requirements beyond 30 ppy.

Some details of these plans were revealed at an August 8 LANL subcontractor forum attended by 700 representatives of 400 companies from 30 states.

None of these plans are however available to the public. No environmental impact statements (EISs) are planned, either on a national ("programmatic") or local ("site-wide") basis. No public hearings are scheduled. Neither the Los Alamos County Council nor any other local government or tribe has been briefed in open session. No cost estimates or schedules are available.

Anticipated effects on traffic on I-25 and on existing roads in Los Alamos and Santa Fe counties, on wildlife, on nearby residences and communities, on greenhouse gas emissions, and on Bandelier National Monument are among the many unknowns.

Congress is so far unaware of the full extent and cost of these plans, which according to LANL would roughly double the total replacement value of LANL infrastructure.

The proposed $13 B investment would be more than six times the total Manhattan Project expenditures in New Mexico in constant dollars.

According to LANL, an additional 1,500 employees will be needed at the plutonium facility (TA-55). (At other meetings, LANL has said 1,400.) Some 315 new gloveboxes for handling plutonium must be installed, according to LANL.

There are no commitments from any elected officials -- the Governor, the senators, congresspersons -- to require LANL to release its plans, to release independent analyses of NNSA's pit production plans, or to require NNSA to conduct EIS processes at LANL or nationally, despite multiple requests. NNSA has likewise rebuffed our formal requests.

We seek that transparency and those analyses, as we explained to Governor Grisham (again here) and to Senator Udall.

Study Group Director Greg Mello:

"These infrastructure plans are the physical embodiment of a 'forever commitment' to new kinds of nuclear weapons.

"Very few of these investments are required to maintain existing weapons. Their vast scale reflects not just contractor greed but also a cult-like nuclearist ideology, embraced by a powerful few, that is holding true national security hostage.

"The nuclear weapons renaissance currently underway is incompatible with mitigating or surviving global warming -- which, along with several other major challenges, comprises the great crisis of our time.

"At this point in history, spending most of our discretionary budget on the military, and on roughly $2 trillion for nuclear weapons over the coming 30 years, amounts to a suicidal commitment as far as our society and environment are concerned, even without nuclear war."

What little information is available about LANL's plans, and related media articles to date, can be found here:

Other references and analysis can be found in our last four letters to local activists.

Briefing slides from a recent presentation:

You may also be interested in:

  • 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:

***ENDS***

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