Press release 14 January 2020

Citizens Protest Possible Nuclear Weapons Agency Presence in Major Santa Fe Development

Press conference and demonstration at noon Wednesday, January 15, Santa Fe City Hall

Contact: Lydia Clark, 505-501-2606; Greg Mello, 505-265-1200 office / 505-577-8563 cell

Santa Fe and Albuquerque -- At noon tomorrow, January 15, at the Santa Fe City Hall (map), the Los Alamos Study Group will be holding a press conference and demonstration regarding the City's Midtown District project.

We have chosen tomorrow because it is the day on which the City has said it may announce the finalists for "Master Developer" of the 64 or more acre site.

Seven entities have applied to be Master Developer, including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the nation's nuclear warhead agency. NNSA manages Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), some 37 road miles to the northwest.

Regarding this project the Mayor's message to potential developers says (e-page 8):

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collect great ideas that will create a new urban center of activity and also represent the soul of Santa Fe. We can create a place that is truly Santa Fe: our history, our people, our beauty, and our spirit.

Lydia Clark, Study Group Outreach Director:

"We cannot see how these ideals -- 'urban center,' 'soul of Santa Fe,' 'our history, our people, our beauty, and our spirit' could ever be compatible with NNSA or LANL participation. We cannot for a minute see how any presence of NNSA or LANL in this project meets any of the criteria, purposes, or values set forth in the City's Solicitation.

The "development types" (e-pages 11-12) and "business types" (e-pages 13-14) essentially preclude NNSA or LANL participation. "Administrative office only" business uses are not allowed; any LANL prototyping, laboratory, engineering, or manufacturing support functions would require security arrangements that would be functionally incompatible with other project criteria and activities. The City's criteria for businesses include "creat[ing] a town center" (e-pages 12), but the physical security needed by LANL would preclude any "town center" from developing.

The project "vision" is one of "an essential hub of Santa Fe reflecting the city's heritage and culture where all residents are invited to live, work, play, and learn."

NNSA and LANL do not reflect either the city's heritage or its culture; neither can contribute to a development where "all residents" will ever feel welcome, let alone "work, play, and learn."

Clark again:

"LANL and NNSA do not represent sustainability or sustainable innovation.  During their long presence of LANL in New Mexico, most of the State has not reaped the supposed benefits.  What portion of the money allocated by Congress to LANL that actually enters the economy of New Mexico does so only in a “trickle-down” manner, exacerbating inequality and creating no actual economic and social development for society as a whole.

"Most of rural northern New Mexico (and much of urban New Mexico) remains paralyzed in a culture of poverty, with few good employment options, poor educational outcomes, poor access to health care, and few prospects for improvement. Food insecurity is at an all-time high. LANL represents the antithesis of the political values and priorities which could lift New Mexico. LANL consumes vast resources for nuclear weapons design and production instead.

"There is always a lack of safety and accountability at LANL.  Plutonium pit production (pits are the cores of nuclear weapons) is currently scheduled to increase dramatically at LANL.  LANL and NNSA have both stated in their proposals the need for housing and office space to accommodate this expansion, as well as deal with challenging commuting issues, with '1,000' new personnel to be hired annually for the next several years.  Omitted in their statements is that these increased needs are solely for the purpose of increasing nuclear weapons production and design.

"NNSA and LANL have been poor managers in the past, creating hazardous working conditions and many failed projects and environmental violations, which have led to a permanent legacy of contamination. There is no indication that any of this has changed -- or even can change.

"LANL/NNSA’s presence in the Mid-Town project will continue to support only a very small group of people, not the community as a whole, and will create even more instability and inequality.

"Congress will not change LANL’s mission in the direction of “technology transfer” – as if there was much technology at LANL that could or should be transferred. LANL has always had a single primary mission, but over the past 20 years the nuclear weapons share of DOE funding at LANL has risen to nearly 80%, with most of the remaining 20% supporting that primary mission."

Study Group director Greg Mello:

"For more than 400 years, Santa Fe has been identified with Saint Francis. It is the "Royal City of the Holy Faith [Santa Fe] of Saint Francis of Assisi." And there have been 25 years' worth of formal City resolutions more or less against nuclear weapons passed by successive City councils and mayors. If now for the first time, Santa Fe accepts nuclear weapons in its Midtown proposal by welcoming the agencies which build them, thus weaving these weapons into the fabric and identity of Santa Fe, it will be enormously consequential not just for Santa Fe, but for the entire world.

"Bringing nuclear weapons into Santa Fe would be corrosive of our traditions and culture, our creativity and the spirit of tolerance and openness to the world that are the very soul of Santa Fe. Two competing visions of Santa Fe would contend in two "plazas," one with a beautiful cathedral devoted to a man of peace and the patron saint of ecological harmony, the other supporting weapons of mass destruction in one way or another. This would be a disaster for Santa Fe's reputation, identity, and attractiveness to visitors. It would harm, not help, our youth.

"Innovation? LANL and NNSA are largely stuck in the past, fighting yesteryear's wars, forever re-solving variations of the same problems. LANL primarily innovates in narrow fields, nearly all of them classified. The list of LANL spinoffs is short and disappointing. There is very little fully-civilian research at LANL. LANL's mission is not economic development or technology transfer. Its mission is making nuclear bombs.

"We do not know the outcome of the City's deliberations. We hope the City does not include NNSA or LANL in its Master Developer finalists, and hope we have occasion to praise the City for this decision.

"This organization is directed toward a culture of peace, not war, in New Mexico. Regardless of tomorrow's decision we aim to continue this campaign until there are binding prohibitions against nuclear weapon activities in Santa Fe."

***ENDS***