We Call for Sanity, Not Nuclear Production
Endorsers of The Call for Sanity
Businesses, Organizations, & Religious Groups – 206
Individuals – 887 (updated 18 Apr 2024)
(pdf of the form for printing)
New Mexico’s two nuclear weapons labs lead the world in spending for weapons of mass destruction. But as the labs have grown, our state’s relative economic standing has declined and now trails almost all other states. We are consistently ranked at or near the bottom of all states in overall child well-being.
We cannot build our society, nurture our children, inspire our youth, or improve our communities by investing in apocalyptic nightmares.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production is slated to begin in about 2024 (one pit) and slowly ramp up to about 30 “war reserve” pits per year through in the early 2030s, long before any “need” for new pits. No new pits are needed during this period to maintain US nuclear weapons. LANL’s pit production program is required only for producing new warheads as soon as possible.
We call upon our elected officials to:
- Oppose plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production at LANL first and foremost, but also elsewhere.
- Oppose the design, testing, and production of new and “upgraded” nuclear weapons.
- Prioritize removal and disposal of legacy plutonium waste from LANL over production of additional nuclear waste from nuclear weapons.
- Choose human security, community resilience, and environmental protection over nuclear weapons production and our bloated military. We can no longer delay. We must use every opportunity, at every level of government, to prioritize human needs, invest in our communities, and build a more just and sustainable society.
Background
In 2006, hundreds of organizations, businesses, and religious institutions in New Mexico, nearly a hundred national and international organizations, and thousands of individuals joined the “Call for Nuclear Disarmament,” demanding “Disarmament, Not Production!” (brochure).
We are reopening that Call now in an updated form, to reflect current pressing issues.
Plans for plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) collapsed in 2012, in no small part due to litigation by this organization. But the danger is back. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is now planning a vast expansion of LANL’s nuclear weapons programs, especially pit production. LANL is gearing up for round-the-clock pit production, involving thousands of additional radiation workers and support staff. Under this plan – the full scope of which has not been made public – LANL would become a new, mid-sized “Rocky Flats Plant.” Other LANL nuclear weapons missions are also slated to expand dramatically, along with nuclear waste production and shipping. This is a form of “development” we cannot afford or allow.
Now is the time to resist. Decisions are being made for us. We must speak up and inspire others to do so with us. If we do not, our silence will be taken for enthusiastic assent, because that is how our congressional delegation is characterizing New Mexico’s wishes. There is a very real danger that New Mexico’s future will be defined by nuclear weapons, preparations for war on earth and in space, and nuclear waste.
LANL, the Pajarito Plateau, and the area’s roads are in many ways “full,” so LANL and NNSA are expanding into surrounding communities, including Santa Fe and as is likely, the Indian Pueblos. [Added 9/13/21:] Office and conference space has been leased in Santa Fe in three buildings; pit production training space has been leased in Los Alamos. Light laboratory space is being sought. Warehousing, construction laydown areas, and trailer parks for construction crews (“man camps”) are also actively sought in the Pueblos. New parking lots capable of feeding dozens of coach-class buses may soon be needed, as LANL has announced plans to bring 2,000 – 3,000 people to the site daily by bus, to alleviate some of the road congestion LANL is causing.
[Added 9/25/23:] As of this writing, NNSA and LANL have not overcome their skilled labor shortages or the problems they are having in the adequacy of the site’s infrastructure and its safety, worker housing, and transport to the LANL site. As a result they are now planning to move some LANL classified office and laboratory work off-site, into LANL “mini-campuses” in Santa Fe and/or Bernalillo, in addition to some warehousing and the administrative offices that has already moved to Santa Fe.
We will not let northern New Mexico become a physical, political, and cultural sacrifice zone for the nuclear weapons industry.
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