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November 7, 2022
Bulletin 313: Important meeting about Ukraine next week; DNFSB hearing in Santa Fe; more
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Previously: Bulletin 312: "LANL's pit production to be delayed with cost increases; new resources, news; Zoom discussions; critical fundraising outreach needed -- we need you!," Oct 6, 2022
Dear friends and colleagues --
Hello everybody! We've been quieter on this channel (our main mailing list) than we'd like. That's about to change.
Meanwhile, we've gotten quite a bit of important mail we have not been able to answer. Please bear with us!
Quickly now, we want to alert you to the following upcoming events:
- First and most important, we will have a public discussion and strategy meeting here in Albuquerque on Tuesday, November 15, from 6 to 8 pm at the Albuquerque Mennonite Church (map) regarding the war in Ukraine. Please come if you can. We are going to livestream this event; those not present will be able to observe but not otherwise contribute. We will have at least one speaker present virtually. We will provide livestream coordinates and other information in the coming days.
This is an emergency meeting. One of the main catalysts is the election, and what may come after. As NBC News reported some days ago, with more GOP skeptics of Ukraine aid poised to gain seats in Congress, many lawmakers are looking to lock in a huge military assistance package for Ukraine during the "lame duck" weeks ahead, escalating the war against Russia even further, as well as increasing destruction in Ukraine. This appropriation could happen quickly. We need a peace movement, here and everywhere, that can speak up right now. This would even be popular, since support for the war is dropping in the U.S. and Western Europe, which war advocates can see as well as we can, increasing the pressure for them to act quickly.
This war has (further) coalesced the elements of militarism: the warmongers in this Administration, in Congress, in NATO, in the "news" media and other parts of the propaganda and censorship industry, in "dark money" NGOs and bot farms, in the arms makers here and in Europe, and in the shadowy world of intelligence operatives acting on the fringes of government to escalate this war and advance its wider purposes.
With the election (almost) behind us, now is the time to come together to bolster our collective ability to urgently demand peace right now, not more war.
Obviously, it is our own politicians whom we need to address, not some alleged bogeyman 6,000 miles away. And for crying out loud, don't bother writing them letters.
Look for more on this as the 15th approaches.
- Greg and others will be testifying to the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee (RHMC) of the New Mexico legislature on Monday, November 14, in the afternoon (schedule and agenda). As the RHMC writes, "This meeting will be webcast and can be viewed by clicking the video icon beneath the meeting agenda on the [RHMC] web page. Members of the public may make comments during the public comment portion of the meeting by following instructions under the 'Extra Information' portion of the web page" -- which is not yet posted, apparently.
Prior presentations to this committee:
Next Monday, we will send a link to our presentation, which will be on the committee's web site.
- The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold a public hearing (agenda & witnesses) in Santa Fe on Wednesday, November 16, from 12:00 noon to 9:30 pm, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 West Marcy Street (map). As you can see, NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby will be present and speaking at the 4 pm session.
Public comment will occur from 8:45 to 9:25 pm. Their blurb:
On November 16, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) will hold a public hearing at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. DNFSB’s goal is to gather information regarding legacy cleanup activities, nuclear safety, and increased production activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The public is invited to attend the hearing and participate in the public comment portion. Individuals interested in speaking during the public comment period are encouraged to pre-register by submitting a request in writing to hearing@dnfsb.gov (link sends e-mail) or by telephone to the Office of the General Counsel at (202) 694–7000 or (800) 788-4016 by November 11, 2022. Individuals may also submit written comments both prior to and at the hearing. Documentation related to the public hearing is available below. Additional documentation will be posted as it becomes available.
This is a very important hearing. There are significant, work-stopping, safety problems in the LANL plutonium complex. LANL infrastructure and operations are being held to lower ("grandfathered-in") standards than elsewhere.
NNSA is building up a $14 billion plutonium warhead core ("pit") production complex at LANL. Roughly double that investment will be needed to sustain production, a semi-secret reality as yet formally unannounced to Congress or the public. Neither NNSA nor Congress see any significant opposition in New Mexico. Some New Mexicans, who should know better, say that LANL's emergency factory is the "lesser evil," compared to slowly building a much more modern, larger, safer factory for potential operation in the distant future in South Carolina, using the pits already on hand for the next decade and a half or so. As we continually point out, LANL's site, facilities, and location are inappropriate for this work, and LANL is already stumbling in its preparations for this mission.
To put it bluntly, LANL got this mission by lying, and LANL is still lying in order to keep it. Elected officials here and elsewhere are still basically clueless and preoccupied.
If you want to be more involved, write. We will send talking points as the date approaches, some of which will be our legislative testimony (item 2) as well.
We have been talking to people in government about pit production. It is shocking what some congresspersons don't know. They have been misled. There is much to say about this, but it can and should wait until after the election.
Best wishes,
Greg and Trish, for the Los Alamos Study Group
PS Greg was interviewed (on the subjects of pits, nuclear weapons, and New Mexico) by Laura Paskus for her New Mexico Public Broadcasting Service (KNME) program "Our Land: New Mexico's Environmental Past, Present, and Future." The segment is supposed to air next week some time -- we don't know when exactly.
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