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Prior Bulletin: 378 (4/25/26): Virtual workshop on largest nuclear warhead project since the Cold War TOMORROW 4/26 (you must register to attend), and in person on Monday 4/27 in Santa Fe
Hearings about plutonium warhead core ("pit") production are coming up (see below). The first hearing is TOMORROW.
We have approached this issue from many angles, including in its more or less full technical glory, for 30 years.
The central operative conclusion of this work, in the specific policy issues addressed in these hearings, is very simple:
To maintain its entire nuclear arsenal, the U.S. does not need to make any new pits in the 2020s or 2030s, which means the U.S. does not need to make any pits at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the only place pits can be made for the coming decade.
The only reason to make new pits at this time is to make new types of warheads, which we oppose. We urge you to do so as well.
We succinctly discuss these issues, in context, in this forthcoming two-page ad, "Hearings on plutonium warhead factory coming, opposition ramps up, A firm “NO!” to nuclear production here and now in Los Alamos is a NO to the war machine and a YES to national renewal," May 6th Santa Fe Reporter.
The first hearing is tomorrow evening at 5:00 PM EDT (poster session) and 5:30 PM EDT (formal hearing) at the North Augusta Community Center in North Augusta SC, which you can attend virtually and at which you should be able to speak for 2 or 3 minutes. Here are the coordinates:
Short URL: https://bit.ly/PitPEIS5May
Meeting ID: 267 103 716 263 892
Passcode: Wb2RJ9zA
Join by Phone: 571-429-4592
Phone conference ID: 297 381 326#
After tomorrow, there will be four more similar hearings (details at this link):
- Missouri: May 7, 2026 – Hillcrest Community Center, Kansas City, MO.
- California: May 12, 2026 – Garré Vineyard & Winery, Livermore, CA.
- New Mexico: May 14, 2026 – Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, Santa Fe, NM.
- Washington, D.C.: May 20, 2026 – 2:00-5:00 p.m. (2:30 start) at Southwest Library, Washington, DC.
All the hearings besides Washington, DC will feature an open house/poster session from 5:00-5:30 p.m. local time, followed by the formal hearing from 5:30-8:00 p.m. The DC hearing starts 3 hours earlier than the others. Virtual options are available for the SC and NM meetings, which are particularly important.
On April 27, we provided a workshop on the issues surrounding these hearings (briefing slides, video). We strongly urge you to review those slides.
Some "antinuclear" groups do not oppose pit production for new warheads right now. They "oppose" it a decade from now -- whatever that means, logically speaking. Or they oppose only "expanded" pit production, implying a) that there has been some all along (there hasn't been), and b) this hypothetical previous level was OK.
Fortunately, all THESE organizations and businesses DO oppose pit production at Los Alamos "first and foremost." We hope you will join them.
As we explain, if LANL is a pit factory, there will be two. What a nightmare -- and it's a nightmare endorsed -- not to say created -- by people who should know better.
The "Draft Plutonium Pit Production Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement" (draft pit PEIS) provides detailed environmental analyses of alternative policies. For most people, the Summary will be more than enough. We briefly analyze the alternatives in the April 27 briefing slides mentioned above.
Greg Mello, for the Los Alamos Study Group
