December 19, 2023

City of Santa Fe resolution status; volunteer meeting in Santa Fe tomorrow evening 12/20/23 (call if interested); new ad in SF Reporter; thank you for your support and reach out to others if you can

(Previous letter, 12/12/23: Resolution opposing all LANL pit production at Santa Fe City Council tomorrow evening, Wed. 12/13/23; web version of full-page ad on pit production available; help if you can and stay tuned for more)

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Good evening, friends --

We hope you are enjoying these last days of fall. We wish you a happy -- and above all, aware and engaged -- holiday season.

First, as expected, a pretty good City resolution (copied for convenience in-line below) opposing all pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was introduced at the Santa Fe City Council meeting on the 13th by councilors Cassutt and Villarreal, as item 16c on the agenda. The operative part of the resolution echoes the "Call for Sanity, Not Nuclear Production."

Many people spoke eloquently in favor of this resolution during "Petitions from the Floor" at that meeting. Those of you who came or spoke via Zoom -- thank you so much. It was a strong showing!

On January 3, the resolution will be discussed at City Hall in the Quality of Life Committee. Citizens may attend but there is no public comment opportunity. 

Then, assuming all goes well, it will return to the Council for a final vote on January 10. Written comments must be received by 5 pm the previous day, Jan. 9, to be entered into the record.

We are asking people and organizations to write the Mayor and Council members urging a "Yes" vote on this resolution.

Contact information for the Mayor and current Council is on this page. On January 1 Alma Castro will be replacing Renee Villarreal and Pilar Faulkner will be replacing Chris Rivera. To reach Ms. Castro or Ms. Faulkner before the City's web site is updated, the City Clerk's office will surely hold postal mail for them.

Second, tomorrow's Santa Fe Reporter will publish a second "centerfold" ("double-truck," in the ad business) ad of ours, which can also be downloaded here as a pdf. (Here is the previous ad, in case you missed it.) Like the first, we hope this ad will be a discussion piece and a "primer" for your use. This is by far the cheapest way to disseminate any significant amount of information in the Santa Fe metro area.

Third, tomorrow evening at 6 pm we are having a volunteer orientation meeting in Santa Fe. We'll be looking at and discussing some interesting parts of a film about the Rocky Flats Plant ("Dark Circle;" while much of that film isn't applicable any more, some still is), answering questions that may have come up as a result of the two ads, discussing some of our plans for the coming year, and making arrangements for outreach this week and after. 

We didn't send out a wide-open invitation this time except by social media, but if you are interested in coming we'd love to see you. If you are interested call or text Bex Hampton at 505-545-9578 and we will see you tomorrow evening!

Fourth, please help us recruit more endorsers for the Call for Sanity! Organizations and businesses are primo, but individuals are grand also. We are building a network of resistance -- please help us. Meet some of the new faces working on these and other issues!

Fifth, thank you for your generous financial support, which we are using as effectively as we know how. If you know of people who might like to help support our work, please tell them about us.

In general, please contact us if you want to more involved. Just call or write any of us (Greg, Trish, Bex), or call the office and leave a message (505-265-1200).

Thank you for your participation and support,

Sincerely,

Greg and Trish

Text of pending City of Santa Fe resolution

A RESOLUTION

OBJECTING TO LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY’S (“LANL”) PLUTONIUM WARHEAD CORE OR "PIT" PRODUCTION AND EXPANSION OF OPERATIONS AND SUPPORTING THE PRIORITIZING OF REMOVAL OF LEGACY NUCLEAR WASTE OVER GENERATING NEW NUCLEAR WASTE AT LANL.

WHEREAS, the National Nuclear Security Administration (“NNSA”), which is the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, is expanding nuclear weapons activities at LANL, including the construction and operation of plutonium pit production facilities; and

WHEREAS, this expansion is for the production of plutonium pits, which are the fissile cores or triggers for nuclear warheads and bombs; and

WHEREAS, the City of Santa Fe (“City”) has previously declared its clear opposition to pit production at LANL in Resolutions No. 2003-64, 2005-39, 2006-104, and 2008-17; and

WHEREAS, Resolution No. 2005-39, in particular, establishes the City as supporting and leading in advocacy for nuclear disarmament; and

WHEREAS, plutonium pit manufacturing is dangerous to workers when proper safety measures are not taken and, in the event of accidents, plutonium pit manufacturing may also be dangerous to the public and the environment; and

WHEREAS, plutonium should have extensive security measures in place at all times, including during transportation, to guard against theft and potential terrorist attacks; and creation of a plutonium pit factory at LANL has potential to raise LANL’s priority as a target in the event of a war; and

WHEREAS, the location of offices or laboratories associated with LANL’s plutonium pit production within or near the city of Santa Fe could also pose a threat to the safety of residents; and

WHEREAS, the Governing Body of the City of Santa Fe (“Governing Body”) does not support the creation of further health, environmental, or security hazards related to nuclear weapons for the citizens of northern New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, increased production of new plutonium pits at LANL also increases its emphasis as a nuclear weapons production agency rather than having a focus on research and development; and

WHEREAS, NNSA now predicts that, should the United States of America’s President and Congress decide to continue expanding production of pits, that expansion will require more than a decade’s further demolition, construction, equipment installation, and waste handling disposal at enormous taxpayer expense; and

WHEREAS, the NNSA reported in its FY 2024 Congressional budget justification that LANL’s plutonium facility falls short of current DOE safety standards; and

WHEREAS, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, transuranic (“TRU”) waste is “radioactive waste…produced during nuclear fuel assembly, nuclear weapons research and production, and during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel”; and

WHEREAS, the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office identifies TRU waste as being the “most challenging legacy waste at LANL”; and

WHEREAS, according to NNSA, the disposal of new TRU waste takes precedence over legacy TRU waste; and

WHEREAS, according to the DOE, thousands of cubic meters of legacy TRU waste remain buried on site at LANL; and

WHEREAS, in addition to the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which was already in place in 2005, ninety-three countries have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which requires good faith efforts to negotiate and complete the process of nuclear disarmament, sixty-nine of which have concluded their respective ratification processes; and

WHEREAS, nuclear weapons activities at LANL have caused permanent environmental contamination and desecration of ancestral tribal lands including sacred sites.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF SANTA FE that the Governing Body, on behalf of its constituents, states its opposition to all plutonium warhead core production at LANL and to locating any laboratories or offices associated with LANL pit production operations on public property in the city of Santa Fe.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governing Body calls on the government of the Unites States of America to take the following actions and for the New Mexico Congressional Delegation and Governor of New Mexico to support these steps:

• Halt all preparations for plutonium pit production at LANL, including but not limited to the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project (“LAP4”).
• Prioritize removal and disposal of legacy plutonium waste from LANL over production of additional nuclear waste from nuclear weapons activities, including manufacturing and preparations for manufacturing.
• Decrease federal spending currently allocated for nuclear weapons activities and increase funding to support human security, community resilience, and environmental protection.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governing Body directs the City Clerk to send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of Energy, the Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administration, the New Mexico Congressional Delegation, and the Governor of New Mexico.