Los Alamos lab power line to stretch through national forest

• By Scott Wyland swyland@sfnewmexican.com
• Apr 20, 2021

More Information: People can submit questions or express concerns about the transmission line proposed for Los Alamos National Laboratory at: https://www.lanl.gov/environment/epcu/index.shtml Or email: EPCUEA@NNSA.DOE.GOV The deadline is May 21. 
A virtual meeting on the project will be held 6 p.m., May 6 at  https://tinyurl.com/EPCUEA

Federal agencies plan to build a high-voltage power line across forestland near White Rock to supply Los Alamos National Laboratory with ample electricity for its growing operations, which will include producing plutonium pits to trigger nuclear warheads.

The 12.5-mile transmission line will cost as much as $300 million and will augment power supply as the lab’s two existing lines reach their limit in the coming years.

An environmental assessment will be done to gauge the impacts of the new line, which will require new transmission towers along its entire path across White Rock Canyon, south through the Caja del Rio area and then east through the Santa Fe National Forest to a substation.

The study is required for the U.S. Department of Energy to obtain a special use permit for installing the power line on public land.

Clearing a path for the transmission line won’t call for clear-cutting tall trees because the stands are mostly low-growing juniper and piñon pines mixed with brush, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Julie Anne Overton said.

“It’s not like in the Pacific Northwest or up at the ski basin where you have to clear a whole bunch of trees,” Overton said.

The public can submit comments to the National Nuclear Security Administration about the project until May 21. A virtual meeting will be held May 6 at tinyurl.com/EPCUEA.

Construction could start as soon as 2023, though that will depend on funding, said Toni Chiri, a spokeswoman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the Energy Department.

One of the lab’s existing transmission lines is expected to hit its limit by summer, and the other will reach its capacity by 2026, the year the lab is set to produce 30 pits a year.

Still, Chiri wrote in an email that pit production is not the main reason the lab is getting an additional line. Making pits demands relatively little electricity, she added.

“The primary driver … is the need for LANL to have reliable and redundant electrical power to meet current and future national security mission requirements,” Chiri wrote, which includes powering supercomputers.

Greg Mello, executive director of nonprofit Los Alamos Study Group, bemoaned the plans to boost electricity to power the lab’s expanding nuclear weapons programs.

The lab seeks to double its power based on programs that have yet to be approved, Mello said.

“This is a poorly-justified project, one we strenuously oppose,” Mello wrote. “Responsible adults need to rein in NNSA’s and LANL’s entitled attitudes and grandiose ambitions. The U.S. does not need new nuclear weapons.”

The line also will slice into an unspoiled part of the Caja del Rio, Mello said.

But a Forest Service ranger involved in the project described the affected area as far from pristine.

The new line will run south beside an existing line that crosses White Rock Canyon and stretches alongside a forest road, Española District Ranger Sandy Hurlocker said.

Then it will hook to the east through a forestland, he said, noting that a portion of the wooded area has already been cleared to build single-lane dirt roads.

The line will require its own towers, which shouldn’t displace any substantial tree stands, Hurlocker said. The agencies agreed to have the transmission line go in a curved path to the substation to avoid a roadless wildlife corridor, he added.

They have the flexibility to move a tower away from an archaeological site, sensitive habitat or hiking trail that the environmental study might find, he said.

Efforts will be made to minimize how visible the line is to surrounding residents, Hurlocker said, adding he doesn’t believe it will be a problem.

“This is miles from any subdivision,” he said.

The point of the public review is to give people a chance to voice concerns about impacts the agencies might not be aware of, he said.

“If folks want to weigh in, that’s kind of what we keep asking — for them to ask future questions.”