For immediate release: February 10, 2025

Citizens decry years-long tardiness, lack of democracy in hearings on future of Los Alamos National Laboratory

Contact: Greg Mello: 505-265-1200 office, 505-577-8563 cell, Bex Hampton, 505-545-9578 cell

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Albuquerque, NM -- Tomorrow, Feb. 11, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will host the first two of four hearings on its Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), undertaken to affect compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Here are the hearing dates, times (in Mountain Time), and locations of the four hearings.

• Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 1:00-4:00 pm (Virtual Meeting: 1:30-4:00 pm), Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Sweeney Ballroom, 201 W. Marcy St., Santa Fe, NM 87501 (map)
• Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 5:00-8:00 pm (Virtual Meeting: 5:30-8:00 pm), Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Sweeney Ballroom
• Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 5:00-8:00 pm, Mision y Convento, 405 N. Paseo de Onate, Española, NM 87532 (map)
• Thursday, February 13, 2025, 5:00-8:00 pm, Fuller Lodge, 2312 Central Ave., Los Alamos, NM 87544 (map)

The draft SWEIS purports to review the environmental, economic, and social impacts of three alternative futures for LANL. Quoting from NNSA (emphasis added):

The No-Action Alternative includes 87 new projects, totaling almost 1.5 million square feet, that would be implemented between 2024 and 2038. Also, under No-Action, NNSA would implement 11 projects involving facility upgrades, utilities, and infrastructure affecting about 216 acres of the LANL site. About 1.6 million square feet of excess or aging facilities would undergo DD&D under the No-Action Alternative. The No-Action Alternative also includes changes in operations, examples of which include increased plutonium pit production and the remediation of a chromium plume in Mortandad Canyon (which was the subject of a recent environmental assessment).

The Modernized Operations Alternative includes the scope of the No-Action Alternative plus additional modernization activities, including (1) construction of replacement facilities; (2) upgrades to existing facilities, utilities, and infrastructure; and (3) DD&D projects. Under the Modernized Operations Alternative, NNSA would replace facilities that are approaching their end of life, upgrade facilities to extend their lifetimes, and improve work environments to enable NNSA to meet operational requirements. The Modernized Operations Alternative also includes proposed projects to reduce greenhouse gases and other emissions. The Modernized Operations Alternative includes 139 new projects, totaling over 3.4 million square feet, that would be implemented between 2025 and 2038. Under Modernized Operations, NNSA would implement 27 projects involving facility upgrades, utilities, and infrastructure affecting about 925 acres of the LANL site. Of these 925 acres, up to 795 acres are proposed for installation of up to 159 megawatts of solar photovoltaic arrays across the site. An additional 1.2 million square feet of excess or aging facilities would undergo DD&D under the Modernized Operations Alternative.

The Expanded Operations Alternative [the "Preferred Alternative"] includes the actions proposed under the Modernized Operations Alternative, plus actions that would expand operations and missions to respond to future national security challenges and meet increasing requirements. This alternative includes construction and operation of new facilities that would expand capabilities at LANL beyond those that currently exist. The Expanded Operations Alternative includes 18 additional new projects, totaling about 947,000 square feet, that would be implemented between 2025 and 2038. Under Expanded Operations, NNSA would implement 4 additional projects involving utilities and infrastructure affecting about 46 acres of the LANL site. Most of the utilities and infrastructure projects would be directly related to proposed projects under the Expanded Operations Alternative. The Expanded Operations Alternative also includes changes in operations, examples of which include revised wildland fire risk reduction treatments and management of feral cattle.

The Study Group commented on the scope of this SWEIS on Sept. 11, 2022 ("LASG initial scoping comments on SWEIS"). Then we organized a citizens' scoping hearing, testimony from which was sent to NNSA and Congress ("Testimony from citizens hearing on LANL expansion and pit production," Oct 17, 2020).

We anticipate significant attendance at these hearings, with the heaviest attendance likely to occur at tomorrow evening's hearing in Santa Fe.

Apropos to LANL's future, the Study Group has so far collected 1,125 individual and 245 business, organizational, and religious community endorsements to the following statement:

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.

Study Group Director Greg Mello:

"We come to bury the SWEIS, not to praise it.

"The most important thing about this SWEIS is that it comes long after, rather than before, the [Sept. 2, 2020] decision to add a pit factory to LANL.

"These hearings and 'comment opportunities' are being staged to create a veneer of legitimacy for decisions taken prior to environmental analysis, in direct violation of NEPA, and also to avoid proper NEPA analysis in the future. A completed SWEIS is, NNSA hopes, a NEPA 'get out of jail free' ticket.

"There has never been any valid environmental analysis of the choice to produce plutonium pits at LANL. The present process is NNSA's attempt to cover its tracks.

"There has never even been a business-case analysis by NNSA endorsing production in LANL's old plutonium building, an omission contrary to DOE regulations. In 2017 NNSA said don't do it there. It's still a terrible idea and NNSA knows it.

"These SWEIS "alternatives" aren't alternatives at all. By merely including all these projects in the SWEIS, NNSA will have done, by its lights, sufficient NEPA analysis to go ahead with any or all of them. They do not have to agree with any comments or engage with commenters in good faith.

"These hearings are designed to take democratic voice from civil society, not to provide it. NNSA is not here to listen and does not care what the public says.

"It is important, however, for the public to attend, as these are opportunities to speak with one another. These hearings create a temporary "public square" where the public can for once speak directly with each other, and learn. For these reasons, they are an important opportunity."

Study Group organizer Bex Hampton:

"New Mexicans were never given a choice regarding whether to host a plutonium pit factory in our state because if we had an option we would oppose it. We would not consent to becoming 'ground zero' for the new nuclear arms race with Russia and China and we will continue to organize to halt the Los Alamos Plutonium Bomb factory in its tracks."

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