For immediate release: May 8, 2025

Albuquerque, NM -- Tomorrow, the Department of Energy (DOE) and its semi-autonomous subsidiary the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will announce the start of a new nationwide ("programmatic") environmental impact statement (PEIS) process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to examine the impacts of alternative strategies for the production of the plutonium-containing cores of nuclear warheads, called "pits."

Tomorrow's Notice of Intent (NOI) announces the opening of an opportunity to comment, and two virtual hearings in which the public, state and local governments, tribes, and other affected federal agencies can offer testimony on the scope of the environmental analysis, including but not limited to alternative pit production sites and production capacities, as well as the scope of impacts to be analyzed. 

The hearings are scheduled as follows.

• Tuesday, May 27, 2025, from 5 to 7 pm EDT (see the NOI for instructions on how to join this and the following hearing)
• Wednesday, May 28, from 7 to 9:30 pm EDT
  

The NOI (and any updates) will also be available at https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room and will also be published at https://www.energy.gov/nepa/listings/noticesintent-noi.

The comment period will close on July 14, 2025.

NNSA's point of contact is Ms. Kristen Dors, NEPA Compliance Officer at the Los Alamos Field Office, 3747 West Road, Los Alamos, NM 87544, telephone 505-606-8953 and email PitPEIS@nnsa.doe.gov.

NNSA will take as its "No Action Alternative" the $22 billion (B) project (at the link see the column labeled "total through 2032") to create the capability to produce at least 30 pits per year (ppy) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), "with surge efforts to produce up to 80" ppy. 

Production at either LANL or the Savannah River Site (SRS), or both, will be considered reasonable alternatives. 

NNSA seeks comments on these and other alternatives that might be "reasonable" in order to meet its production "requirements." 

NNSA's requirements (50 U.S. Code § 2538a) are not being met and will not be met, as NNSA has often said in congressional testimony. NNSA produced no certified pits in fiscal or calendar year 2024 (as against a requirement of one certified pit) and produced just one certified pit in 2025 (against a requirement of 10). NNSA has not announced any pit production so far this year (against a requirement of 20). 

Yesterday Acting Administrator Theresa Robbins stated in testimony that NNSA's pit production goals for 2026 (against a requirement of 30 certified pits) included only conducting "engineering evaluations for Los Alamos pit production in concert with increased equipment purchases, installation activities, and removal of legacy equipment in pursuit of rate production." 

Not, in other words, actual pit production, let alone at the required level of 30 ppy. There was no further discussion of pit production in open session in yesterday's hearing.

At LANL, NNSA hopes to acquire the basic capability to make an average of 30 ppy only by the end of 2030 (as against the statutory requirement of 80 certified pits in that year). Equipment necessary for the reliable production of 30 ppy at LANL is not expected to be installed until the end of fiscal year (FY) 2032. 

This -- 2032 -- is the same year construction at SRS, the larger and more capable of the two production sites, is expected to be complete. Production at SRS is not slated to begin until 2035.* 

(*The most current timeline is still the one available in NNSA's Congressional Budget Request [CBR] for FY2025. A new CBR, with updated budgets and timelines, is expected later this month. Potential near-term production is discussed with references in this April 2 press release.)

Summing up, NNSA cannot remotely meet its statutory requirements. Efforts to modify them to something more "reasonable," led by Rep. Garamendi (D-CA), have so far failed in committee.

In a note to government officials regarding tomorrow's NOI, NNSA said it was "conducting this PEIS in compliance with the settlement agreement NNSA reached with the plaintiffs in Savannah River Site Watch v. United States Department of Energy. In alignment with the settlement agreement, NNSA will continue to design and procure the equipment and materials necessary to support the pit production mission, but NNSA will not produce pits at the Savannah River Site until the PEIS is completed and a Record of Decision is issued."

In January, the Los Alamos Study Group panned the practical effect of the settlement that led to this new PEIS, while ruing the opportunities lost ("Plaintiffs endorse immediate pit production at LANL for new warheads for Sentinel ICBM; As a result of this lawsuit, nothing changes at either proposed production site," Jan 17, 2025). 

We discussed the legal and practical issues involved in our Motion to File Amicus Curiae Declaration and Incorporated Memorandum in Support Thereof, Civil Action No. 1:21-1942-MGL, Oct 30, 2024.

In parallel with this new PEIS, NNSA has written a draft new Site-Wide EIS (SWEIS) for LANL ("Nuclear agency releases draft environmental impact statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory," Jan 9, 2025). The Study Group's brief comments on that document emphasized its lack of timeliness and the illegality of its assumptions.

Study Group director Greg Mello:

"Judge Lewis in South Carolina found that NNSA's two-site pit production decision lacked appropriate NEPA analysis, but she did not annual [vacate] that decision. As a result, preparations at both sites are proceeding. The process being announced now will not change that -- unless someone in the Trump Administration has a "road-to-Damascus" experience about the enormous waste involved at LANL and the dangers entailed to LANL's other programs.

"This environmental analysis, like the Site-Wide analysis at LANL which is proceeding in parallel, is aimed at removing the stain of illegality from NNSA's decision to build two pit factories instead of just one.

"Tomorrow's notice of intent will also hint that larger production capacities may be considered, which this process could legalize.

"Impossible 'requirements' aside, the real deadlines for pit production at LANL derive from those for production of a new warhead for the Sentinel missile. LANL has been given the job of making pits for that warhead. 

"The thing is, that warhead is not actually necessary for Sentinel, since the missile can and will be deployed with an already-existing warhead that meets every military requirement. There are plenty of those existing warheads. And Sentinel itself is increasingly troubled and delayed. 

"It's a fantastically expensive house of cards, or Jenga tower, both as to "need" and as to LANL's capability to actually produce. And for us in New Mexico, the regional impacts are severe.

"The present NEPA parade won't change a thing in itself. But other processes are at work in government, in the wider economy, and at the LANL site in particular which could, and some day will, bring LANL pit production to an end.

"In New Mexico, there is long-standing opposition to this mission, not just from individuals, businesses, and organizations but also from local governments. In South Carolina and neighboring Georgia local governments have embraced this new mission.

"For all the defects of the present process, it's really up to all of us to make it as substantive and memorable to all parties as possible. We can and must do so in a way which opens channels of communication and truly convinces our so-called allies and adversaries, while also being fulfilling and educational. 

"NNSA's pit decision -- re-litigated every year in Congress, when money is approved -- is only one of many contentious decisions our communities need to face, if we want to reclaim a future for our children and ourselves. Democracy and a livable environment are not guaranteed. We all have to step up, join the discussion, and help each other."

For further background we recommend:

• Panel Discussion on Plutonium Pit Production, National Press Club, Greg Mello remarks, Nov 13, 2024;
• Overview of Pit Production Challenges at Los Alamos National Laboratory, presentation to the Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council, Columbia, SC, Apr 29, 2024 (video here);
• The fiscal case against plutonium pit production at LANL, Feb 25, 2025; and
• In general, the "Featured" material on this page.