By Greg Mello
The following is my published comment to a news article in the Santa Fe New Mexican, 3 January 2022, “New Mexico environment secretary asks watchdog group to look into federal oversight of WIPP .” (Original title above was changed to “State official requests look into federal WIPP actions.”)
While Kenney’s concerns about removal of legacy waste are valid and important, those concerns — and this article — are examples of what happens when NM regulators, under direction by the Governor, want LANL to be the nation’s center for plutonium but then cry in pain when they have to deal with the waste.
Why in the world would NMED think that they can turn a blind eye to LANL’s $18 billion plutonium pit mission, which they have consistently done while ignoring federal environmental law that gives them real leverage to affect that mission, while at the same time avoiding increased shipment of plutonium, or the dramatic slowdown of legacy waste removal? The Governor’s idea — and that of the activists — seems to be to secretly applaud nuclear weapons manufacturing in New Mexico and for sure do nothing to impede it, but try to draw the line on helping dispose of surplus plutonium. “Plutonium processing and manufacturing for nuclear weapons is good, but processing plutonium for permanent disposal is bad,” goes the thinking.
In actuality, LANL is a poor site and institution for ALL industrial plutonium missions — and neither are necessary to achieve their respective program goals. Both are unnecessary programs ginned up to support the contractors. There are simpler solutions that are really better in all respects, but they won’t generate an endless combined stream of two or three billion dollars annually. Please understand that huge upgrades and additions in plutonium infrastructure and staffing can serve either or both missions.
This article says “a more hazardous substance than transuranic waste would be transported twice on N.M. 599 and U.S. 84/285.” That’s incorrect. It’s more of the same kind of waste.
There is also an assumption that this transportation is dangerous. Where is the data to support that thesis? Let me help. There is none. Yes it’s ugly, and yes the convoys have enormous latitude in the use of force. They are traveling “non-Constitutional zones.” It seems that some people don’t want their idyllic myths busted. I don’t blame them, and if the shock of seeing armed convoys going by one’s doorstep for the first time is a wake-up to the broader picture, then that’s great. Just understand that what Kenney and the Governor and the antinuclear activists are not opposing is the total nuclear colonization of Santa Fe and northern New Mexico. Get real, dear friends.
And why is this hypercolonialization happening? In part because Kenney and his predecessors, and of course the Governor, have not done their job well enough. Money talks, and people and the environment suffer. NNSA and LANL understand that they have a welcome mat in New Mexico for the dirtiest nuclear weapons production job there is. The Governor is ________ (you fill in the word) to think this is somehow beneficial to the state. LANL senior management told me a long time ago that LANL would become “the dirty lab,” with cleaner, more scientific missions going elsewhere. That reality is coming in spades, with no investigation by this newspaper, or interest by Kenney.