Greg Mello

Greg Mello is a co-founder of the Los Alamos Study Group and has led its varied activities since 1989, which have included policy research, environmental analysis, congressional education and lobbying, community organizing, litigation, advertising, and the nuts and bolts of running a small nonprofit. From time to time Greg has served as a consulting analyst and writer for other nuclear policy organizations. Greg was originally educated as an engineer (Harvey Mudd College, 1971) and regional planner (Harvard, 1975). Greg led the first environmental enforcement at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was a hydrogeologist for the New Mexico Environment Department and later a consultant to industry. In 2002 Greg was a Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton's Program on Science and Global Security. Greg's research, analysis, and opinions have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Issues in Science and Technology, in the New Mexico press, and elsewhere.

NM senator, reps fight back on ‘pits’ plan, Albuquerque Journal

May 31, 2018

https://www.abqjournal.com/1176862/nm-senator-reps-fight-back-on-pits-plan.html Comment: Nuclear Watch, as usual, at least SEEMS to not understand what is going on. Coghlan misrepresents the situation. The amendment in question will… Read More »NM senator, reps fight back on ‘pits’ plan, Albuquerque Journal

Planned repository for high-level nuclear waste in Lea County draws opposition, Santa Fe New Mexican

May 31, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/planned-repository-for-high-level-nuclear-waste-in-lea-county/article_6b692d50-bfcf-56a5-a6a4-e90370c93fce.html Comment: Thank you, New Mexican and Sarah Graham for covering this very important issue. Apart from cash flow and profit for Holtec, this proposal… Read More »Planned repository for high-level nuclear waste in Lea County draws opposition, Santa Fe New Mexican

Udall pushes to keep nuclear pit production in New Mexico, Santa Fe New Mexican

May 31, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/udall-pushes-to-keep-nuclear-pit-production-in-new-mexico/article_49475ae2-ed30-5acf-81aa-334712e9b549.html Comment: The push to build a new Rocky Flats plant somewhere to begin to stockpile new pits for new weapon types originated with the… Read More »Udall pushes to keep nuclear pit production in New Mexico, Santa Fe New Mexican

Decision on site for plutonium pit production expected by Friday, Santa Fe New Mexican

May 9, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/decision-on-site-for-plutonium-pit-production-expected-by-friday/article_57b32428-66fc-5736-86f4-2570ce2dedc4.html Comment: One can say there are three levels in which this issue can be approached. At the most fundamental level, nuclear weapons are inherently… Read More »Decision on site for plutonium pit production expected by Friday, Santa Fe New Mexican

Top bidders to run Los Alamos National Laboratory have checkered safety records, Santa Fe New Mexican

May 8, 2018May 9, 2018

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/top-bidders-to-run-los-alamos-national-laboratory-have-checkered/article_cf695d0e-33bc-5dda-b5f2-71f3b1561e36.html Comment: Thank you Rebecca and the New Mexican for this introduction, which should beg many questions in curious readers’ minds. While LANL is a… Read More »Top bidders to run Los Alamos National Laboratory have checkered safety records, Santa Fe New Mexican

Questions about projected U.S. plutonium pit production capability

February 24, 2018February 19, 2019

(Previously published in the International Panel on Fissile Materials blog) During her 8 February 2018 Senate confirmation hearings as President Trump’s nominee to be the… Read More »Questions about projected U.S. plutonium pit production capability

Revolt

October 31, 2016

(This is a guest editorial by Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will (and the Los Alamos Study Group). It first appeared in the 2016 First… Read More »Revolt

Sustainability Requires Resistance

September 27, 2016

By Greg Mello For the Solar Times, Fall 2016 The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled… Read More »Sustainability Requires Resistance

Two recent articles regarding a possible Obama “no first use” policy: comments

August 16, 2016September 27, 2016

See update at bottom! U.S. allies unite to block Obama’s nuclear ‘legacy’ [i.e. against no first use] Aug. 14, 2016 (Rogin, WaPo) The president wants… Read More »Two recent articles regarding a possible Obama “no first use” policy: comments

Selected news & analysis re present and future great power wars, Aug. 1-13

August 13, 2016August 13, 2016

This is a first attempt at pulling together recent articles of interest to our members. This format is experimental and will no doubt change. I… Read More »Selected news & analysis re present and future great power wars, Aug. 1-13

About this blog

Trish and I began this blog as a kind of experiment, to see if we could efficiently share information and commentary with a wider group of people. We do so with trepidation because sharing information and opinions is hardly important unless it draws us closer to you and inspires you to take actions and find words you could not, or did not, take or find before. We hope you in turn will inspire and amaze us. Our electronic media separate as well as connect us. We can hardly communicate without them, but they also seductively draw people away from the world we must build and the person-to-person interactions we most need to do that. We prefer the first and second grammatical persons to the third. There's always a tension between quantity, promptness, and quality, and it is difficult to know how to strike the right balance or if that is possible. So we will make all sorts of mistakes. We want to be as clear as possible, which at times will mean being firm, but we hope not to lose our humility thereby. For a time this blog was called "Enraging Desert," not so much for the fine image of the lion roaring at the enraging desert in Wallace Stevens' poem but for the political and psychological use which James Hillman made of it. (http://lasg.org/wordpress/2013/03/20/re-enraging-desert/) "Forget the rest" refers of course to the Einstein-Russell Manifesto of 1955 (http://www.pugwash.org/about/manifesto.htm) against nuclear armaments and war. The admonition to "[r]emember your humanity" is more commonly recalled, but too many people who promote weapons of mass destruction think they are doing that already. "Forget the rest" points to a much larger cultural challenge, one that is inescapable at this historical moment when two centuries of economic growth are ending. It is also a challenge each of us faces in the course of our lives when we are forced to choose, as we must. "All that's inane / Be swept away as vain." (Goethe, Faust)

We Call for Sanity, Not Nuclear Production

This call is not a petition. It is a visible and public league of solidarity. After endorsing this Call, we encourage businesses and organizations to make their voices heard by calling or writing your elected officials and in other ways. Write letters to editors and guest editorials. Recruit other businesses and organizations to join and do the same.

For individuals, we encourage you to endorse the Call as well, then recruit businesses and organizations to join you in endorsing this Call.

Nearly all our elected officials either support expanded nuclear weapons or are passive. They won’t change until politically forced to do so.