Category: Modernization

“A House of Dynamite” New Netflix Nuclear Catastrophe Film: Fiction, for Now

Sophia MerynModernization, Nuclear Forces, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Washington DC

The reviews are rolling in for “A House of Dynamite,” which premiered in Europe earlier this month before coming to the U.S. on October 10th, with a full Netflix release scheduled for the 24th. Here’s the trailer, and see the schedule for Santa Fe theater showings here:

This Week! Santa Fe Theater Screenings for the Film “A House of Dynamite”

I attended one of these screenings last night, and I’ll let the professional critic reviews give the gist:

The Kathryn Bigelow thriller looks at what might happen if a ballistic missile were headed to the U.S. The director hopes the movie will start a conversation. New York Times: At Venice, ‘A House of Dynamite’ Is Scarier Than Most Horror Films

“The Netflix thriller captures from multiple perspectives the White House response to an unattributed missile launch headed for a major U.S. city in the harrowing 20 minutes until projected impact…”An unrelenting chokehold thriller so controlled, kinetic and unsettlingly immersive that you stagger out at the end of it wondering if the world will still be intact.” ‘A House of Dynamite’ Review: Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson in Kathryn Bigelow’s Precision-Tooled, Viscerally Unsettling Nail-Biter

“Told from the perspective of soldiers at a remote Alaskan missile base, staffers in the White House situation room, military officials at US Central Command (CENTCOM), and the president of the United States, the film weaves an overlapping timeline to show how the United States would respond to a missile attack…The film doesn’t want viewers to ask themselves how to thwart a nuclear attack on the United States. Rather, it wants the viewer to question the value of having nuclear weapons at all. ‘None of this makes sense,’ the President (Idris Elba) bemoans, ‘Making all these bombs and all these plans.'”

“A House of Dynamite is a terrifying examination of how terribly wrong things can go even with highly competent people in charge…But that’s also not necessarily the world we’re living in…The film shows why the worst can happen, even when competent, well-meaning people are trying to do the right thing.

But what if competence and decency are in short supply?” A House of Dynamite: Bigelow’s latest thriller shows why nuclear bombs are only part of the danger

This film left me reeling with tension and anxiety and exactly as the Times article titles it, is scarier than most horror films. Unlike ‘Oppenheimer,’ which largely glorified the invention of the atomic weapon, ‘A House of Dynamite’ makes it impossible to ignore the threat that nuclear weapons pose to our world. Working backwards from perspectives, and focused on how we can actually improve our odds of keeping this story a fictional one, here is what struck me most about this film:

    1. Only one person decides what happens. But the real threat isn’t one reckless leader — it’s a reckless system. The final segment of the film features the “nuclear football” heavily, a briefcase containing launch procedures and options. In the United States, the president holds the sole and absolute authority to order the use of nuclear weapons. In the film, there are many voices in the President’s ear, but two primary perspectives quickly emerge after the defense fails and the ICBM remains inbound to its U.S. target: “One side advocates a retaliatory strike; the other, nothing. ‘It’s surrender or suicide,’ one adviser tells the President,” – thebulletin.org. The military aide carrying the nuclear football is tasked with providing the President the list of options if retaliation is chosen. An absolute must-read, Daniel Ellsberg’s book “The Doomsday Machine” breaks down many of the themes in the film with pure and terrifyingly honest account of Cold War-era nuclear strategy. In terms of launch authority, he describes how the inherent instability of the delegated command structure of the nuclear apparatus makes accidental or unwanted war an ever-present danger.

      Continue reading

August 6th U.S. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima Commemoration in Santa Fe

Sophia MerynArchbishop, Budget, DOE, Downwinders, Environmental Impact, Hiroshima, ICAN, Japan, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Nagasaki, New Mexico, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, TPNW

Eighty Years Later, it is Beyond Time to Get Rid of Nuclear Weapons.

Last week on August 6, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, community members gathered at the Center for Progress and Justice on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe to honor the solemn occasion and demand an end to the ongoing nuclear weapons harm and destruction that first began here in New Mexico.

The event was organized by Nuclear Watch New Mexico in collaboration with the Up in Arms campaign by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's, to reduce military and nuclear weapons spending, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize), the Santa Fe Archdiocese, the Back from the Brink New Mexico Hub, and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. It centered around a massive public art installation from Up in Arms of a towering cubic structure framed by messages on top of images of $100 bills. The structure is sized to literally hold $100 billion of those bills, respresenting what the U.S. spends every year on nuclear weapons (the total cost of nuclear weapons "modernization" is up to $2 trillion). Visible to thousands of drivers each day, the large installation pressures viewers to reckon with the scale of this cost and to imagine what else those resources could make possible. A prominent message on one of the four sides quotes the president in saying, "'We don't need to build brand new ones. We already have so many,' — Donald Trump" and below it, "His budget includes a down payment of $2 trillion of nuclear weapons." Another side reads, "The current U.S. nuclear arsenal is the equivalent of 50,00 Hiroshima explosions. One nuclear bomb killed over 100,000 people in Hiroshima."

The installation will remain on display for the foreseeable future, GO SEE IT NOW! 1420 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87505.

During the event, speakers Archbishop John C. Wester (by video from Japan), Tina Cordova of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, Sophie Stroud from Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Anne Pierce-Jones from Back from the Brink, Ben Cohen representing Up in Arms, and Seth Shelden from ICAN all gave concrete steps and actions that concerned citizens can take to help promote a safer world. The speakers were presented by former Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen, who stated, “Disarmament is the only answer. I have spent my life working to end the nuclear cycle, as many have, and most of us in this room have never known a world without nuclear weapons.”

Speakers drew connections between the devastation in Hiroshima and the continued production of plutonium pits at LANL. At Los Alamos National Lab alone, five billion dollars will be poured into nuclear weapons programs in Fiscal Year 2026, starting this October. One billion dollars was added to last year’s budget, which includes a 42% increase for nuclear warheads. At the same time, nonproliferation programs are being cut, the science budget sliced in half, and funds for renewable energy zeroed out and gone completely. The push for "modernization" of the US’s nuclear arsenal is directly linked to plutonium pit production at Los Alamos, specifically expanding plutonium pit production. LANL will receive $1.7 billion in direct costs for pit production in 2026. Add in the indirect costs, and it’s roughly double that. All of this future pit production is exorbitantly expensive, yet the National Nuclear Security Administration still has no credible cost estimate for these plans.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: New plutonium pits are not needed to maintain the existing stockpile - it is all for future, new designs. And these new weapons cannot be tested because of the testing moratorium - or conversely could pressure the US to resume testing. In 2006, independent experts concluded that existing plutonium pits last at least a century. Their average age now is about 43 years. A new pit aging study is expected this year. Expansion plans should stop until then.

The U.S.’s $2 trillion “modernization” program is a plan to keep nuclear weapons forever. It is claimed to be essential for “deterrence.” But deterrence relies upon the flawed assumption that all actors will behave rationally, and that accidents or miscalculations will never occur. History says otherwise. Moreover, the U.S. and Russia have always rejected minimal deterrence in favor of nuclear warfighting capabilities that could end civilization overnight. That is why we have 1,000s of nuclear weapons and are funneling billions of dollars into mass death machines, even though everybody knows that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won.

See more on the myth of deterrance here:

Deterrence is the Threat: NukeWatch Presentation for Western New Mexico University – April 1, 2025

Media coverage of the event includes the Santa Fe New Mexican articles below:

New Mexico reckons with its role in Japan’s atomic devastation on 80th anniversary of Hiroshima

‘End the nuclear cycle’: Antinuclear New Mexicans speak out 80 years after Hiroshima bombing

View the full event recording - Click HERE or below:

Full Event Recording: Press Conference & Commemoration – Hiroshima Atomic Bombing 80th Anniversary Event (August 6, 2025)

View the photo gallery here:

NukeWatch in DC Lobbying for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Sophia MerynBudget, DNFSB, DOE, Downwinders, Environmental Justice, GAO, High-level Radioactive Waste, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NNSA, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, WIPP

Your Nuclear Watch New Mexico team has just returned from a weeklong trip to Washington D.C. (we went so you don’t have to!). The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) hosts an annual “DC Days” conference and following Spring Meeting, and we proudly joined as part of a record number of groups this year. Over 60 individuals from 30+ organizations journeyed to DC to lobby congress on nuclear weapons, energy, and waste policy on behalf of the frontline nuclear communities we represent. Members were present from groups representing the entire U.S. nuclear complex, including sites in Georgia, New Mexico, Tennessee, California, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and beyond. NukeWatch NM brought all three staff members—Jay Coghlan, Scott Kovac, and Sophia Stroud (whose participation was made possible by a youth scholarship from ANA)—to participate in DC Days and the subsequent two-day spring meeting. The ANA DC Days schedule included over 70 meetings with senators, representatives, and other relevant agencies, such as the Department of Energy, the Government Accountability Office, and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Our NukeWatch team attended nearly 30 of these meetings. The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability put together a new report to present our “asks” to congress as a coalition, including analysis and recommendations for nuclear weapons, nuclear waste, and nuclear energy policy and funding. Please click HERE for the full report, and HERE for a short summary.

I was glad to see increased representation from Nevada this year, and especially Indigenous representation. In light of the current administration’s attacks on Environmental Justice, it is more important than ever that ANA as a whole, as well as individual member groups, continue to prioritize uplifting Native American voices, not only because of their deep cultural, spiritual, and social connections to the land, including sacred sites and traditional knowledge essential to religious freedom and access, but also because of the violent legacy and ongoing reality of nuclear colonialism, in which Indigenous lands and peoples have been deliberately and disproportionately targeted in the nuclear industry with uranium mining, nuclear weapons testing and production, and the disposal of radioactive waste. To learn more about Nuclear Colonialism, see: www.networkadvocates.org/downwinders and read Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos by Myrriah Gómez.

Continue reading

Plutonium Pit PEIS Scoping Hearing Presentation: Slides and Recording

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, Kansas City Plant, LANL Cleanup, Lawrence Livermore Nat'l Lab, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, Nevada National Security Site, New Mexico, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Strategy, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, WIPP

Get Prepared: A coalition of advocacy groups, including Union of Concerned Scientists, Tri-Valley CAREs, and NukeWatch New Mexico recently held a training to help participants prepare effective comments.

Watch the recording here
Password: gP=&0LYZ

Formal Comments on the Draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, New Mexico, NMED, NNSA, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Tritium

Full NukeWatch LANL SWEIS Comments Out Now!
The LANL SWEIS public comment period has ended, but you can still take action: Use our recent extensive comments as a resource & citizens’ guide to Lab issues.

The National Environmental Policy Act requires the Los Alamos National Laboratory to periodically prepare a new “Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Continued Operations.”

Please use NukeWatch NM’s recent extensive comments on the Lab’s new draft SWEIS as a resource and citizens’ guide to Lab issues.

Did you know, for example, that:

• LANL’s nuclear weapons production budget has doubled over the last decade?

• The Lab’s so-called cleanup plan is to “cap and cover” some 200,000 cubic yards of radioactive and toxic waste, leaving them permanently buried as a perpetual threat to groundwater?

• There is a planned intentional release of up to 30,000 curies of radioactive tritium gas, all without a public hearing?

View at: nukewatch.org/formal-comments-on-the-draft-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-for-continued-operation-of-the-los-alamos-national-laboratory/

 Use our lengthy formal comments as a starting point, toolkit or resource for dissecting ongoing and future issues at LANL!

We encourage you to use our comments to ask for follow-up info, either from us here at NukeWatch or from the Lab, and to demand better accountability and transparency! Use as background or briefing material for local and congressional advocacy.

For example:

  • Cite or excerpt our comments in future public processes under the National Environmental Policy Act. For example, we are expecting that a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement for plutonium “pit” bomb core production will be announced soon, the result of a lawsuit in which NukeWatch led.
  • Share with those organizing around stopping expanded plutonium pit production and advocating for genuine radioactive and toxic wastes cleanup.
  • Learn about LANL’s proposed electrical transmission line across the environmentally and culturally sensitive Caja del Rio and alternatives that were not considered.
  • The National Environmental Policy Act itself is under assault by the Trump Administration. We expect environmental justice and climate change issues to be stripped from LANL’s final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement. This needs to be resisted!

NukeWatch NM argued that the draft SWEIS should be withdrawn and a new one issued because:

 • The NNSA has rigged the draft LANL Site-Wide EIS with three self-serving scenarios:

  – Expanded nuclear weapons programs (contradictorily called the “No Action Alternative”).

  – Yet more expanded nuclear weapons programs (“Modernized Operations Alternative”).

– Yet far more expanded nuclear weapons programs (“Expanded Operations Alternative”).

• A Reduced Operations Alternative must be included.

• The SWEIS’ fundamental justification for expanded nuclear weapons programs is “deterrence.” But “deterrence” has always included nuclear warfighting capabilities that could end human civilization overnight.

• The SWEIS purports to align with U.S. obligations under the 1970 NonProliferation Treaty. That is demonstrably false.

• Future plutonium pit production is NOT to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. Instead, it is for new-design nuclear weapons that could lower confidence in stockpile reliability and/or prompt a return to testing.

• The SWEIS’ No-Action Alternative violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

• The legally required programmatic environmental impact statement on pit production should be completed first, followed by the LANL SWEIS.

• Plutonium pit reuse should be analyzed as a credible alternative to pit production.

• A recent proposal for a data center at LANL is not in the SWEIS. It raises huge issues of future water and electrical use, the appropriateness of commercial interests at a federal lab, and the possible fusion of artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons command and control.

• Recent Executive Orders could strip the final SWEIS of environmental justice and climate change analyses. This must have clarification.

• Planned tritium releases should be fully analyzed.

• The Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade should be analyzed will all credible alternatives.

• The proposed BioSafety Level-3 facility must have its own standalone EIS.

• All Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board concerns should be addressed and resolved.

• Genuine comprehensive cleanup should be a preferred alternative.

• A new SWEIS should follow a new overdue Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis.

NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop – February 6, 2025

Sophia MerynArchbishop, Downwinders, Environmental Impact, Environmental Justice, High-level Radioactive Waste, LANL Chromium Plume, LANL Cleanup, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NEPA, New Mexico, NMED, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, Tritium, WIPP

Full Video Recording: NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop

NukeWatch Presentation: Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop
NukeWatch Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide EIS Workshop

Working Together, We Can Meet Enormous Challenges

Sophia MerynEnvironmental Impact, High-level Radioactive Waste, LANL Cleanup, Modernization, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, WIPP

Dear Friends,

As we look back on 2024, Nuclear Watch New Mexico hopes you had a wonderful year. We wish you peace and prosperity. Given uncertain times ahead, we are confident that by working together we can meet the enourmous challenges that are in store for us in 2025.

Together, we can resist provocative nuclear weapons programs that are helping to fuel a new arms race. A prime example is the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores at both the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. NukeWatch NM is leading the effort to compel legally required public review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) most expensive program ever (but has no credible cost estimates). New pit production is not needed because it is for new weapons designs, not to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing, extensively tested nuclear stockpile.

Plutonium Pit Production

Together we can watchdog LANL cleanup. Please join us next year for public hearings where we will oppose LANL’s plans to “cap-and-cover” existing radioactive and toxic wastes, leaving them permanently buried in unlined pits and shafts as a perpetual threat to groundwater.

Los Alamos National Lab Cleanup

We ask for your help in compelling the Department of Energy to stop expansion of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southern New Mexico. WIPP’s mission is fundamentally changing from cleanup to direct support of the new arms race as the dump for new radioactive plutonium wastes from expanding nuclear weapons production. See how to make a difference at https://stopforeverwipp.org/home

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

Together, we can make progress toward a future nuclear weapons-free world! With deep appreciation, we thank those who have already contributed. If you haven’t given yet, please know that your support is vital to our ongoing work. Your generous tax deductible donation can be mailed to Nuclear Watch NM, 903 W. Alameda #325, Santa Fe, NM 87501, or made online at nukewatch.org/donate/

Our sincere gratitude and best wishes for the coming year,

Jay Coghlan, Executive Director
Scott Kovac, Research Director
Sophie Stroud, Digital Content Manager

 

P.S.: If you’re so inclined, please go to https://www.armscontrol.org/acpoy/2024 to vote for the 2024 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year. Savannah River Site Watch, Tri-Valley CAREs, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and NukeWatch NM are nominees for their lawsuit to compel the NNSA to complete a nation-wide programmatic environmental impact statement on expanded plutonium pit production.

The U.S. Nuclear Policy of Deterrence: What if it Fails?

Sophia MerynModernization, Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Washington DC

The U.S. nuclear strategy of deterrence “aims to prevent an adversary from launching a nuclear weapon by assuring that any first strike will be followed by a retaliatory second strike, whose effects will equal or exceed the original damage and may eliminate the adversary altogether.” From a purely theoretical standpoint, its premise is simple: the threat of overwhelming retaliation should prevent adversaries from launching a first attack. As illuminated in an insightful analysis in the Boston Review, current deterrence policies use perpetual threats of annihilation as a means of coercion. Our most “successful” solution so far to the threat of catastrophic nuclear war has been a tool of extortion, rather than genuine security measures such as binding arms control and nonproliferation agreements.

Deterrance is “framed wholly as defensive and preventative (and from day to day, largely successful in deflecting our attention from the actual first use stance the country has had for nearly eighty years).” [Boston Review] But what if this strategy fails? What if deterrence doesn’t work as intended?

The policy of deterrence assumes that rational actors will always act in their own self-interest to avoid nuclear war.

Continue reading

Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: February 2024

Sophia MerynFY 2023 Budget, FY 2024 Budget, High-level Radioactive Waste, Holtec, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, New Mexico, Pit Production, Pit Production at LANL, Pit Production at SRS

FEDERAL BUDGET NEWS

Release of federal FY 2025 budget expected March 11 (it will initially be just topline numbers).

Meanwhile on the FY 2024 budget: House and Senate Armed Services Committee authorized funding exceeding Biden’s request, including money for the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile and nuclear warhead (reminder: that the President doesn’t want), plus adding $$ for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. But appropriations bills are still not happening because of ever increasing congressional dysfunction. This is now best exemplified by Republicans rejecting an immigration bill they initially drafted but that Trump denounced because he wanted immigration to remain a hot issue during the presidential election campaign.

The current second “laddered” Continuing Resolution that is keeping the government running expires March 1 and 8.

Continue reading

Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: January 2024

Sophia MerynFY 2023 Budget, FY 2024 Budget, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, New Mexico, North Korea, Sandia National Laboratories

FEDERAL BUDGET NEWS

Half of the federal budget (including Energy and Water appropriations which funds DOE) shuts down January 19 and the other half February 2 if a Continuing Resolution (CR) is not reached. House Speaker Johnson agreed to a previous funding agreement with the Biden Administration but the so-called Freedom Caucus is now in revolt.

Update: On January 18, Congress passes third stopgap funding bill instead of full FY24 budget, keeping the government funded until March. 

Sen. Martin Heinrich aids and abets the new, more dangerous nuclear arms race. He is outspokenly proud of all of the nuclear weapons money in New Mexico, and he is one of the chief congressional architects of expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. In congress, Heinrich sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee from where he can direct $$billions to the Sandia and Los Alamos Labs.

But during the Department of Energy’s long presence in the Land of Enchantment, according to Census Bureau data New Mexico has slid in per capita income from 32nd in 1959 to 47th in 2022. New Mexico has the most children living in poverty (30%) and is rated dead last in well-being of children and quality of public education. Finally, in a report that the Los Alamos Lab tried to suppress, six county governments surrounding Los Alamos County suffer a net economic loss from LANL.

In fiscal year 2024 DOE will spend $10 billion in New Mexico, 75% for core nuclear weapons research and production programs and 5% for dumping related radioactive wastes in our state. DOE’s budget is 6% greater than the entire operating budget of the State of New Mexico ($9.4 billion).

Senator Heinrich, please explain what good all that nuclear weapons money does for average New Mexicans, and not just for the privileged nuclear weapons enclaves.

For much more, please see https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/New-Mexico-Americas-Nuclear-Colony.pdf

ACCELERATING NUCLEAR ARMS RACE

North Korea Issues Ominous Warning About Nuclear Strike This Year
North Korea has issued an ominous warning about “the highest risk of clashes this year” between the totalitarian state and its neighbor to the south, which could end in “a nuclear strike,” according to South Korean media. Yonhap News Agency, a major media outlet in Seoul, reported on Thursday that North Korea media condemned recent Army artillery exercises and naval firing drills and exercises. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news agency of North Korea, said the exercises are “self destructive” and called South Koreans “warmongers,” according to Yonhap.

Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: November 2023

Nuclear Weapons Issues & The Accelerating Arms Race: November 2023

Sophia MerynBudget, Modernization, Nuclear Weapons, Pit Production at LANL, Putin, Russia

Nuclear weapons issues

New bomb: The Pentagon has announced a new nuclear bomb, the B61-13. The B61-12 is now in production and will be forward deployed in Europe. But it has a dial-a-yield that maxes out at 50 kilotons. The new B61-13 will max out at 360 kt to get at hardened deeply buried targets (both have limited earth-penetrating capabilities). At one time, production of the B61-12 at least potentially signified retirement of the 1.2 megaton surface burst B83 strategic bomb, but now production of the B61-13 will probably be relatively quick at the tail end of already scheduled B61-12 production.

See: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3571660/department-of-defense-announces-pursuit-of-b61-gravity-bomb-variant/ and https://media.defense.gov/2023/Oct/27/2003329624/-1/-1/1/B61-13-FACT-SHEET.PDF

See excellent analysis by the Federation of American Scientists:

https://fas.org/publication/biden-administration-to-build-a-new-nuclear-bomb/

Strategic Posture Review:  Commissioned by Congress,

“The Commission recommends that a strategy to address the two-nuclear-peer threat [Russia and China] environment be a prerequisite for developing U.S. nuclear arms control limits for the 2027-2035 timeframe. The Commission recommends that once a strategy and its related force requirements are established, the U.S. government determine whether and how nuclear arms control limits continue to enhance U.S. security…”
Continue reading

Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review Fuels the New Nuclear Arms Race

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, FY 2023 Budget, Modernization, North Korea, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Weapons, Plutonium Pit Production, Washington DC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 27, 2022 |
Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342 jay@nukewatch.org

Santa Fe, NM– Today, the Biden Administration has released its long awaited unclassified Nuclear Posture Review. It headlines a “Comprehensive, balanced approach to defending vital national security interests and reducing nuclear dangers.” It also declares that “deterrence alone will not reduce nuclear dangers.”

“Deterrence” against others has always been the publicly sold rationale for the United States’ nuclear weapons stockpile. First, there is the inconvenient fact that the U.S. was the first and only to use nuclear weapons in war. But secondly, the United States and the USSR (now Russia) never possessed their huge stockpiles for the sole purpose of deterrence anyway. Instead, their nuclear weapons policies have always been a hybrid of deterrence and nuclear war fighting, which threatens global annihilation to this very day.

FULL PRESS RELEASE [PDF]

Continue reading

Why Funding for the SLCM Nuclear Warhead Should Be Deleted

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, FY 2023 Budget, Modernization, Nuclear Weapons

Introduction: In 1991, in response to the ongoing collapse of the Soviet Union, President George H. Bush ordered the withdrawal of all nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) from U.S. surface ships and submarines. In 2018 President Trump’s Nuclear Posture Review proposed to redeploy SLCMs on Virginia-class attack submarines, saying they would provide the United States with “a needed non-strategic regional presence” that would address “the increasing need for flexible and low-yield options.”1 Congress subsequently approved $15.2 million in FY 2022 funding for the Navy’s new cruise missile and nuclear warhead.

In March 2022 President Biden transmitted a new classified Nuclear Posture Review to Congress that reportedly canceled the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile. In parallel, his proposed FY 2023 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has no funding for the SLCM nuclear warhead. This has prompted some congressional pushback, with one suggested compromise being continuing modest research funding. But as a Congressional Research Service analysis put it: “The Navy indicated that the program was “cost prohibitive and the acquisition schedule would have delivered capability late to need.” 

Continue reading

Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Issues: New Year’s Update — January 15, 2022

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, DOE, Modernization, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Weapons, TPNW, Washington DC

U.S. nuclear weapons issues:

  • In anticipation of the NonProliferation Treaty Review Conference that was to start January 4 the P-5 (original nuclear weapons powers U.S., Russia, China, France and U.K.) came out with an unbelievable collective statement on how they are in compliance with the NPT Article VI mandate to disarm. Then the Review Conference was indefinitely postponed because of omicron.
  • Biden signed the FY 2022 Defense Authorization Act (DAA). Congress gave the Pentagon $24 billion more than Biden asked for. So much for ending endless wars. The DAA fully authorizes what the Biden Administration asked for National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear weapons programs, which increased Trump’s FY 2021 budget which saw a 25% from his FY 2002 budget. LANL is to get a cool billion in FY 2022 for expanded plutonium pit production alone.
  • Still no appropriations. Second Continuing Resolution (CR) runs out in February.
  • First anniversary of Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons January 22

Continue reading

Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Issues: Monthly Update — December 15, 2021

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, DOE, FY 2022 Budget, Modernization, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Weapons, Trump Administration, Washington DC

FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act: The Bad News.

As Politico put it:

PROGRESSIVES’ PENTAGON POUNDING: … progressives barely put their stamp on Pentagon policy this go-round. Bipartisan provisions requiring women to register for the draft, cracking down on Saudi Arabia and imposing sanctions on Russia were nixed; legislation repealing outdated Iraq war authorizations fell by the wayside; reforms to the military justice system and efforts to combat extremism in the ranks were pared back; and a proposal to give Washington, D.C., control of its National Guard was dropped,” they wrote. Democrats hold power in the House, Senate and White House for the first time in more than a decade, yet the high-profile defense bill got more GOP votes than from Biden’s own party. As progressive lawmakers made their dissatisfaction with the bill’s high price tag clear, centrist Democrats knew they needed Republican support to pass the House and Senate.”

Progressives truly felt they had a historic chance to turn their priorities into policy, but the realities of a 50-50 Senate with no filibuster made that near impossible. And with midterms next year, it’s likely they missed their best chance.

Nuclear weapons: Congress added $500 million to Biden’s request for NNSA Total Weapons Activities, which was essentially Trump’s request to begin with. Trump’s Sea-Launched Cruise Missile and B83 (1.2 megatons) service life program were kept. $1.72 billion request for “Plutonium Modernization” authorized.

  • However, the NDAA is authorization, not appropriations. The 2nd Continuing Resolution runs until February after which the appropriators will have to come up with something. There’s a chance that the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile and B83 sustainment program could be shot down. While those would be notable victories, they really only amount to damage control (i.e., rolling back two of Trump’s pet projects) as the $1.7 trillion modernization beast lumbers on.

Continue reading

Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Issues Updates — November 15, 2021

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, China, Climate Change, Modernization, New Mexico, Nuclear Testing, Nuclear Weapons, Russia

The current Continuing Resolution keeping the government running expires 12/3. Another Continuing Resolution is likely.

The Pentagon has released a major threat assessment of China at https://media.defense.gov/2021/Nov/03/2002885874/-1/-1/0/2021-CMPR-FINAL.PDF.

Under “Nuclear Capabilities” it concludes:

► Over the next decade, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] aims to modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces.
► The PRC is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces.
► The PRC is also supporting this expansion by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities.
► The accelerating pace of the PRC’s nuclear expansion may enable the PRC to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027. The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020.
► The PRC has possibly already established a nascent “nuclear triad” with the development of a nuclear capable air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) and improvement of its ground and sea-based nuclear capabilities.
► New developments in 2020 further suggest that the PRC intends to increase the peacetime readiness of its nuclear forces by moving to a launch-on-warning (LOW) posture with an expanded silo-based force.

This is bound to have a major influence on Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review, to be released in early 2022. China’s expansion of its nuclear weapons capabilities, along with U.S. and Russian “modernization” programs, may also be big issues at the January 2022 NonProliferation Treaty Review Conference.

Continue reading

76 Years After the First Nuclear Bomb Test, the U.S. is Still Dead Set on Building Weapons of Mass Destruction

76 Years After the First Nuclear Bomb Test, the U.S. is Still Dead Set on Building New Weapons of Mass Destruction

Sophia MerynEnvironmental Impact, Modernization, New Mexico, Nuclear Testing, Nuclear Weapons

Last week, July 16 2021, marked the 76th anniversary of the world’s first nuclear bomb explosion. Within another month, memorials and commemorations will be held for the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which the U.S. bombed on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. Although it was unknown to most residents of New Mexico until after the United States’ atomic bombing of Japan, the citizens and communities in the southern region of the state were in fact the first nuclear victims.

When the U.S. Army detonated an atomic bomb on July 16, 1945 at 5:29 a.m., “its thunderous roar during the rainy season knocked people from breakfast tables in Tularosa and sent others on the Mescalero Apache reservation into hiding.” (axios.com) Hispanics and Mescalero Apache tribal members in New Mexico are working to pressure lawmakers to compensate those who have suffered extremely because of the experiment. Rare forms of cancer and other health problems have been discovered in those living near the site of the Trinity Test, and the vast, noxious consequences of this experiment have had lasting impact on now multiple, entire generations.

Continue reading

Modernization: The Mainspring of NNSA FY 2022 Budget Request in the Form of Ballooning SRS Pit Costs

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, Modernization, Savannah River Site Watch

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s detailed fiscal year 2022 budget request was (partially) unveiled last week on Friday, May 28, in the evening before a long holiday weekend. The Biden Administration’s total NNSA FY22 budget request is just under $20 billion, requesting of $15.48 billion for NNSA “Total Weapons Activities” and following suit with Trump’s excessive nuclear weapons budget of $15.35 billion that Congress appropriated for FY 2021.

Of particular note in the budget request is that it will cost more than double what the National Nuclear Security Administration had previously estimated for the total of DOE’s Plutonium Bomb Plant construction at Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The facility would be a converted production plant for the fabrication of plutonium “pits,” the triggers for nuclear warheads. The cost for the plant has ballooned from the previous estimate of $4.6 billion to a now staggering $11.1 billion. What’s more, the schedule for the facility’s initial operation has slipped up to five years. The plans for the SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant have already run far over budget and fallen behind schedule, and “these troubling and potentially debilitating developments foreshadow problems to come to the challenging pit-production project,” according to the public interest group Savannah River Site Watch.

Continue reading

MEDIA ADVISORY: WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S FY 2022  NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND CLEANUP BUDGET REQUEST

Sophia MerynDOE, FY 2022 Budget, Modernization, NNSA, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons

For use with DOE’s scheduled budget release on Friday May 28, 2021
For more information, key contacts are listed below.

The White House is releasing its detailed Fiscal Year 2022 budget on Friday, May 28. A so-called “skinny budget” was released on April 9 that increased Department of Energy (DOE) funding to $46.1 billion, which reportedly includes major new investments in clean energy and climate change abatement. That said, historically roughly 60% of DOE’s funding has been earmarked for nuclear weapons production and cleanup of Cold War wastes and contamination. The pending budget release will finally provide details on those programs.

Because the budget release is so late Congress has already announced that it can’t consider the annual Defense Authorization Act until September. Related appropriations bills will no doubt be delayed too. This means that the government will probably have to run on a Continuing Resolution(s) for much of FY 2022 (which begins October 1, 2021).

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability strongly opposed the massive 25% FY 2021 increase that the Trump Administration gave to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) nuclear weapons programs and proposed cuts to Department of Energy cleanup. In addition, DOE’s nuclear weapons and environmental management programs have been on the Government Accountability Office’s “High Risk List” for project mismanagement and waste of taxpayers’ dollars for 28 consecutive years. Related, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has just released a report that projects a 28% increase in costs for so-called “modernization” of U.S. nuclear forces that between the Defense Department and DOE is expected to cost around $1.7 trillion over 30 years.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a 34-year-old network of groups from communities downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear weapons sites, will be analyzing the following critical issues. For details, contact the ANA leaders listed at the end of this Advisory.

Continue reading

Virtual Advocacy for “Safety, Security, and Savings” at ANA DC Days:

Sophia MerynBiden Administration, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Pit Production at LANL, Pit Production at SRS, Savannah River Site, Washington DC

May 26, 2021

Nuclear Watch New Mexico virtually visited Washington, DC this month to participate in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s “DC Days,” an annual event where organizations from across the nation, whose members are directly affected by nuclear weapons production and the incidental health and environmental consequences, make their voice heard to federal policy makers.

Nuclear Watch NM was focused on opposing new plutonium pit production at Savannah River Site and Los Alamos, pushing for safe and secure toxic cleanup and prioritizing public health while saving billions by terminating ill-conceived new nuclear weapons programs. View more information on these issues in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s new report, “Safety, Security, and Savings,” which describes in detail the foundation of our 2021 advocacy. The report includes a series of fact sheets and recommendations covering new warheads, bomb plants, nuclear waste, cleanup, and more.

Letter With >120 Group & Individual Sign-Ons Asks Udall and Heinrich to Extend Public Comment Period on Los Alamos Lab Plutonium Bomb Core Production

Sophia MerynLos Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, NNSA, Pantex Plant, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, Trump Administration

Letter With >120 Group & Individual Sign-Ons Asks Udall and Heinrich to Extend Public Comment Period on Los Alamos Lab Plutonium Bomb Core Production

Today, on behalf of more than 120 groups and individuals, Nuclear Watch New Mexico sent a letter to New Mexico Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. It asks them to act upon their own words and demand that the public comment period be extended for plutonium “pit” bomb core production that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is fast tracking during the coronavirus epidemic. As sitting members of the Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees, Udall and Heinrich are in strong positions to make that demand of NNSA.

Continue reading

DOE Ignores COVID-19 Threat, Diverts Resources to Planning for Nuclear War by Releasing Draft Environmental Study on SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant

Sophia MerynDOE, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Nuclear Weapons, Pit Production, Plutonium Pit Production, Savannah River Site, Savannah River Site Watch, Trump Administration

Today, in the middle of the growing coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Department of Energy ignored the real national crisis and irresponsibly shifted its focus to planning for nuclear war, revealing plans to construct a Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.

DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today formally released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Plutonium Pit Production at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, whose proposed action is to establish the production of plutonium “pits” (nuclear warhead cores) at SRS at a rate of up to 125 pits per year, with at least 50 pits per year by 2030 as the stated objective for now.

Continue reading

LANL Budget Increased by Nearly $1 Billion to Accelerate Work As Production Site for Nuclear Weapons Designs by Livermore Lab Cleanup Cut by 46%

Sophia MerynDOE, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons, Sandia National Laboratories, Trump Administration
LANL Budget Increased by Nearly $1 Billion to Accelerate Work As Production Site for Nuclear Weapons Designs by Livermore Lab Cleanup Cut by 46%
Soil and groundwater contamination was discovered at the LLNL Livermore Site and Site 300 in the 1980s. This contamination resulted from early research activities

Santa Fe, NM – The Trump Administration has released more budget details for its proposed Fiscal Year 2021 federal budget for the Department of Energy and its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is slated to receive nearly a one billion dollar increase for its nuclear weapons programs (up 48%), overwhelmingly for new production. At the same time cleanup, whose need is caused by nuclear weapons production, is cut by 46%.

Significantly, LANL’s FY 2021 budget for design work of nuclear weapons stayed flat after falling by 28% from FY 2018 to FY 2019. Meanwhile, funding for nuclear weapons design work at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory more than doubled from FY 2019 to FY 2021.

Continue reading

As the NonProliferation Treaty’s 50th Anniversary Approaches U.S. to Soon Fund New Nuclear Warhead at $1 Billion Per Year

Sophia MerynDOE, Environmental Impact, FY 2021 Budget, Los Alamos Nat'l Lab., Modernization, Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Security, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Weapons

As the NonProliferation Treaty’s 50th Anniversary Approaches U.S. to Soon Fund New Nuclear Warhead at $1 Billion Per Year

Santa Fe, NM – This March 5, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of the NonProliferation Treaty, whose central bargain was that non-nuclear weapons states forswore acquiring them in exchange for which nuclear weapons states promised to enter into serious negotiations leading to their elimination. Those negotiations have never happened.

The Trump Administration has marked the occasion by finally releasing the detailed fiscal year 2021 Congressional Budget Request for the Department of Energy’s semi- autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA’s program for new and upgraded nuclear weapons gets a 3 billion dollar-plus mark up to $15.6 billion, slated to jump to $17 billion annually by 2025. This includes a new nuclear warhead, the submarine launched W93, initially funded at $53 million in FY 2021, but slated to climb to $1.1 billion annually by 2025. New warhead design and production typically take around 15 years or more.

Continue reading

Scroll to top