QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Trump’s Talk of Nuclear Tests Recalls Fears of the Cold War
“Yes, we can learn things by nuclear testing. But when you look at the big picture, we have much more to lose by going back to testing than we have to gain.”
– SIEGFRIED S. HECKER, a former director of the Los Alamos weapons lab in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was created, after President Trump’s call to resume nuclear testing revived a Cold War debate. The New York Times nytimes.com
“There is nothing comparable in our history to the deceit and the lying that took place as a matter of official Government policy in order to protect this industry. Nothing was going to stop them and they were willing to kill our own people.”
— Stewart Udall, United States Secretary of the Interior under President Kennedy and President Johnson.
He was the father of Senator Tom Udall (who ended up being a vigorous supporter of expanded nuclear weapons “modernization” plans).
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev declared that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
2022 BLOG POSTS
New Mexico’s Revolving Nuclear Door: Top Environment Officials Sell Out to Nuclear Weapons Labs
As part of a long, ingrained history, senior officials at the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) have repeatedly resigned to go to work for the nuclear weapons labs, the Department of Energy, or DOE contractors. In a number of cases that is where they came from to begin with.
The hierarchy of leadership at NMED starts with the Secretary, Deputy Secretaries and then Division Directors. The position of Resource Protection Division Director is particularly critical because it oversees the two NMED bureaus most directly involved with DOE facilities in New Mexico, the Hazardous Waste Bureau and the DOE Oversight Bureau.
FULL PRESS RELEASE [PDF]
Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review Fuels the New Nuclear Arms Race
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]
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New & Updated
COMMENT TRAINING for the Plutonium Pit Production Draft PEIS – Recording of Kansas City-Focused Training May 6, 2026
Learn more about the government’s plan to mass produce new plutonium pits for nuclear weapons, Kansas City’s role in this program, and how to give a well-informed and impactful testimony at the public comment hearing in Kansas City on May 7 or submit written comments until July 16.
Presented by PeaceWorks KC, Physicians for Social Responsibility KC, Veterans for Peace KC and special guests from Nuclear Watch New Mexico and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
See more info at https://PitPEIS.com
https://peaceworkskc.org/plutonium/
Plutonium Pit Production Draft PEIS – Recording of Public Hearing North Augusta, South Carolina, Tues May 5, 2026
Nukes and AI require 1.4 million gallons of water a day at New Mexico lab
“In a state that’s already short on the resource, Los Alamos National Laboratory expects to double water use.”
HIGH ATOP A PLATEAU IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO, Los Alamos National Laboratory is facing its biggest expansion since the World War II-era Manhattan Project, the top-secret government effort to produce the world’s first atomic weapons. The current expansion will require a colossal use of resources, including one that New Mexico has in short supply these days — water.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy projected that the Los Alamos expansion would require around 504 million gallons of water annually — about 1.4 million gallons of water per day — for at least another decade. By comparison, a single New Mexico resident uses about 81 gallons per day.
The lab started making plutonium bomb cores, or “pits” for a new generation of warheads well before an environmental impact statement was published in March. In its latest move, however, the Department of Energy has set its sights on an even larger — and thirstier — expansion.
Plaintiffs Tour the Savannah River Site’s Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant –
Most Expensive Building in U.S. History is Key to New Nuclear Arms Race
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 22, 2026
Contact: Tom Clements, Director, SRS Watch, 803-240-7268 | Email
Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email
Shelby Cohen, Comms Manager, SC Env. Law Project, 864.414.7726 | Email
Columbia, SC – On April 21, plaintiffs Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs toured the plutonium “pit” bomb core production plant at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. They were accompanied by their attorney from the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and a science consultant from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Plutonium pits are the core components of all U.S. nuclear weapons. The NNSA is seeking to expand production to at least 30 plutonium pits per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and at least 50 pits per year at SRS, which has never previously produced pits. NNSA pushed forward with the project without required public review, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Plaintiffs sued in federal court in Columbia, SC and won, requiring the NNSA to complete a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), with public hearings to be held this May (listed below). The court-approved settlement agreement also required an inspection of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility by plaintiffs to ensure that no production begins before the completion of the final PEIS and simultaneous Record of Decision, which NNSA now says is expected in early 2027. NNSA officials also informed plaintiffs that 90% design and “rebaselined” costs will not be completed until September 2026, which means that once again Congress will be appropriating taxpayers’ money without knowing full costs.
The SRS pit plant will be the most expensive buildings ever built in the USA, with a current NNSA estimate of up to $30 billion even before all total costs are known (includes at least $5 billion in sunk costs for SRS’ failed MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility being “repurposed” to pit production). The agency’s recent budget request for FY 2027 (pp 17-19) reveals an 87% jump in combined pit production funding for LANL and SRS, averaging $5 billion for each of the next six years.
LIVE: Press Briefing After Plaintiffs Inspect Savannah River Site Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant
Plutonium Pit Production Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is Out Now! Visit PitPEIS.com for More!
The Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for Plutonium Pit Production was released by NNSA on Friday, April 10th. This opens a critical window for public comment on NNSA’s unnecessary plan to expand production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. This PEIS was brought on by a lawsuit against NNSA over its failure to complete the NEPA process for this plan. As you likely know, NEPA is fully under attack by the current administration — this may be the last foreseeable full NEPA process taking place, making it all the more critical to be involved.
As a resource to help you comment and encourage widespread comment-making in your community, we (lawsuit plaintiffs Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs, as well as the Union of Concerned Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and groups from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability), created a website that is now live!
Your Pit PEIS central hub for information and action: https://pitpeis.com/
Please take a look and feel free to share, and note that we’ll be continuing to update it as soon as new resources become available.
For example, we will soon have:
– A schedule of comment trainings
– Sample comments and talking points
– Regional-focused resources to help engage your local community around this issue
Los Alamos Lab Banking on Plutonium “Pit” Production and New-Design Nuclear Warheads But Fights Against Cleanup
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 7, 2026
Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email
Sophie Stroud, 505.231.9736 | Email
Santa Fe, NM – The Department of Energy (DOE) has released additional details for the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s fiscal year 2027 budget. Earlier budget documents showed an 83% increase in funding for plutonium “pit” bomb core production, bringing it to $2.4 billion in FY 2027. An average of $2.3 billion will be spent in each of the following five years, for a total of $14 billion over six years. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has directed the Lab to double pit production to at least 60 pits per year, making it more and more a nuclear weapons production site. However, no future pit production is to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. Instead, it is all for new-design nuclear weapons for the new nuclear arms race.
As a direct case in point, a newly released DOE budget document demonstrates that LANL will be funded $478 million in FY 2027 for the U.S.’ first completely new-design nuclear warhead since the Cold War, the submarine-launched W93. This is despite the recent completion of life extension programs for the U.S.’ two existing sub-launched warheads (the W76 and W88) that gave them new military capabilities, costing around $12 billion dollars. Nevertheless, the W93 program is moving forward, largely because of lobbying by the United Kingdom.
As LANL becomes more and more a nuclear weapons production site, non-weapons “Science” is being cut nearly in half ($84.7 million in FY 2026 to $43 million in FY 2027). Nonproliferation programs are cut from $377 million in FY 2026 to $345 million in FY 2027. All funding for renewable energy research has been eliminated, with the exception of $5.5 million for geothermal.
Trump Accelerates New Nuclear Warhead Production
Nearly Doubles Funding for Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 6, 2026
Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email
Sophie Stroud, 505.231.9736 | Email
Santa Fe, NM – The Trump Administration has released military budget numbers for the federal fiscal year 2027 (which begins October 1, 2026). This still current fiscal year 2026 is already a record breaker for military spending at one trillion dollars. Trump now proposes nearly $1.5 trillion in military spending in FY 2027, of which $1.1 trillion is base funding for the Department of War and an additional $350 million is through so-called budget reconciliation. On top of all this, Trump will likely seek $200 billion in supplementary appropriations for the war in Iran, for a potential total of $1.7 trillion in military spending in FY 2027 (a 70% increase above FY 2026). At the same time, there is a 10% across-the-board cut to non-military spending. Much of the remaining discretionary funding for education, wildfire protection, environmental regulations, health care, etc., will be constrained by a focus on border control and immigration enforcement.
Trump proposes $53.9 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) in FY 2027. Sixty-one per cent ($32.8 billion) is for its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). DOE’s Office of Science is gutted by $1.1 billion which “eliminates funding for climate change and Green New Scam research.” DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is eliminated. Nationwide cleanup of legacy Cold War radioactive and toxic wastes at DOE sites is cut by $386 million to $8.2 billion ($3 billion of which is reserved for the Hanford Site; other site-specific cleanup budget numbers are still not yet available).
LANL Plans to Spend $11.5B on Pit Production over Next Five Years, While New Mexico Remains One of the Poorest States in the Nation
A full one billion dollars is being added to plutonium “pit” bomb core production at the Los Alamos Lab for fiscal year 2027 (which begins this October 1). This tops out at $2.3 billion for each of the next five fiscal years, for a total of $11.5 billion.
None of this pit production is to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. Instead, it’s all for new-design nuclear weapons which can’t be tested because of the international testing moratorium, thereby perhaps eroding confidence in the stockpile. Alternatively, it could prompt the U.S. to resume testing (which Trump has already threatened), after which other nuclear weapons powers would surely follow, thereby accelerating the new nuclear arms race.
Other than for new-design nuclear weapons, plutonium pit production is simply not needed. In 2006 independent experts found that plutonium pits have serviceable lifetimes of at least 100 years (their average is now around 43 years). The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has avoided fully updated pit lifetime studies since then. There are already at least 15,000 existing pits stored at the NNSA’s Pantex Plant near Amarillo, TX.
Plutonium pit production is the NNSA’s most expensive and complex program ever.
Trump Accelerates New Nuclear Warhead Production
Nearly Doubles Funding for Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Production
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 6, 2026
Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email
Sophie Stroud, 505.231.9736 | Email
Santa Fe, NM – The Trump Administration has released military budget numbers for the federal fiscal year 2027 (which begins October 1, 2026). This still current fiscal year 2026 is already a record breaker for military spending at one trillion dollars. Trump now proposes nearly $1.5 trillion in military spending in FY 2027, of which $1.1 trillion is base funding for the Department of War and an additional $350 million is through so-called budget reconciliation. On top of all this, Trump will likely seek $200 billion in supplementary appropriations for the war in Iran, for a potential total of $1.7 trillion in military spending in FY 2027 (a 70% increase above FY 2026). At the same time, there is a 10% across-the-board cut to non-military spending. Much of the remaining discretionary funding for education, wildfire protection, environmental regulations, health care, etc., will be constrained by a focus on border control and immigration enforcement.
Trump proposes $53.9 billion for the Department of Energy (DOE) in FY 2027. Sixty-one per cent ($32.8 billion) is for its semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). DOE’s Office of Science is gutted by $1.1 billion which “eliminates funding for climate change and Green New Scam research.” DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is eliminated. Nationwide cleanup of legacy Cold War radioactive and toxic wastes at DOE sites is cut by $386 million to $8.2 billion ($3 billion of which is reserved for the Hanford Site; other site-specific cleanup budget numbers are still not yet available).
Federal budget could mean nearly $1.7B more for Los Alamos lab
“A 21% surge in spending for defense programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy would mean a more than $1.7 billion boost for nuclear weapons work at Los Alamos National Laboratory.”
| April 6, 2026 santafenewmexican.com
Early budget documents for the agency are in line with a presidential budget proposal released Friday, which emphasizes military spending — with a whopping $1.5 trillion recommendation for the Department of War — partially offset by cuts to domestic programs like health care and education, as well as what the federal government calls the “Green New Scam”, or climate-related work.
New nuclear safety rules reduce protections for workers, the public
“They’re pulling away from what’s kept us safe all these years.”
Bradley P. Clawson spent more than three decades handling highly radioactive materials at Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear energy testing and production hub outside Idaho Falls. His work ranged from shipping and receiving nuclear naval fuels to helping bring hundreds of canisters of leftover fuel to Idaho for storage after the catastrophic Three Mile Island meltdown. He often handled nuclear fuel in “hot cells,” immensely contaminated areas reinforced with thick concrete.
Throughout, Clawson, a member of the United Steelworkers union, leaned on safety standards to argue for extra protections against radiation, including respirators and additional shielding.
But President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda to expand nuclear energy and modernize nuclear weapons now includes easing the radiation standards that Clawson credits with keeping his exposure as low as possible.
Final Los Alamos Lab Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Future Path for the Lab:
Radically Expanded Nuclear Weapons Production
“Defers” Comprehensive Cleanup Until Plutonium “Pit” Production is Done
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 25, 2026
Contact: Jay Coghlan, 505.989.7342, c. 505.470.3154 | Email
Santa Fe, NM – Today the Department of Energy’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), released its final Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for Continued Operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This is eighteen years after the last site-wide EIS, during which time the Lab has been increasingly transformed into a nuclear weapons production site for the new global nuclear arms race. As the final SWEIS’ accompanying Record of Decision puts it, “NNSA has decided to fully implement the Expanded Operations Alternative.” Final LANL SWEIS ROD, page 5.
The final LANL SWEIS also states “At this time, MDA C will be deferred until no longer associated with active facility operations.” Final LANL SWEIS, page N-41. Material Disposal Area C is an old radioactive and toxic waste dump, inactive since 1974. Not mentioned is the fact that the New Mexico Environment Department has issued a draft order mandating comprehensive cleanup at Area C, which Nuclear Watch New Mexico strongly supports and DOE and LANL bitterly oppose. The reason DOE and LANL now claim that Area C is “associated with active facility operations” is because it is located within a few hundred yards of PF-4, LANL’s production facility for plutonium “pit” bomb cores. This strongly implies that the Lab will never be comprehensively cleaned up until LANL’s nuclear weapons production mission is over, which in effect means never. Further, LANL still hasn’t documented the extent of the massive groundwater contamination that it has caused.
ACTION ALERTS
– ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn on the release of the letter January 11, 2022
Interfaith Panel Discussion on Nuclear Disarmament - August 9
HELP US SUPPORT NEW MEXICO’S GOVERNOR IN ACTING TO STOP WIPP EXPANSION!
STOP “FOREVER WIPP!”
The Department of Energy is seeking to modify the nuclear waste permit for southeastern New Mexico’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Dragging out WIPP’s operations decades past the original 20-year agreement violates the social contract made with New Mexicans. WIPP is being equipped to take the waste that will be generated from production of plutonium pits for nuclear warheads, and it was never supposed to do that. An expansion of WIPP will impact the entire country, not just residents of southeastern New Mexico.
View the videos below for more information, and, if you live in an area that may be endangered by these nuclear waste transportation risks, please consider making your own “This is My Neighborhood” video!
Background Information – Problems with Nuclear Waste
Mixed Waste Landfill Facts
New Nuclear Media
Watch BOMBSHELL on PBS American Experience — streaming across all PBS-branded platforms, including YouTube, PBS.org and the PBS App!
The wait is over! BOMBSHELL is available NOW on PBS American Experience — and will be streaming simultaneously across all PBS-branded platforms, including YouTube, PBS.org and the PBS App.
BOMBSHELL examines how the U.S. government manipulated public opinion through propaganda and censorship to justify the use of nuclear weapons and to minimize the human toll. Against this powerful machinery, a small group of journalists—including a Black pool reporter, a Japanese American staffer, a Japanese photographer, and a freelance magazine writer—identified gaps in the official narrative and courageously reported on the human consequences of the atomic bombings.
The Wall Street Journal described BOMBSHELL as offering “lessons for our own age of ascendant AI,” while Foreign Policy called it “provocative history that brings to life the dangers that arise when government secrecy and control overwhelm press freedom.”