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.

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