Plutonium Pit Production at LANL

A Guide to “Scoping” the New LANL SWEIS

“Scoping” means determining the issues that should be included in public analyses required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of proposed major actions by the federal government. According to the Department of Energy ‘s own NEPA implementation regulations, DOE must prepare a new or supplemental site-wide environmental impact statement (SWEIS) for its major sites when there are “significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns.” The last site-wide EIS for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was completed in 2008 and is badly outdated. Moreover, since 2018 the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE’s semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, has been aggressively expanding the production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores for nuclear weapons at the Lab.

On August 19, 2022, NNSA finally announced its intent to prepare a new LANL SWEIS, but apparently the agency will not address expanded plutonium pit production.1 NNSA’s dubious argument is that it performed the legally required NEPA analysis for expanded plutonium pit production in a 2008 Complex Transformation Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, the 2008 LANL SWEIS and a woefully inadequate “Supplement Analysis” in 2020 that concluded a new SWEIS was not needed. 2 3

Issues That Must Be Addressed in a New LANL SWEIS

This is meant to be a guide to (or list of) the issues that must be addressed in a new draft LANL SWEIS. It is not completely exhaustive, nor is it a comprehensive fact sheet on the substance of the issues. Nuclear Watch New Mexico will offer suggested scoping comments for interested citizens and submit its own comprehensive formal comments before the October 3 deadline or extended deadline (see “Timing” below).

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One Hundred and Fifteen NGOs and Individuals Ask for LANL SWEIS Comment Extension; LANL Virtual Scoping Meetings on September 13th and 14

August 31, 2022

This week 63 non-governmental organizations and 52 individuals requested that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant a two-month extension of time to provide informed public comments about the scope of the Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operations of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL SWEIS).  On August 19th, DOE announced in its Notice of Intent to Prepare a Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Los Alamos National Laboratory a 45-day comment period.  Currently, comments are due on Monday, October 3rd, 2022.  https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/nnsa-nepa-reading-room

In their August 30th letter, the groups and individuals asked that the DOE Secretary Granholm and her staff extend the comment period to Monday, December 5, 2022.  No response has yet been received. LANL SWEIS 2022 Scoping Extension Request 8-25-22

The NGOs and individuals justified their extension request by noting, among other items, that the last LANL SWEIS was finalized in 2008 – 14 years ago.  Generally DOE conducts a SWEIS every 10 years.  DOE proposes that this LANL SWEIS will cover “approximately the next 15 years” of operations, or to approximately 2038 and beyond.

Watchdog groups call review at US nuclear lab ‘sham’ process

“This is too little too late, a sham process designed to circumvent citizen enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico. “The key sentence in NNSA’s announcement is that absent any new decisions in the site-wide environmental impact statement, the agency will continue to implement decisions it previously made behind closed doors.”

By | August 19, 2022 apnews.com

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The U.S. government is planning to review the environmental effects of operations at one of the nation’s prominent nuclear weapons laboratories, but its notice issued Friday leaves out federal goals to ramp up production of plutonium cores used in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

The National Nuclear Security Administration said the review — being done to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act — will look at the potential environmental effects of alternatives for operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the next 15 years.

That work includes preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons worldwide and other projects related to national security and global stability, the notice said.

Watchdog groups contend that regardless of the review, the NNSA will march ahead with its production plans for plutonium cores at Los Alamos.

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Federal agency to conduct sitewide review of Los Alamos National Laboratory

“This is in direct contradiction to the National Environmental Policy Act’s requirement that federal agencies take a ‘hard look’ at proposed actions before implementation,” Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said in a statement.

So much happened after 2008 that called for a new, thorough impact study years ago, including the plutonium facility’s “checkered nuclear safety history” that led to its major operations shutting down for more than three years, Coghlan said.

A new sitewide analysis now, Coghlan said, will merely “rubber stamp the billions of taxpayers’ dollars being sunk into a predetermined decision to expand plutonium pit production at LANL.”

By Scott Wyland [email protected] The Santa Fe New Mexican | August 19, 2022 santafenewmexican.com

LANL receives $5 billion to upgrade aging facilities
The National Nuclear Security Administration announced it will conduct a sitewide environmental review at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Associated Press File Photo

The federal agency that oversees nuclear weapons will conduct a sitewide environmental review at Los Alamos National Laboratory, breaking from its past resistance to performing fresh analysis of potential impacts as the lab gears up to make 30 nuclear warhead triggers a year.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced in the Federal Register on Friday it would do a sitewide analysis of the lab under the National Environmental Protection Act and would take public comment until Oct. 3.

It’s the first time the agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy, has done a new sitewide environmental impact statement in 14 years.

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MORE LAB EXPANSION: MAKING WAY FOR NEW PLUTONIUM PIT PRODUCTION ACTIVITY? NNSA/DOE Update: “Los Alamos Field Office Clears Way to Lease Warehouse, Storage Space within 150 miles of Laboratory”

“Multiple properties could be needed to meet LANL needs…Items that would be warehoused or stored include items that are needed for LANL operations,”

BY  Los Alamos Daily Post | July 22, 2022 ladailypost.com

LANL Molten Plutonium for Pit
Molten plutonium in a crucible. Before LANL’s cast pits could enter the stockpile, the Laboratory needed to verify that their quality and performance equaled or exceeded the quality and performance of the wrought pits produced at Rocky Flats.

The Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration’s Los Alamos Field Office (DOE/NNSA) has issued a Categorical Exclusion to lease properties to provide warehouse and storage space for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) equipment within a 150-mile radius of LANL, which could include properties in several locations of northern New Mexico and southern portions of Colorado.

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Lab director says pit production necessary for nuclear deterrence (the Santa Fe New Mexican)

“But critics of the lab’s push to bolster its nuclear weapons program think the pit production goals are unrealistic and unnecessary.

Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, asked Mason in a written question why the lab is spending tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars ramping up production of the bomb cores when a 2006 study found the ones left over from the Cold War are good for 85 years.”

The Santa Fe New Mexican | June 14, 2022 santafenewmexican.com

Nuclear deterrence is in full display during the war in Ukraine, with Russia and the U.S. threatening each other with nuclear destruction to force restraint, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s director said during an online forum Tuesday.

Russia has told the U.S. and its allies not to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and President Joe Biden has made clear that Russia must not encroach one inch upon a NATO country — and both sides raise the specter of nuclear attacks if these boundaries are breached, lab Director Thom Mason said.

“The role that deterrence is playing in the Ukraine right now, really from both the U.S. and Russian side, is to attempt to limit that conflict,” Mason said.

Mason is a staunch advocate of the lab producing 30 plutonium warhead triggers, also known as pits, per year by 2026, saying it’s necessary to modernize the nuclear arsenal and maintain a strong deterrent against adversaries like Russia.

Safety questions arise as Los Alamos National Laboratory pursues pit production

But a watchdog group argued Los Alamos lab adopting a higher radiation limit for workers than other labs is to create more leeway when it ramps up plutonium pit production.

 | May 6, 2022 santafenewmexican.com

“The collective worker doses would probably go up once they start actual manufacturing,” said Scott Kovac, research and operations director for the nonprofit Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Jay Coghlan, the executive director for Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said the agency in charge of nuclear security is pushing the lab to crank up pit production, yet it won’t install what’s known as a “safety class active confinement system” that would prevent a heavy radioactive release during an earthquake, catastrophic fire or a serious accident.

“This is a longstanding recommendation that Los Alamos [lab] and NNSA refuse to honor while continually downplaying the risk of expanded pit production,” Coghlan said.

Los Alamos National Laboratory allows workers to have a higher yearly radiation exposure than other national labs do and has not followed a longtime recommendation by safety officials to install a ventilation system in its plutonium facility they say would better protect workers and the public during a serious radioactive breach, according to a recent government watchdog’s recent report.

The report, some critics contend [see our quotes above], is of concern as the lab pursues production of nuclear bomb cores, or pits, at nearly triple the yearly amount it has ever made before.

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Los Alamos Lab: More Plutonium, More Nuclear Weapons

Santa Fe, NM – On Good Friday afternoon, just before the Easter weekend, the Department of Energy (DOE) posted its “Laboratory Tables”, the best source for site specific budget information. DOE boosts funding for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to $4.6 billion in FY 2023 (+21%), which begins October 1. With another typical $300 million in “Work for Others” (the Defense Department, FBI, CIA, etc.), LANL’s total institutional funding for FY 2023 will be approximately $4.9 billion.

Out of that, $3.6 billion is slated for core nuclear weapons research and production programs. The percentage of nuclear weapons funding at LANL has steadily grown as the Lab increasingly banks its future on plutonium “pit” bomb core production. A decade ago, nuclear weapons programs were 59% of LANL’s total institutional budget. Today it is 73%. Moreover, the remainder of Lab programs (including nonproliferation and cleanup) either directly or indirectly support nuclear weapons programs, for example through a 6% internal tax for “laboratory-directed research and development” that has historically tilted towards nuclear weapons.

LANL’s largest funding increase is for “Plutonium Modernization”, jumping 61% to $1.6 billion in FY 2023. Within that, funding to expand the production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores at LANL’s aging plutonium pit production facility is increased 68% to $588 million.

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With Russia at war in Ukraine, US ramps up nuclear-weapons mission at Los Alamos. Is it a ‘real necessity’?

“The core debate: A multi-billion-dollar project to make plutonium cores at Los Alamos National Laboratory may be unsafe, unnecessary and ill-conceived. But proponents say the mission is a must.

BY Annabella Farmer| March 24, 2022 Searchlight NM searchlightnm.org

White structures at Area G stand on the hill near White Rock, a community near Los Alamos National Laboratory. Nadav Soroker for Searchlight New Mexico

LOS ALAMOS — Los Alamos began as an “instant city,” springing from the Pajarito Plateau in 1943 at the dawn of the Atomic Age. More than 8,000 people flocked here to work for Los Alamos National Laboratory and related industries during the last years of World War II. Now the city may be on the brink of another boom as the federal government moves forward with what could be the most expensive warhead modernization program in U.S. history. Under the proposed plan, LANL will become home to an industrial-scale plant for manufacturing the radioactive cores of nuclear weapons — hollow spheres of plutonium that act as triggers for nuclear explosions. The ripple effects are already being felt.

Roads are planned to be widened to accommodate 2,500 extra workers. New housing developments are appearing, one of them about a mile from large white tents that house drums of radioactive waste. And these are just the signs visible to the public: Within the lab, workers are busy around the clock to get facilities ready to produce the first plutonium core next year.

The cores — known as pits — haven’t been mass-produced since the end of the Cold War. But in 2018, under pressure from the Trump administration, the federal government called for at least 80 new pits to be manufactured each year, conservatively expected to cost $9 billion — the lion’s share of a $14.8 billion weapons program upgrade. After much infighting over the massive contract, plans call for Los Alamos to manufacture 30 pits annually and for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to make the remaining 50.

The idea of implementing an immense nuclear program at Los Alamos has sparked outrage among citizens, nuclear watchdogs, scientists and arms control experts, who say the pit-production mission is neither safe nor necessary.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

2018 & Earlier

NNSA: Plutonium Pit Production at Both Los Alamos and Savannah River Site

"To achieve DoD's 80 pits per year requirement by 2030, NNSA's recommended alternative repurposes the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to produce plutonium pits while also maximizing pit production activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This two-prong approach with at least 50 pits per year produced at Savannah River and at least 30 pits per year at Los Alamos is the best way to manage the cost, schedule, and risk of such a vital undertaking."

-Joint Statement from Ellen M. Lord and Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty on Recapitalization of Plutonium Pit Production, May 10, 2018 (See full NNSA statement)
NB: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is the Administrator of the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration); Ellen Lord is a DOD Under-secretary and Chair of the Nuclear Weapons Council (Gordon-Hagerty is also an NWC member).

For immediate release, May 10, 2018:
What's Not in NNSA's Plutonium Pit Production Decision
NukeWatch Press release excerpts:
- There is no explanation why the Department of Defense requires at least 80 pits per year, and no justification to the American taxpayer why the enormous expense of expanded production is necessary.
- NNSA did not mention that up to 15,000 "excess" pits are already stored at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, TX, with up to another 5,000 in "strategic reserve." The agency did not explain why new production is needed given that immense inventory of already existing plutonium pits. (In 2006 independent experts found that pits last a least a century. Plutonium pits in the existing stockpile now average around 40 years old.)
- NNSA did not explain how to dispose of all of that plutonium, given that the MOX program is an abysmal failure. Nor is it made clear where future plutonium wastes from expanded pit production will go since operations at the troubled Waste Isolation Pilot Plant are already constrained from a ruptured radioactive waste barrel, and its capacity is already overcommitted to existing radioactive wastes.
- NNSA did not make clear that expanded plutonium pit production is for a series of speculative future "Interoperable Warheads", meant for new ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles... Altogether the three planned "Interoperable Warheads" will cost at least $40 billion, despite the fact that the Navy doesn't want or support them.
- The independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has expressed strong concerns about the safety of plutonium operations at both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site, particularly regarding potential nuclear criticality incidents.
(there's more: read the full press release)
Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch Director, commented, "NNSA has already tried four times to expand plutonium pit production, only to be defeated by citizen opposition and its own cost overruns and incompetence. But we realize that this fifth attempt is the most serious. However, we remain confident it too will fall apart, because of its enormous financial and environmental costs and the fact that expanded plutonium pit production is simply not needed for the existing nuclear weapons stockpile. We think the American public will reject new-design nuclear weapons, which is what this expanded pit production decision is really all about." (View/download press release)
Background:
- Dossier: Plutonium Pit Production at LANL
- Fact Sheet: Plutonium Pit Production
- History: Successful Citizen Activism Against Expanded U.S. Plutonium Pit Production
Press coverage, NNSA announcement:
- Public Integrity: Los Alamos would lose some future bomb production under new
Trump administration plan

- Los Alamos Monitor: NNSA announces decision on pit production
- SF New Mexican: Feds: Los Alamos lab to share plutonium work with South Carolina site
- Albuquerque Journal: Feds split 'pit' work between LANL and S.C.
- Public News Service: Los Alamos to Build Part of Next-Gen Nuclear Weapons
- Albuquerque Journal: New 'Pit' Plan May Mean More Waste at WIPP
34 metric tons of plutonium that were to be processed at the Savannah River Site may be headed to WIPP in New Mexico, after it has been diluted and mixed with inert material. NM Senator Udall: "I have serious questions about whether there is enough room at WIPP to store additional waste from Savannah River, given the clear legal limits in the Act, which were negotiated following a lawsuit New Mexico won against DOE when I served as Attorney General... If DOE is asking New Mexico to take on additional waste missions beyond what is authorized by current law, unilateral action (by DOE) is absolutely not an option." (ref)



Three of several cost overrun charts from the POGO report: the UPF, CMRR, and MOX facilities. Click to enlarge.

May 7, 2018:
POGO Report: NNSA Needs Budgetary Oversight and Accountability
Highlights:
- "Five recent projects by NNSA show that costs are significantly increasing- sometimes by nearly 8 times more than the initial estimates. These five programs have a combined total of $28 billion in cost overruns over the last 20 years."
- "Unsurprisingly NNSA contract management has been on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) list of high-risk program areas for issues stemming from mismanagement since 1990, when the list was created."
- Despite its long and well-documented record of budget-busting projects (One mistake at the UPF cost taxpayers $540 million), the NNSA is not subject to the same kind of cost reporting requirements as the Department of Defense.
- "Part of the reason Congress hasn't applied similar standards to the NNSA could be that the agency and its contractors have successfully captured Congressional attention, and appropriations. In 2016, a Project On Government Oversight (POGO) investigation into Congressional fellowships found that the nuclear laboratories, and the contractors running them, had been placing Fellows in key Committees and offices for decades. It's the kind of access most industry professionals can only dream about."
- "NNSA's project management problems will only be compounded by an aggressive plan to upgrade existing nuclear warheads and infrastructure and to develop new nuclear weapons." (read more at POGO)
Our related files: CMRR dossierMOX dossier; Lawsuit v. UPF


April 26, 2018:
LANL Rad Lab: Formal Comments Under Nat'l Environmental Policy Act
Against raising plutonium limit at LANL Rad Lab
See NukeWatch's critique of these plans - our official 'public comments' as submitted: (PDF)
** Addendum to Watch comments as submitted April 27: (PDF)
Excerpt:
"This Draft Rad Lab EA is deficient. There are major omissions, for example the lack of analyses of potential beryllium hazards and Intentional Destructive Acts. Moreover, safety, occupational and seismic risks are explained away in "preliminary analyses." All this should be corrected in a more complete environmental impact statement, including final and transparent analyses of safety and seismic risks...
"NNSA should proceed with a broader environmental impact statement after its May 11 decision on the future of expanded plutonium pit production."
- NNSA is planning a 10-fold increase in plutonium at the LANL Rad Lab with a view to ramping up the production of plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons.
- NNSA wants to re-categorize the Rad Lab from a "radiological facility" to a "Hazard Category-3" nuclear facility. - (See details in our press release)
- Info: National Environmental Policy Act
- Note: NNSA is expected to announce its decision on May 11 regarding where plutonium pits will be produced: at Los Alamos, or at Savannah River Site... or both.
- See Patrick Malone's in-depth article for the Center for Public Integrity (May 2):
Safety concerns plague key sites proposed for nuclear bomb production
May 4, 2018: Jay Coghlan Op-Ed, Albuquerque Journal: Assessment of LANL Rad Lab premature, incomplete


For Immediate Release, February 22, 2018:
NNSA Releases Draft Environmental Assessment for LANL Rad Lab;
Raises Plutonium Limit 10 Times for Expanded Pit Production

Santa Fe, NM. Today the National Nuclear Security Administration announced an Environmental Assessment to increase the amount of plutonium used in the Radiological Laboratory Utility and Office Building (aka the "Rad Lab") at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 38.6 grams of plutonium-239 equivalent to 400 grams. This 10-fold increase is significant because it will dramatically expand materials characterization and analytical chemistry capabilities in the Rad Lab in support of expanded plutonium pit production for future nuclear weapons designs. It also re-categorizes the Rad Lab from a "radiological facility" to a "Hazard Category-3" nuclear facility. (See all the details in the full press release)
- Albuquerque Journal, February 22: NNSA wants more plutonium in Los Alamos facility
- Al Jazeera, February 23: US takes steps to resume plutonium pit production for nukes


For immediate release, October 27, 2017:
Santa Fe City Council: LANL Cleanup Order Must Be Strengthened & Expanded
and Plutonium Pit Production Suspended Until Safety Issues Are Resolved

Santa Fe, NM. On the evening of Wednesday October 25, the Santa Fe City Council passed a resolution requesting that the New Mexico Environment Department strengthen the revised Los Alamos National Labs cleanup order to call for additional characterization of legacy nuclear wastes, increased cleanup funding, and significant additional safety training. The resolution also called for the suspension of any planned expanded plutonium pit production until safety issues are resolved. (view/download full press release) (view/download City Council resolution)


More Doubts on Los Alamos as a Safe Venue for Plutonium Pit Production
"The ability of the Los Alamos Lab to safely carry out expanded plutonium pit production is increasingly in doubt."
- Jay Coghlan, NukeWatch

"State inspectors and Los Alamos National Laboratory officials may have known about an unlabeled hazardous waste container two days before the material ignited at the lab's plutonium facility during a cleanup operation, causing a worker to suffer second-degree burns... The violations are among a continuing stream of issues that have called into question the lab's ability to operate safely... The problems also have called into question the lab's ability to handle increasing quantities of plutonium to build the softball-sized atomic cores of nuclear weapons as part of a growing demand to modernize the nation's nuclear arsenal." (read more: Santa Fe New Mexican, August 4, 2017)

For immediate release: June 19, 2017:
Some Background on Plutonium Pit Production at the Los Alamos Lab
Santa Fe, NM. "Why expand plutonium pit production when apparently it can't be done safely and may decrease, not increase, our national security? One strong reason is the huge contractor profits to be had under the one trillion dollar-plus 'modernization' of the nuclear weapons stockpile and production complex initiated under Obama, which Trump promises to expand. Far from just 'modernization', existing nuclear weapons are being given new military capabilities despite denials at the highest levels of government..."
View/download the full press release
NukeWatch Fact Sheet: Plutonium Pit Production
- Jay Coghlan, ABQJournal: Why new nuclear 'pit' production at LANL is unnecessary
"Ironically, new-design pits for the Interoperable Warhead may hurt national security..."


Defense Nuclear Safety Board review
Understanding the Safety Posture of the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Lab.
See archived video of public hearing June 7, 2017
See comments submitted by NukeWatch here.


Is Los Alamos safe for pit production?
Nuclear Negligence: Center For Public Integrity's 6-Part Report

June 18, 2017: "Nuclear Negligence" Part 1
Repeated Safety Lapses Hobble Los Alamos National Laboratory's Work On The Cores Of U.S. Nuclear Warheads

June 20: "Nuclear Negligence" Part 2
Safety Problems at a Los Alamos Laboratory Delay U.S. Nuclear Warhead Testing and Production

June 26: "Nuclear Negligence" Part 3
Light Penalties and Lax Oversight Encourage Weak Safety Culture at Nuclear Weapons Labs

June 27: "Nuclear Negligence" Part 4
More Than 30 Nuclear Experts Inhale Uranium After Radiation Alarms at a Weapons Site Are Switched Off

June 28, "Nuclear Negligence" Part 5:
Repeated radiation warnings go unheeded at sensitive Idaho nuclear plant

August 1, 2017, "Nuclear Negligence" Part 6:
Nuclear weapons contractors repeatedly violate shipping rules for dangerous materials

 


plutonium pit production history
Successful Citizen Activism Against Expanded U.S. Plutonium Pit Production
This is the unsung story of successful citizen activism against repeated government attempts to expand the production of plutonium pit cores, which has always been the choke point of resumed U.S. nuclear weapons production. This history is a critical part of the march toward a future world free of nuclear weapons.
(View/download full report- PDF)

July 14, 2016:
Debate Is On Over Making More Nuclear Triggers At Los Alamos Lab
"The National Nuclear Security Administration is under orders from Congress to produce as many as 80 new nuclear weapons triggers a year by around 2030, and Los Alamos National Laboratory is the only place in the country that is equipped to make them now... The plans for a higher-capacity plutonium pit production facility make Los Alamos key - some call the lab 'ground zero'..." (ref: Albuquerque Journal)

Updated March 2017: NukeWatch Fact Sheet:
"Plutonium Pit Production at LANL"
(View/download PDF)


 

2012 and before: Ups and Downs of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility

 


CMRR Public Meeting Update

The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMMR) Project is the Lab's $6 billion dream facility that would enable expanded production capabilities for plutonium nuclear weapons components. The Obama Administration has recently proposed deferring the project for 5 years, which will likely lead to its termination.
April 25th was the 13th semi-annual public meeting required as part of a 2005 settlement between DOE/LANL and an network of community groups.
- View Scott Kovac's presentation to the meeting: download PDF
- See the Los Alamos Monitor coverage of the event
Proceedings of the April 25, 2012 CMRR Public Meeting (PDF)
2005 Settlement Agreement requiring the CMRR public meetings (PDF)


Funding Eliminated for Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Plutonium Lab
Press Release: The NNSA FY 2013 Congressional Budget Request

Feb 13. Santa Fe, NM - "The Obama Administrations new fiscal year 2013 Congressional Budget Request has zeroed out funding for the controversial Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)-Nuclear Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). While todays budget says that the CMRR-NF is being simply deferred for 5 years, that likely terminates the project given ongoing fiscal constraints and its lack of clear need.
For the past five years Nuclear Watch New Mexico has argued that the existing plutonium infrastructure at LANL was more than sufficient to meet the needs of our nuclear weapons stockpile, which official studies should confirm. NNSA now appears to be agreeing with us. While zeroing out CMRR the agency states in its budget request:
Construction has not begun on the nuclear facility. NNSA has determined, in consultation with the national laboratories, that the existing infrastructure in the nuclear complex has the inherent capacity to provide adequate support for these missions. Studies are ongoing to determine long-term requirements. NNSA will modify existing facilities, and relocate some nuclear materials..."

View/download the full Nuclear Watch press release (PDF) on the budgetary request here.
View/download NukeWatch's detailed tabulation of the NNSA's FY 2013 Budget Request here.
View/download FY2013 Los Alamos Labs Spending Chart here


Crystal Ball Budget Predictions for NNSA FY 2013 Congressional Budget Request

"We predict that FY 2013 will be a rough year for the National Nuclear Security Administration. This will be due to (among other things) its failure to achieve ignition at the ~$5 billion National Ignition Facility, the effective termination of the CMRR-Nuclear Facility (even after more than $400 million has been spent on its design), and growing Congressional doubts over its MOX Program. Added to this, the Department of Energy (NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE) will likely fail with its ~$13 billion Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. DOE will remain on the GAO's high risk list for the 20th consecutive year. Public and Congressional exasperation with DOE and NNSA wasteful spending will grow, leading to increasing budget cuts in FY 2014."
Read the full list of budgetary predictions at the Watchblog.
The NNSA FY 2013 Congressional Budget Request is expected to be released early afternoon (EST) Monday, February 13.


New Defense Guidance Undermines Need for new LANL Plutonium Facility

Pentagon President Barak Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released a new defense strategy reflecting the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the need to achieve more than $450 billion in budget savings over the next decade. While specific military programs were not marked for cuts, the strategy document "U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense" notes that "It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear forcewhich would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as well as their role in U.S. national security strategy."
Jay Coghlan, NukeWatch Director, commented, "We welcome the Administration's acknowledgment that massive budget savings much be achieved and that our nuclear forces could be further reduced. Canceling the CMRR-Nuclear Facility is one way to begin to achieve both, immediately saving around 5 billion dollars. More importantly, canceling the CMRR-Facility is also a decision to not expand plutonium pit production, when expansion is simply not needed and would be inconsistent with America's global nonproliferation goals. Hundred's of billions of dollars could be saved over the next half-century by not expanding plutonium pit production to produce new nuclear weapons, when that money is badly needed for true national priorities."
U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense is available here.
Our Press Release is here.


Safety Board Gives Green Light For Unneeded New Plutonium Facility at LANL

On August 26th, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), an independent safety Board chartered by Congress to monitor nuclear safety at Department of Energy defense facilities, signed off on ongoing seismic and safety issues concerning Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) proposed new $2 billion-plus plutonium facility. This allows around $50 million in funding to be released for its further design. The 2009 National Defense Authorization Act required the DNFSB and DOE to submit certification to the congressional Armed Services Committees that safety and seismic concerns raised by the Board were resolved before these funds were made available. The Board had identified five certification findings ranging from structural and equipment seismic concerns to safety-related document and controls issues.
The construction of a proposed new "Nuclear Facility" for LANL's "Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Project" (CMRR) is not yet funded, but its design to date has cost over $200 million. This facility, whose originally stated purpose was to directly support expanded nuclear weapons production, should not be built because it is oversized, over budget, over sold, and plain not needed. Instead of a new nuclear weapons facility, major investments at LANL should be directed toward nonproliferation programs, global nuclear threat reduction, energy efficiency, environmental research, and cleanup.


New Defense Guidance Undermines Need for new LANL Plutonium Facility

Pentagon President Barak Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta released a new defense strategy reflecting the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the need to achieve more than $450 billion in budget savings over the next decade. While specific military programs were not marked for cuts, the strategy document "U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense" notes that "It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear forcewhich would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as well as their role in U.S. national security strategy."
Jay Coghlan, NukeWatch Director, commented, "We welcome the Administration's acknowledgment that massive budget savings much be achieved and that our nuclear forces could be further reduced. Canceling the CMRR-Nuclear Facility is one way to begin to achieve both, immediately saving around 5 billion dollars. More importantly, canceling the CMRR-Facility is also a decision to not expand plutonium pit production, when expansion is simply not needed and would be inconsistent with America's global nonproliferation goals. Hundred's of billions of dollars could be saved over the next half-century by not expanding plutonium pit production to produce new nuclear weapons, when that money is badly needed for true national priorities."
U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense is available here.
Our Press Release is here.


NNSA issues Record Of Indecision for Nuclear Facility

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has posted its Amended Record Of Decision (AROD) for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)-Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. What all this means is that the Department of Energy has rubber stamped the final step in the SEIS process.
The NNSA offered no real alternatives to building the Nuclear Facility, and continues to push a modification of the 2004 design, mostly to meet increasing (and still unresolved) seismic concerns. The AROD still leaves undecided whether to use a 'Deep Excavation' or 'Shallow Excavation' option for construction of the Nuclear Facility, which was the only substantial choice NNSA offered.
As the AROD states, 'NNSA will select the appropriate Excavation Option (Shallow or Deep) for implementing the construction of this building after initiating final design activities, when additional geotechnical and structural design calculations and more detailed engineering analysis will be performed to support completing the facility design'.
It's more like a Record Of Indecision because nothing new was decided. True alternatives were not analyzed in the SEIS. The pre-determined outcome to build the Nuclear Facility was predictably chosen and the hard choice between the options of shallow or deep construction was kicked down the road. This indecision is a blatant attempt to snowball the project and start pre-construction activities that alone could cost up to three-quarters of a billion dollars. This is despite the fact that the actual elevation, type of structure, and total estimated costs are still unknown. Hopefully Congress will quit writing a blank check and demand more details before starting to spend any more money on this 6 billion dollar bamboozle that won’t produce a single new permanent job.
For further background please see our CMRR fact sheet here.
And see our LANL Primer here.
The CMRR Amended Record Of Decision is here.


Thanks To Those Who Attended the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)

12th CMRR Project Update Public Meeting, Tuesday, September 20, 2011: Our presentation from that evening is here (September 20, 2011, 5.2 MB)
See our new fact sheet


NNSA Hides Behind Final Enviro Statement To Press On With Unneeded And Exorbitant Plutonium Facility

Without public notice this late Friday afternoon the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has posted online its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR)-Nuclear Facility. While providing materials characterization and analytical chemistry for "special nuclear materials" the Nuclear Facility will be the keystone to an expanded plutonium pit production complex at Los Alamos, quadrupling the Lab's manufacturing capability from 20 radioactive nuclear weapons cores per year to 80. The Nuclear Facility is also slated to have a vault that can hold up to six metric tons of plutonium that it will share via underground tunnels with the Lab's plutonium pit production plant.
Read Our Press Release here.
Find the Final SEIS in Volumes on the DOE Site here.
Download Our Handy Combined SEIS here. (August 26, 2011, 25MB)


NukeWatch Comments on Draft CMRR-NF Environmental Impact Statement

Nuclear Watch New Mexico Comments on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Nuclear Facility Portion of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico.
We appreciate public involvement in the NEPA process. We also support safe, monitored storage of radioactive wastes as a matter of national security and environmental protection. However, these should not be interpreted as support for more nuclear weapons, pit production, nuclear power, or the generation of more nuclear wastes. In our view, the best way to deal with the environmental impacts of nuclear waste is to not produce it to begin with.
We look forward to the agency's withdrawal of this draft for the reasons stated in the linked document, and look forward to further comment once NNSA puts out a serious draft without an un-predetermined outcome.
summary of comments / full comments


Environmental Impact of Nuclear Facility

A System Out of Control- The Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Lab are gaming the National Environmental Policy Act process for a proposed new Nuclear Facility. The Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is premature, the narrow range of alternatives considered is bogus, the final designs are not mature and seismic issues are still outstanding. The NEPA process is being subverted.
It would be unsafe for northern New Mexico if LANL were to proceed with this building.


Public Hearings on the Environmental Impact of LANL's Proposed Expansion of its Plutonium Production Complex

The Public Comment period for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project can be used as an opportunity to challenge the need for the facility as well as voice concerns about the narrow range of alternatives the Department of Energy is evaluating in it's plans. Additionally, comments are a way to express specific environmental issues about the consequences of building and operating this addition to the plutonium complex at LANL, as well as to point out deficiencies in the analysis of environmental impacts. Going on record in written or oral comments during this process sets up the condition for future actions.

CMRR Cost EstimatesNWNM Sample Comments on the draft SEIS (.doc) -June 16, 2011
Comments on the Draft CMRR-NF SEIS can be submitted by email at: [email protected]
See NWNM Talking Points on the draft SEIS: here -May 25, 2011

NWNM Full Comments on the CMRR-NF draft SEIS -July 5, 2011
NWNM Sample Comments on the CMRR-NF draft SEIS (.doc) -June 16, 2011
NWNM Talking Points on theCMRR-NF draft SEIS -May 25, 2011

Brief Background
The main purpose of the CMRR Project is to create an expanded plutonium pit production complex at LANL capable of quadrupling the current production level of ~20 pits per year to 80. In the recent past, proposed expanded plutonium pit production was all about producing newdesign nuclear weapons, the so-called Reliable Replacement Warheads (RRWs). Congress decisively rejected RRWs, and we assert that no RRWs equals no need for the CMRR-Nuclear Facility. However, the U.S. nuclear weapons labs are still pushing for new "replacement" components, including plutonium pits that could be heavily modified from originally tested designs. This too should be avoided because it would inherently undermine confidence in the extensively tested reliable stockpile. It therefore follows that the CMRR-Nuclear Facility is still not needed.
Backgrounder on Early Construction of the Nuclear Facility
More Background information on Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project
The Supplemental EIS and its Reference Documents are available here.


30 Non-Governmental Organizations Oppose Short Schedule and Inadequate Number of Public Hearings for Controversial Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos

Following the release this week of the Department of Energy's (DOE) draft Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project-Nuclear Facility Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement thirty non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from New Mexico and around the country wrote to DOE calling for three additional public hearings, and an extension of 75 days for the comment period past the proposed June 13 Deadline. New Mexico Senators and Representatives have been approached for assistance with the requests.
Press Release -May 5, 2011
Letter to DOE -May 5, 2011
CMRR SEIS Hearing Schedule
Monday May 23 – 5 to 9 pm ABQ at the Albuquerque Marriott, Louisiana and I-40
Tuesday, May 24 – 5 to 9 pm Los Alamos at the Holiday Inn Express, 60 Entrada Drive.
Wednesday, May 25 – 5 to 9 pm Espanola at the Santa Claran Hotel
Thursday, May 26 – 5 to 9 pm Santa Fe Community College, Jemez Rooms

Please come to at least one hearing and give oral comments!


New Mexicans Must Again Say No to DOE's Proposals for Commercial Radioactive Waste Disposal.

The Department Of Energy has plans to ship more radioactive waste to New Mexico. But three sites under consideration are in New Mexico of the seven sites in new plans for disposal of nuclear power plant waste and disused radioactive sealed sources that are used in medical treatments and other applications. This includes the possibility of adding it to the inventory of waste headed for WIPP outside Carlsbad. A second site near WIPP is also on the list of possible locations, as well as Los Alamos National Laboratory. We can stop wasting NM!
See our general fact sheet
See our LANL and NM specific Fact Sheet


Los Alamos Lab to Release Plans for Plutonium Bomb Plant on Good Friday and Earth Day

Friday, April 22, is both Earth Day and Good Friday. During this extended Easter weekend some 10,000 pilgrims walk many miles to the famous Catholic Santuario in Chimayo as both penance and in celebration of the Peacemaker's resurrection. Twenty-five miles to the west and a 1,000 feet higher sits the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). An official has stated that on Good Friday and Earth Day the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will release an environmental impact statement for a huge new plutonium facility at LANL. This facility will be the keystone of an expanded production complex for plutonium pit "triggers" for nuclear weapons.
This Friday is not a good Friday for either the earth or world peace. During this holy week it is fitting to remember that "blessed are the peacemakers" and work to end nuclear weapons production and contamination rather than increasing them.


Nuclear Watch Scoping Comments for CMRR Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)

NWNM CMRR SEIS Scoping Comments (full version) -November 16, 2010
To assist in preparing your written comments NukeWatch has provided shortened language in this letter (doc). Information about where to submit your comments is at the head of this letter.


NNSA Extends Public Scoping Period for CMRR Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)

In response to requests from interested parties the National Nuclear Security Administration has extended the public scoping period for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) Supplemental Environmental Impact Study through November 16, 2010.
Additionally, Energy Secretary Chu has called for an independent review of the requirements for both the CMRR-NF at Los Alamos and the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, TN. This process will begin November 22 and is intended to inform the Department of Energy on accurate cost estimates for these projects in time for fiscal year 2012 Budget Request. We suggest that the budgetary belt-tightening felt by many federal programs could be applied here as well.
More at the NNSA site for the SEIS


Environmental Impacts of Proposed Plutonium "Nuclear Facility" at Los Alamos to be Reconsidered - No-Build Alternative is Back on the Table

Santa Fe, NM- On October 1, 2010 the Energy Department's semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, the NNSA, will issue a formal Notice of Intent that it will prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement for its expanded plutonium pit production complex at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). At issue now is a massive "Nuclear Facility" that in combination with LANL's existing plutonium facility will quadruple production capability from the currently approved level of 20 pits per year to 80. The first legally-required environmental review of the CMRR Project was completed in 2003. Since then the project has grown 50% larger while estimated costs have increased seven-fold from $660 million in 2004 to $4.5 billion and still climbing today. Because of that, on May 4 Nuclear Watch asked NNSA to begin the process of preparing a supplemental EIS. On June 4 NNSA agreed in writing to Nuclear Watch that it would review the 2003 CMRR EIS for current relevance. NNSA has now correctly concluded that a very substantial supplement is needed, a positive decision that we believe is the only legal choice possible.
In its Notice of Intent the NNSA lists three alternatives for the Nuclear Facility: 1. To proceed with construction as currently planned; 2. To not build it and use the old Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) Building without upgrading it; and 3. Not build the Nuclear Facility but upgrade the old CMR Building to sustain operations for 20-30 years. Nuclear Watch advocates a fourth alternative – stop operations at the dangerous CMR Building and do not build the Nuclear Facility.
Notice of Intent in Federal Register


NPR Calls for Surge Weapons Production Capacity, Funding for CMRR and Full Range Life Extensions

April 6, 2010- The first unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), released today, sets the direction of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and plans for maintaining the stockpile. Of importance to northern New Mexico is the intention to fund the $4.5 billion Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Apparently bowing to pressure from the weapons laboratories and holdovers from the previous administration, the NPR states that the CMRR is needed to sustain the nuclear arsenal. But it also goes past that and calls for "some modest capacity [that] will be put in place for surge production in the event of significant geopolitical "surprise." Once that capacity is installed we believe the door remains open for expanded plutonium pit production at LANL.
The NPR also falls short of the conservative approach to maintaining the existing arsenal with minimum modifications to original tested design specifications. NukeWatch advocates "curatorship" of the nuclear stockpile, which involves robust surveillance and maintenance of the stockpile but avoids new-design components and obviates expanded production capacity or new facilities to make them. The NPR calls for a full range of Life Extension Programs, including refurbishment of existing warheads, reuse of nuclear components from different warheads, and replacement of nuclear components. NukeWatch is deeply concerned that these Life Extension Programs will be used to endow existing nuclear weapons with new military capabilities, as has been done in the past, despite claims made to the contrary in the NPR.
Nuclear Watch Press Release -April 6 2010


Safety Board Gives Green Light For Unneeded New Plutonium Facility at LANL

On August 26th, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), an independent safety Board chartered by Congress to monitor nuclear safety at Department of Energy defense facilities, signed off on ongoing seismic and safety issues concerning Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL's) proposed new $2 billion-plus plutonium facility. This allows around $50 million in funding to be released for its further design. The 2009 National Defense Authorization Act required the DNFSB and DOE to submit certification to the congressional Armed Services Committees that safety and seismic concerns raised by the Board were resolved before these funds were made available. The Board had identified five certification findings ranging from structural and equipment seismic concerns to safety-related document and controls issues. The construction of a proposed new "Nuclear Facility" for LANL's "Chemical and Metallurgical Research Replacement Project" (CMRR) is not yet funded, but its design to date has cost over $200 million. This facility, whose originally stated purpose was to directly support expanded nuclear weapons production, should not be built because it is oversized, over budget, over sold, and plain not needed. Instead of a new nuclear weapons facility, major investments at LANL should be directed toward nonproliferation programs, global nuclear threat reduction, energy efficiency, environmental research, and cleanup.