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.
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
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
Signs Calling for a Future of Peace Through a Reminder of the Past
Less than a week before the Christmas holiday, over 125 people came together at the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the afternoon of Sunday, December 19th to listen to Archbishop John C. Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe give a blessing to two “signs of peace” he unveiled on-site during a short ceremony. The signs were revealed to show an image of Pope Francis and a quote uttered by the pope in Hiroshima in 2020: “The possession of nuclear arms is immoral.” During the blessing, the Archbishop spoke on his memories of “those days during the Cuban missile crisis when I would walk home from school having been instructed what to do in the event of a nuclear attack within a few thousand yards of a nuke missile site in San Francisco,” before issuing a call for the world to rid itself its nuclear weapons.
“We need to be instruments of peace,” he said, especially as we head into the Christmas season, a “season of peace.”
Wester said that the current arms race “is more ominous” than any that came before. He touched on the growing tension around the Russia-Ukraine border in mentioning that there are at least “40 active conflicts in the world,” and said “our archdiocese needs to be facilitating, encouraging an ongoing conversation” about nuclear disarmament. This is especially true in light of the fact that two of the US’s three nuclear weapons laboratories are to be found in the dioceses of Sandia and Los Alamos, and on top of that there are more nuclear warheads in his dioceses from the 2,500-some count stored in reserve at the Kirtland Air Force Base at Albuquerque. All of this means that more money is spent in his dioceses than any other dioceses in the country and perhaps the world.
This is OUR Neighborhood: Expanding the Capacity of New Mexico’s Nuclear Waste Repository Affects Communities across the Country.
The original mission of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico had two specific stipulations: it was to be the FIRST and only operating underground nuclear waste repository in U.S; and it is ONLY authorized to take a certain kind of nuclear weapons waste – legacy transuranic (TRU) waste. In December of last year, the U.S. Department of Energy published a notice of intent to expand WIPP. The notice details expansion of the plant in two ways: capacities and types of waste permissible, as well as extended storage/operation timelines. The federal government’s plans would expand the size of the nuclear weapons dump to more than twice its current size and more than is allowed: Federal law and legal agreements with New Mexico clearly limit the amount of waste at WIPP, but the expansion would allow more than that capacity (as described in the April 2020 National Academy of Sciences Report “Review of the Department of Energy’s Plans for Disposal of Surplus Plutonium in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.”) This means an increased volume of waste, as well as an increased number of shipments travelling to WIPP over the entire rest of the century.
South Carolina Environmental Law Project and Nuclear Watchdogs Virtual Press Conference
Nuclear Watch New Mexico, along with other watchdog groups, has announced a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its expanded production of plutonium cores for the U.S. nuclear weapons “modernization” plans. There has been inadequate environmental review by federal agencies, who have failed to detail potential impacts of the projects around communities in New Mexico and South Carolina.
The lawsuit was filed against the Energy Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration demanding the federal agency that oversees U.S. nuclear research and bombmaking must “take a legally required ‘hard look’ at impacts on local communities and possible alternatives before expanding manufacturing of the plutonium cores used to trigger nuclear weapons.”
The push from U.S. officials to “modernize” the country’s nuclear arsenal cites only general global security concerns that do not justify the science and brand new, untested technology that will be necessary to the task. citing global security concerns. Although “most of the plutonium cores currently in the stockpile date back to the 1970s and 1980s,” scientific experts estimate that plutonium pits will last 100 years or more., and on warhead type, the best estimate of minimum pit life is 85–100 years.minimum.
Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico and the Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina face enormous (and, frankly, unrealistic) deadlines to produce a massive number of plutonium cores in coming years – 50 or more cores at South Carolina and 30 or more at Los Alamos National Lab. The Savannah River Site location now has estimated costs up to $11.1 billion, with a completion date ranging from 2032 to 2035. The U.S. doesn’t need the new plutonium cores with the taxpayer bearing the burden for the expense of lagging deadlines and bloated budgets.
“The watchdog groups said Tuesday that the agency took a piecemeal approach to decide on locating the production at Los Alamos and the Savannah River Site, where nearby communities are already underrepresented and underserved.”
Tom Clements of Savannah River Site Watch said the South Carolina location was picked for political reasons following the failure of a facility designed to convert weapons-grade plutonium into commercial nuclear fuel. As the Savannah River Site has never served as a storage or production site for the pits in its history, establishing pit construction there would be “a daunting technical challenge that has not been properly reviewed,” Clements said.
With very real, current threats the U.S. is facing right now, we don’t need another Rocky Flats situation in New Mexico or South Carolina where a $7 billion, yearslong cleanup is required after the facilities fail due to leaks, fires and environmental violations, doing irreparable damage to the earth and placing communities there in unequivocal peril.
Virtual Advocacy for “Safety, Security, and Savings” at ANA DC Days:
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.
NNSA approves Critical Decision 1 for Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project
“Recommended approach to producing 30 plutonium pits per year identified”
CD-1 approval marks the completion of the project definition phase and the conceptual design as part of DOE’s Order 413.3B process for the acquisition of capital assets. NNSA identified its recommended approach to produce at least 30 plutonium pits per year to meet national security needs.
The CD-1 cost estimate for LAP4 is $2.7-$3.9 billion, with an overall project completion range of 2027-2028. Critical equipment is scheduled to be installed in time to achieve the 30 pits per year production capacity in 2026. The CD-1 cost estimate and project completion date ranges are preliminary estimates that will be refined as the project conceptual design is matured to the 90% design level required to achieve CD-2 (approval of the performance baseline). Consistent with industry best practices and DOE policy, NNSA will set the performance cost and schedule baseline at CD-2, which is expected in 2023.
NNSA leadership and LANL will continue to review this project to improve the fidelity of the current price estimate and schedule.
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Los Alamos lab sees two mishaps in a week
The water spill should be a reminder that the plutonium facility’s work is done by people, and people make mistakes, said Scott Kovac, research and operations director for the nonprofit Nuclear Watch New Mexico.
“Pit production will place a real time-pressure crunch on the workers and lead to more accidents,” Kovac said.
“It should lead us to consider the consequences if someone left a plutonium furnace on or something that could endanger the public…these kinds of missteps are likely to increase as the lab ramps up production of plutonium pits used to trigger nuclear warheads. Current plans call for the lab to make 30 of the nuclear bomb cores a year by 2026,”
| santafenewmexican.com April 26, 2021
Los Alamos National Laboratory had two mishaps in one week: a glove box breach that contaminated workers’ protective equipment and a spill of 1,800 gallons of water into a vault corridor after an employee left a valve open.
The incidents were the latest in a series of accidents in recent months at the lab, as reported by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
In the board’s most recent report, an alarm sounded March 29 when a worker tore a protective glove attached to a sealed compartment known as a glove box while handling a piece of plutonium.
Continue reading
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 dossier; MOX 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
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 force, which 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 force, which 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.
NWNM 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.