At a town hall meeting at Buffalo Thunder Resort last night, federal officials spent more than an hour listening to citizens’ concerns about a plan to build more nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wants to build 80 new nuclear weapons per year, starting in 2028, to keep pace with Russia and China.
What that means for the Labs is that they’ll be tasked with constructing 30 pits per year—a pit is what defense developers call the plutonium core of a nuclear warhead.
One of the often heard voices in this years-long debate is Greg Mello, executive director of the Las Alamos Study Group. During the meeting, Mello angrily called for NNSA to abandon the project.
After the event ended, he explained part of the reason why he opposes the Los Alamos pits initiative.
“They've always made a couple of pits, but this is an industrial project," said Mello.. And it's the wrong place for it. Some people do know that, People will privately say, 'This is going to continue until Los Alamos has an accident.' We can only hope that not too many people will be hurt when that happens. But it's certain.”
A component of the plan is to construct a more robust power grid. Crews would build a 14-mile power line that would extend from Caja del Rio across White Rock Canyon, to the Labs.
NNSA chief Jill Hruby said she's been meeting with tribal leaders and aiming to minimize disruption.
Jim James, counsel for Pueblo Tesuque, says the environmental assessment doesn’t go deep enough.
“ You mentioned that you're trying to find the best path and be comprehensive about how you look at sacred sites," said to Hruby. "I don't think that the draft EA does an adequate job of addressing those. We haven't talked about the wildlife and the wildlife corridors that have existed here forever. The ecological knowledge of the indigenous people here has not been considered."
Citizens filed more than 23 ,000 comments on the proposed power upgrade.
District 2 Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen raised a separate issue, echoing others when she urged officials to improve infrastructure and help provide housing for communities not only in Los Alamos County but in surrounding counties.
Hruby said addressing that question would require wider collaboration.
She said the NNSA is aiming to complete an environmental impact assessment on the existing plan within a few months.
