Activists speak out on nuclear future.
"Complex 2030" sounds like a bad science-fiction movie. Something starring Kurt Russell wearing an eye patch, Vin Diesel in a pair of Ray-Bans or John Travolta sporting a terrible haircut.
Except it's worse. At least according to local anti-nuclear activists like Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group.
"They're essentially proposing to replace the entire US nuclear arsenal with itself," Mello says. "Complex 2030 is supposed to be about having a smaller, more efficient arsenal, but if
***image1***
you want to reduce the arsenal, just retire existing weapons instead of building new ones."
Complex 2030-called "Bombplex 2030" by anti-nuclear activists-is the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) vision for the future of the US nuclear arsenal. According to the NNSA, Complex 2030 is intended to "establish a smaller, more efficient nuclear weapons complex" by developing new warheads, dismantling "retired" warheads and consolidating weapons at fewer sites.
"Complex 2030 is a broad transformation of the nuclear weapons complex," NNSA spokeswoman Julianne Smith says. "What we have now was built in the Cold War for a Cold War adversary, but our potential adversaries have evolved. This is about modernizing for the future."
New Mexico sites like Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad could be integral to the Complex 2030 vision. LANL in particular figures prominently in the Oct. 19 Notice of Intent issued by the NNSA.
"We were surprised at just how much focus is being placed on Los Alamos," Joni Arends, executive director of the Santa Fe organization Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, says. "It looks like LANL is a primary location for this proposed consolidation."
The Notice of Intent is the first step in the process. The second is hosting public hearings in communities near eight federal nuclear sites (including in Santa Fe on Dec. 6 at 6 pm at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center) to discuss NNSA plans to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in conjunction with the proposal.
"All eight of our sites would figure into Complex 2030," Smith says. "To say one is more important than another would not be right."
But those plans also include establishing a "consolidated plutonium center" for nuclear research, development and production as well as choosing a site.
"Part of this environmental process that we're going through now is picking that location," Smith says. "Currently there are five sites being considered, and Los Alamos is one of them."
The project is far from a reality. The NNSA plans to have a draft EIS ready by next summer, but a final EIS isn't expected until spring 2008. The design for the Consolidated Plutonium Center wouldn't be complete until 2012 and the facility wouldn't be operational until 2022.
"We're a long way off," Smith says. "These are just the first steps in a very long process."
Arends and Mello question whether the steps need to be taken at all. A study released last week by a group of independent scientists (called the JASON panel) also questions whether the country's aging nuclear stockpile needs to be replaced at all. According to the study, current weapons are capable of remaining effective for 100 years, more than twice the Department of Energy (DOE) estimate.
"I think the entire premise for Complex 2030 has become null and void," Arends says. "The DOE needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new proposal."
That isn't likely. Smith says the study won't effect NNSA plans to move forward with its plans for Complex 2030.
"There are certain infrastructure changes that we need to go forward with," Smith says, "and we have every intention of going forward with them."
