Pits, more pits and even more pits.
That’s how several public commenters described the draft site-wide environmental impact statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory’s operations.
Officials accepted public comments during a series of meetings this week. The public comment period ends March 11, though some members of the public have requested an extension due to its overlap with the legislative session.
While the public commenters expressed opposition to plutonium pit production, all three alternatives considered in the draft site-wide environmental impact statement will result in increased production.
The draft site-wide environmental impact statement looks at more than just the plutonium pit production — including adding solar arrays at the lab, cleaning up a chromium plume, improving the ability to reuse water by installing a water treatment system and upgrading buildings that are currently in poor condition — but it is the plutonium pit production that has riled up members of the public.
Plutonium pits are used in nuclear weapons. Officials say aging weapons are part of the reason plutonium pit production is needed.
Stephanie Stringer, associate deputy field manager at LANL, said the lab is one of three national security tasked with “assessing the safety, security, reliability and military effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.”
Under the no action alternative, which would result in the lowest pit production, LANL would produce 30 plutonium pits annually. This production has already been approved. The other alternatives have even more pit production. Members of the public say plutonium pit production should cease.
Some of the public commenters said the plutonium pit production has contaminated land and water near LANL in the past, and future production will put nearby residents at risk.
Donna Detweiler of Albuquerque was among the members of the public who said the lab should be closed.
“I consider that the only alternative to the deeply dangerous risk of nuclear annihilation of all that we hold dear,” she said.
LANL provides important economic benefits to New Mexico, including spending more than $1 billion with New Mexico businesses in its fiscal year 2024 and paying $138 million in gross receipts tax to the state, according to the economic impact report released on Tuesday.
Stringer said LANL has been operating at the current site in New Mexico since 1943 and employs more than 15,000 people. She said its annual budget is more than $4 billion.
The lab does more than just weapons work. It also researches and develops technologies.
But some members of the public say that those benefits are negated by the potential harms of climate change and the risks associated with nuclear weapons. They say even the no action alternative will result in increased carbon emissions, radioactive wastes and risks of nuclear war.
Robin Seydel, another public commenter, said she thinks LANL should change its mission and work instead to provide solutions to energy needs and cleanup of existing contamination from radioactive materials.
“It is time for you, the greatest scientific minds in the world, to think outside of the bomb box” she said.
This story first published on New Mexico Political Report.
