Tools You Can Use to Prepare for draft LANL SWEIS Public Hearings

This Update relates to historic and important resources that can be useful for your participation in the public hearings about draft Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and its proposed operations in the next 15 years or so.  Public hearings under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) will begin on Tuesday, February 11th in Santa Fe, followed by a Wednesday, February 12th hearing in Española, and a Thursday, February 13th hearing in Los Alamos.  For more information, please visit:  https://nuclearactive.org/draft-lanl-site-wide-environmental-impact-statement-to-be-released-on-friday-january-10th/

On Thursday, January 16th, a settlement agreement between Savannah River Watch, The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Aiken Division.  It is the successful result of a NEPA lawsuit against DOE for its failure to complete a programmatic environmental impact statement for proposed fabrication of plutonium “pit” bomb cores.  The court found that DOE failed to properly consider alternatives before proceeding with their plan to annually fabricate 30 plutonium pits at LANL and 50 at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. View PDF here:  https://nukewatch.org/settlement-agreement-and-exhibits

This is not the first time DOE failed to comply with NEPA.  Historical court rulings are attached to the Settlement Agreement as exhibits to the Declaration of Jay Coghlan, of Nuclear Watch New Mexico.  Declaration begins on p. 30 of the pdf, Exhibits begin on p. 37 of the pdf.

Coghlan provides three court rulings similar to the Savannah River Site case from federal and New Mexico court cases where the courts determined DOE violated NEPA.  They are a 1990 case about DOE’s national plans to modernize the nuclear weapons production complex and lack of plans to clean up its sites; a 1998 continuation of that case because DOE did not analyze the cleanup portion; and a 1995 case about DOE’s Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program and specifically, LANL’s Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility, or DARHT.  The decisions provide a history lesson about DOE’s patterns and practices to avoid NEPA compliance and how important it is for non-governmental organizations to bring lawsuits to compel compliance.

Dylan Spaulding, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist in the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, DC.  He also provided a declaration and extensive exhibits about the impacts of plutonium pit production to public health,  the environment and flaws in LANL’s worker safety and production, among others.  Declaration begins on p. 63 of the pdf, Exhibits begin on p. 69 of the pdf.

Spending time with both declarations and exhibits will enhance your knowledge and public comments about the draft LANL SWEIS.

Additional Declarations from:

General Anthony J. Cotton, Commander, United States Strategic Command, in Support of Defendants’ Position on Remedies.  Begins on p. 13 of the pdf.

Second Declaration of NNSA Administrator, Jill Hruby, in Support of Defendants’ Position on Remedies.  Begins on p. 20 of the pdf.

NNSA Deputy Administrator, Marvin Adams, in Support of Defendants’ Position on Remedies.  Begins on p. 26 of the pdf.

1. Join us on Friday, January 24th from noon to 1 pm at the intersection of East Alameda and Sandoval for the weekly one-hour peaceful protest for nuclear disarmament. Join the weekly peaceful protest with Veterans for Peace, CCNS, Nuclear Watch NM, Loretto Community, New Mexico Peace Fest, Pax Christi and others. Bring your flags, signs and banners and join in the conversation for nuclear disarmament.

2. Sunday, January 26 at 7 am MST  – webinar “Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AI,” explore the alarming dangers posed by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into nuclear weapons command and control systems.  Panelists includes:  representative of Nihon Hidankyo, 2024 Nobel Peace Prize; Sir Geoffrey Hinton, 2024 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics; Connor Lahey, CEO of Conjecture; Dr. Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and Chair of IPPNW, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize; Melissa Parke, Executive Director of ICAN, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize; with Moderator Karen Hallberg, Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Sciences and World Affairs, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.   Register now:  https://www.ippnw.org/AI

3. Tuesday, January 28^th at 8 am MST – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock Announcement at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. For more information:  https://thebulletin.org/2025/01/join-us-for-the-2025-doomsday-clock-announcement/

4. Tuesday, January 28^th from 1 to 5:15 pm at Cities of Gold Ballroom – Dr. Inés Triay will speak about the findings from the Hexavalent Chromium Expert Technical Review. Meeting hosted by the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board of the DOE.  https://www.energy.gov/em/nnmcab/northern-new-mexico-citizens-advisory-board

 Visit https://www.energy.gov/em-la/hexavalent-chromium-campaign to find the Final Chromium Project (ITR Report w/appendices); Chromium Report Expert Technical Review Charge Letter; Chromium Project Expert Technical Review Team Members; a Hexavalent Chromium Fact Sheet; and a Hexavalent Chromium Plume FAQ.   

5. Wednesday, January 29^th from 5 to 7 pm MT – in person and virtual meeting – Hexavalent Chromium Expert Technical Review Findings to be Discussed at Environmental Management Cleanup Forum with DOE, NMED and Technical Review Team lead, Dr. Inés Triay, on the recommendations from the Hexavalent Chromium Expert Technical Review Report, including Q&A. For more information:  https://n3b-la.com/emcf_jan_29_2025/  
   

See No. 4 above for links to key documents. 

Tags: Department of Energy (DOE), Dylan Spaulding Ph.D., General Anthony J. Cotton – Commander - United States Strategic Command, Jay Coghlan, LANL, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Environmental Policy Act, National Nuclear Security Administration, NEPA, NNSA, NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby, NNSA Deputy Administrator Marvin Adams, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Watch, Senior Scientist in Global Security Program, site-wide environmental impact statement, SWEIS, The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Tri Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, Union of Concerned Scientists