Watchdog groups seek reconsideration of nuclear decision

their Trump-era refusal for a more thorough environmental review.

The nuclear security agency said in an email to the Associated Press that the issues raised by the groups were considered during previous public participation opportunities.

The agency opted last fall to prepare a supplemental analysis of an environmental review done for Los Alamos more than a decade ago, despite criticism that ramping up production at the lab goes beyond those initial plans and should be reexamined. A separate review was done for Savannah River.

NNSA spokeswoman Ana Gamonal de Navarro said the decisions were consistent with the agency’s legal obligations and there has been no guidance to revisit the decisions amid the presidential transition.

But she also noted that it’s common for programs and activities to be reviewed under new leadership.

“NNSA’s approach to plutonium pit production will be included in this review process,” she said. “Until such a review is completed, NNSA will continue its current overall pit production timeline and strategy.”

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, both New Mexico Democrats, did not respond to questions about whether they would support a more extensive environmental review for the work planned at Los Alamos.

The city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County in January passed resolutions seeking further study.

Watchdog groups have raised concerns about contamination if new plutonium warhead factories are established in New Mexico and South Carolina that resemble the Rocky Flats facility in Colorado, which had a long history of leaks, fires and environmental violations, and needed a $7 billion cleanup that took years to finish.

The mission of producing the plutonium cores began at Rocky Flats in the 1950s and was eventually moved to Los Alamos in the late 1990s. Dogged by safety problems and concerns about a lack of accountability, production at Los Alamos has happened in fits and starts over the years. It’s been shut down at times and only a handful of prototypes were made in fiscal year 2019.

The cost of the work also has spurred criticism. A 2019 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that expanded pit production plans could cost up to $9 billion over the next decade, but that the estimate was very uncertain.

The Government Accountability Office last year pointed to NNSA and independent studies that have cast doubt on the agency’s ability to prepare the two planned factories in time.