ACTION ALERT: We Call for Sanity,
Not Nuclear Production
Organizations, businesses, individuals call for halt in preparations for plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production. We oppose new nuclear arms and want governments to prioritize human security, community resilience, environmental protection
ACTION: Press Conference 10:30AM Today in the Rotunda of New Mexico’s State Capitol
Greg Mello / Los Alamos Study Group
ALBUQUEQUE, NM (August 29, 2022) — At 10:30 am on August 30, representatives from dozens of organizations and businesses and hundreds of individuals will bring their “Call for Sanity, Not Nuclear Production” to the Rotunda of the New Mexico State Capitol in Santa Fe.
These people and groups are calling on our elected officials to “oppose plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) first and foremost, but also elsewhere,” as well as “the design, testing, and production of new and ‘upgraded’ nuclear weapons.”
They want their governments to prioritize “human security, community resilience, and environmental protection over nuclear weapons production and our bloated military, which…consume[s] [about] two-thirds of federal discretionary spending. “We can no longer delay,” they say. “We must use every opportunity, at every level of government, to prioritize human needs, invest in our communities, and build a more just and sustainable society.”
The introduction to their declaration states:
Further development and manufacturing of nuclear weapons by the United States undermines the ethical basis of our society, breaks treaties our nation has signed, wastes our nation’s wealth, and permanently contaminates our environment while undermining true U.S. national security.
New Mexico’s two nuclear weapons labs lead the world in spending for weapons of mass destruction. But as the labs have grown, our state’s relative economic standing has declined and now trails almost all other states. We are consistently ranked at or near the bottom of all states in overall “child well-being.”
We cannot build our society, nurture our children, inspire our youth, or improve our communities by investing in apocalyptic nightmares.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production is slated to begin in 2023 and ramp up through the mid-2020s long before any “need” related to maintaining current US nuclear weapons, at current deployment levels. LANL’s pit production program is required only for producing new warheads as soon as possible, not for maintaining any old ones.
In 2006, hundreds of organizations, businesses, and religious institutions in New Mexico, nearly a hundred national and international organizations, and thousands of individuals joined the “Call for Nuclear Disarmament.” The present statement follows that previous one. Both were organized by the Los Alamos Study Group.
Preparations for pit production comprise the largest nuclear warhead program in the United States, estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $35 billion through 2033. The Biden Administration is requesting almost $3 billion for this effort in fiscal year 2023: $2.5 billion in its “normal” annual request and another $500 million in “unfunded priorities,” most of which both armed services committees have already authorized, pending action on appropriations bills.
The majority of pit production funds are to be allocated to LANL, not just next year but in every following year, with hundreds of millions in additional costs in other required site enhancements at LANL.
The full scope of NNSA’s plans for LANL is a closely-guarded secret assiduously kept from local governments as well as tribes and citizens, a secret which is gradually being revealed in partial glimpses via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, FOIA litigation, and other sources.
Background information and analyses bearing on pit production can be found here.
Study Group director Greg Mello: “Few people understand the mind-boggling scale of what is being planned at LANL, and how it is already affecting New Mexico’s future. Amazingly to most people, NNSA’s present pit production plan was not supported by its own staff in 2017, or by its consultants in 2018 and 2019. Politics, not good management, is driving this.
“What we see right now is only the beginning. To turn LANL into a reliable factory, NNSA will need to build new nuclear facilities for decades, at enormous cost to taxpayers and to the region. Nuclear waste production won’t stop either, obviously.
“This is not an impregnable juggernaut, however. It will fail — that much is certain. The questions are when and how, and with what impacts and harms.”
Endorsers of The Call for Sanity to-date
(Updated August 29, 2022 by dropping the demand for a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) for LANL, which NNSA has now announced on multiple occasions that it will conduct, most recently on June 21, 2022. Please see this discussion. There is absolutely no indication that NNSA will pause any preparations for pit production at LANL, or pause anything else, for the sake of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance. NEPA requires analysis before, not after, decisions to proceed with major federal projects. In this case NEPA is being used in bad faith by DOE and NNSA to obscure rather than to provide transparency, and as a tool to provide legal coverage for current and future expansions and environmental impacts.)
Further development and manufacturing of nuclear weapons by the United States undermines the ethical basis of our society, breaks treaties our nation has signed, wastes our nation’s wealth, and permanently contaminates our environment while undermining true U.S. national security.
New Mexico’s two nuclear weapons labs lead the world in spending for weapons of mass destruction. But as the labs have grown, our state’s relative economic standing has declined and now trails almost all other states. We are consistently ranked at or near the bottom of all states in overall “child well-being.”
We cannot build our society, nurture our children, inspire our youth, or improve our communities by investing in apocalyptic nightmares.
At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production is slated to begin in 2023 and ramp up through the mid-2020s long before any “need” related to maintaining current US nuclear weapons, at current deployment levels. LANL’s pit production program is required only for producing new warheads as soon as possible, not for maintaining any old ones.
We call upon our elected officials to:
- Oppose plutonium warhead core (“pit”) production at LANL first and foremost, but also elsewhere.
- Oppose the design, testing, and production of new and “upgraded” nuclear weapons.
- Prioritize removal and disposal of approximately 16,120* drums of legacy plutonium waste from LANL over production of additional nuclear waste from nuclear weapons.
- Choose human security, community resilience, and environmental protection over nuclear weapons production and our bloated military, which (until the special covid relief acts of 2021 and 2022) consumed two-thirds of federal discretionary spending. We can no longer delay. We must use every opportunity, at every level of government, to prioritize human needs, invest in our communities, and build a more just and sustainable society.
Endorsements
The number of organizational supporters of the Call for Sanity is increasing day by day. Current supporters include:
| Mas Comunidad / penasconm.org | Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom / reachingcriticalwill.org |
| Rivers Run Through Us / riversrunthroughus.org | Nuclear Energy Information Service / neis.org |
| Nuclear Information Resource Service / NIRS.org | New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light / nm-ipl.org |
| Western States Legal Foundation / wslfweb.org | Alliance for the Earth / allianceforearth.org |
| Common Ground Rising / commongroundrising.org | The Nuclear Resister / nuclearresister.org |
| Earth Walks | Veterans for Peace – Joan Duffy Chapter / vfp-santafe.org |
| Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action / gzcenter.org | Jemez Sustainable Solutions organization |
| Veterans for Peace, Chapter 178, Fort Collins, CO | michaelgregory.org |
| Veterans for Peace, Spokane Chapter 35 | Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center / tnlsf.org |
| Sahaj Marg / heartfulness.org | PEAC Institute / peacinstitute.org |
| Veterans for Peace, Chapter 055 / vfp-santafe.org | Los Alamos Study Group / lasg.org |
| Peaceful Skies Coalition / peacefulskies.org | New Energy Economy / newenergyeconomy.org |
| Women for Peace Sweden / www.frednu.se | No More Bombs / nomorebombs.org |
| Tewa Women United / tewawomenunited.org | Youth United For Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA) / yuccanm.org |
| Seret and Sons Rugs and Furnishings / seretandsons.org | Environmentalists Against War / envirosagainstwar.org |
| Great Old Broads for Wilderness / greatoldbroads.org | nuclearfamine.org |
| World BEYOND War / worldbeyondwar.org | Proposition One Campaign for a Nuclear-Free Future / prop1.org |
| El Pueblo de Abiquiu Library & Cultural Center / abiquiupl.org | Veterans for Peace, Chapter 63, ABQ |
| Albuquerque Mennonite Church / abqmennonite.org |
The full list of businesses, individuals, and organizations as of this morning can be found here.
Greg Mello: Los Alamos Study Group, 2901 Summit Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
