Will the Santa Fe City Council Stand Tall Against Pit Production

Santa Fe City Counselors Renee Villarreal and Jamie Cassutt introduced a resolution opposing pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)  at the December 13 Santa Fe City Council meeting. On January 3, the resolution will be discussed at City Hall in the Quality of Life Committee. Citizens may attend but there is no public comment opportunity. Then, hopefully, the resolution will return to the Council for a final vote on January 10. Written comments must be submitted by 5 pm the previous day, January 9, to be entered into the record. To express support for the resolution you can contact the Mayor and current Council here. On January 1 Alma Castro will be replacing Renee Villarreal and Pilar Faulkner will be replacing Chris Rivera so check the City website for an update or contact the  City Clerk’s office. 

 

A RESOLUTION

OBJECTING TO LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY’S (“LANL”) PLUTONIUM WARHEAD CORE OR “PIT” PRODUCTION AND EXPANSION OF OPERATIONS AND SUPPORTING THE PRIORITIZING OF REMOVAL OF LEGACY NUCLEAR WASTE OVER GENERATING NEW NUCLEAR WASTE AT LANL.

WHEREAS, the National Nuclear Security Administration (“NNSA”), which is the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) semi-autonomous nuclear weapons agency, is expanding nuclear weapons activities at LANL, including the construction and operation of plutonium pit production facilities; and

WHEREAS, this expansion is for the production of plutonium pits, which are the fissile cores or triggers for nuclear warheads and bombs; and

WHEREAS, the City of Santa Fe (“City”) has previously declared its clear opposition to pit production at LANL in Resolutions No. 2003-64, 2005-39, 2006-104, and 2008-17; and

WHEREAS, Resolution No. 2005-39, in particular, establishes the City as supporting and leading in advocacy for nuclear disarmament; and 

WHEREAS, plutonium pit manufacturing is dangerous to workers when proper safety measures are not taken and, in the event of accidents, plutonium pit manufacturing may also be dangerous to the public and the environment; and

WHEREAS, plutonium should have extensive security measures in place at all times, including during transportation, to guard against theft and potential terrorist attacks; and 

 creation of a plutonium pit factory at LANL has potential to raise LANL’s priority as a target in the event of a war; and 

WHEREAS, the location of offices or laboratories associated with LANL’s plutonium pit production within or near the city of Santa Fe could also pose a threat to the safety of residents; and

WHEREAS, the Governing Body of the City of Santa Fe (“Governing Body”) does not support the creation of further health, environmental, or security hazards related to nuclear weapons for the citizens of northern New Mexico; and 

WHEREAS, increased production of new plutonium pits at LANL also increases its emphasis as a nuclear weapons production agency rather than having a focus on research and development; and

WHEREAS, NNSA now predicts that, should the United States of America’s President and Congress decide to continue expanding production of pits, that expansion will require more than a decade’s further demolition, construction, equipment installation, and waste handling disposal at enormous taxpayer expense; and

WHEREAS, the NNSA reported in its FY 2024 Congressional budget justification that LANL’s plutonium facility falls short of current DOE safety standards; and 

WHEREAS, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, transuranic (“TRU”) waste is “radioactive waste…produced during nuclear fuel assembly, nuclear weapons research and production, and during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel”; and

WHEREAS, the Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office identifies TRU waste as being the “most challenging legacy waste at LANL”; and 

WHEREAS, according to NNSA, the disposal of new TRU waste takes precedence over legacy TRU waste; and

WHEREAS, according to the DOE, thousands of cubic meters of legacy TRU waste remain buried on site at LANL; and

            WHEREAS, in addition to the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which was already in place in 2005, ninety-three countries have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which requires good faith efforts to negotiate and complete the process of nuclear disarmament, sixty-nine of which have concluded their respective ratification processes; and 

WHEREAS, nuclear weapons activities at LANL have caused permanent environmental contamination and desecration of ancestral tribal lands including sacred sites.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF SANTA FE that the Governing Body, on behalf of its constituents, states its opposition to all plutonium warhead core production at LANL and to locating any laboratories or offices associated with LANL pit production operations on public property in the city of Santa Fe.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governing Body calls on the government of the Unites States of America to take the following actions and for the New Mexico Congressional Delegation and Governor of New Mexico to support these steps:

1.       Halt all preparations for plutonium pit production at LANL, including but not limited to the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project (“LAP4”).

2.       Prioritize removal and disposal of legacy plutonium waste from LANL over production of additional nuclear waste from nuclear weapons activities, including manufacturing and preparations for manufacturing.

3.       Decrease federal spending currently allocated for nuclear weapons activities and increase funding to support human security, community resilience, and environmental protection.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governing Body directs the City Clerk to send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States Department of Energy, the Secretary for Nuclear Security and Administration, the New Mexico Congressional Delegation, and the Governor of New Mexico.