A nuclear watchdog group in New Mexico has filed suit against the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeking to force disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of a study concerning costs of plutonium pit production.
The complaint was filed July 23 by Nuclear Watch New Mexico in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Nuclear Watch New Mexico said in a Tuesday press release it is seeking disclosure of the “Special Study of the NNSA’s Leadership and Management of the Plutonium Pit Production Mission.” The group filed a FOIA request with the federal government in December 2025.
“Having received no substantive response, in April 2026 we requested expedited processing because of an open public comment period for a Pit Production Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (that we had to sue NNSA for to begin with),” according to the New Mexico group’s press release. “Having received no further response from DOE we have therefore filed this litigation in the Washington, DC federal court.”
“Nuclear Watch New Mexico’s counsel is Jules Zacher, who has successfully represented us in two previous FOIA lawsuits,” according to the release.
The complaint says in August 2025 Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly issued a memorandum about the ability of NNSA to revive the capability to make plutonium pits at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“Deputy Secretary Danly directed the Office of Enterprise Assessments to conduct a special study of NNSA’s leadership and management of the plutonium pit production mission and its associated projects,” at the two installations, according to the suit.
Danly wanted the study done within 120 days, which would be roughly Dec. 9.
On Dec. 16, 2025, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) wrote DOE “expressing concerns regarding NNSA’s effort to reestablish plutonium pit production,” according to the complaint. The letter from the two Democrats referenced the August 2025 Danly memo initiating the study.