SANTA FE, N.M. — Residents, advocates and technical experts said here last week that a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) environmental review on plutonium pit production understates risks to water resources, worker safety and communities along transport routes.
Some speakers at a Thursday May 14 public hearing in Santa Fe also said NNSA is failing to fully assess wildfire risks, seismic hazards and cleanup obligations tied to legacy waste.
The NNSA public hearing was on its draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for plutonium pit production, outlining a proposed dual-site strategy centered on Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina.
Dylan Spaulding, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned the pit-production push is “a retroactive rubber stamp … driven by policy mandates and political choices rather than technical requirements.” Spaulding added that the plan increases impacts on communities that already “bear the so-called cradle to grave burdens from nuclear weapons production.”
Former Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen called for stronger oversight, urging the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to regain a quorum and criticizing DOE’s separation of environmental management from the NNSA as “one of the biggest mistakes” it has made.
Greg Mello, director of Los Alamos Study Group, said Los Alamos alone cannot sustain required pit production and that completing SRPPF is necessary to provide an enduring, adequate pit production capability. If pit production must go forward, Mello said it should be done at one adequate site, not split between two sites, because that would be safer, cheaper, and lower‑risk to other NNSA programs and the environment.
Patrick Moss, deputy manager of the NNSA Los Alamos Field Office, who hosted the hearing, described the proposed action as necessary to produce plutonium pits at levels needed to meet national security requirements by 2030. This was the fourth public comment opportunity in a series of hearings intended to gather input from interest groups, businesses, Native American tribes and other stakeholders on the draft PEIS.
The final one was scheduled Wednesday May 20 in Washington, D.C.
NNSA officials emphasized that, under a 2025 settlement agreement, operations at new or repurposed facilities cannot begin until after a Record of Decision (ROD) is issued. The ROD must be in place before nuclear materials can be introduced into the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, before classified equipment is installed in the main process building. The ROD is also required before construction can begin on new waste storage facilities or a waste characterization laboratory.
The PEIS evaluates no‑action, single‑site and multi‑site alternatives, but rules out pit production at sites other than Los Alamos or Savannah River. NNSA plans to publish the final PEIS and ROD in early 2027, ahead of the July 2027 deadline established under a court ruling resolving litigation related to the agency’s 2020 decisions. Key impacts under review include air and radiological emissions, workforce, and waste management.