Santa Fe Mayor David Coss appeared in person and Española Mayor Joseph Maestas by proxy at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center on Saturday to denounce Department of Energy plans to expand production of plutonium pits for nuclear weapons.

The two were among several activists and public officials who detailed their opposition Saturday to expanded production of weapons of mass destruction at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The DOE has scheduled hearings throughout the state in March to take public comments in response to an environmental review of the proposed restructuring of national nuclear weapons production. Anti-nuclear activists met Saturday to prepare.

"Nuclear weapons production is not consistent with the kind of future we want in Northern New Mexico, which is sustainable and peaceful," Coss said.

The Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday adopted a measure opposing plans for expanded pit production at the lab. Maestas, in a prepared statement read during the meeting, expressed his personal opposition to expanded nuclear production, calling instead for funding of "green-collar" jobs as an alternative to weapons production at the national laboratory.

Lab officials have said the facility last year produced 10 plutonium pits. Advocates opposed to expanded production say as many as 80 pits a year could be produced in Los Alamos if President Bush's 2001 nuclear policy is implemented.

Nuclear Watch New Mexico director Jay Coghlan said the current environmental review process is being driven by an outdated policy.

"Congress required this January that there be a new nuclear posture review in 2009, which has the obvious intention that it be done by the incoming president," Coghlan said.

Increased nuclear production at the lab would result in more radioactive waste at a time when officials have been unable to meet existing schedules for removing waste from the Los Alamos complex, Coghlan said.

Among those who spoke during the daylong anti-nuclear teach-in was former Los Alamos lab consultant Bob Gilkeson, whose 2004 reports on pollution-monitoring wells at the lab stirred controversy and earned him recognition as a whistle-blower. On Saturday, Gilkeson cited a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board study related to the lab's troubled Chemical and Metallurgical Research Building, saying the building is not safe for normal operations, much less expanded production.

The federal nuke-facilities safety board has cited geological faults under and near the building as a cause for concern. The 55-year-old building houses part of the plutonium-pit production process. Gilkeson said the building could collapse in an earthquake.

"The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said a seismic event on the fault would release adequate energy to cause the collapse of that building," Gilkeson said.

Even without an earthquake, an accident inside the building could release radioactive material into the atmosphere because the building is not equipped with adequate containment structures, Gilkeson said. "That's a very serious problem," he added.

If the DOE gets environmental approval to go ahead with expansion plans under the 2001 nuclear policy, plans could move forward for a building to replace the aging Chemical and Metallurgical Research Building, even though future administrations might find no need for such a facility, Coghlan said. He said the DOE's reasoning for expanding pit production is fundamentally flawed.

The agency has said it needs to make new pits to replace those destroyed in testing to assure the existing stockpile of nuclear warheads is reliable. Under treaties calling for reduction of nuclear weapons, existing warheads could be decommissioned for testing without the need for replacements, Coghlan suggested.

Coss said the area recently lost several hundred jobs at the laboratory because the DOE is pursuing policies inconsistent with what Congress wants. Coss suggested the lab could focus on renewable energy and anti-nuclear-proliferation technology.

Contact David Collins at 986-3064 or dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Nuclear Weapons Complex Transformation Environmental Impact Statement hearings in Northern New Mexico
Los Alamos: 6 to 10 p.m. March 12, Hilltop House, 400 Trinity Drive
Los Alamos: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 13, Hilltop House, 400 Trinity Drive
Santa Fe: 6 to 10 p.m. March 13, Genoveva Chavez Community Center, 3221 Rodeo Road
Española: 6 to 10 p.m. March 27, Mision Y Convento, Plaza de Española, 1 Calle de Las Españolas
For more information, go to www.nnsa.doe.gov/complextransformation.htm