Opportunity to offer alternatives and comment on the plutonium pit support work planned at Livermore Lab and elsewhere.
Plutonium pits are the radioactive cores of every nuclear weapon. Congress has approved new plutonium pit production at the rate of up to 80-120 new pits every year. The physical production of plutonium pits will occur in a refurbished building at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and in a never-used, repurposed building at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The latter of which is projected to cost up to $25B to get up and running!
The first 10+ years of these newly produced pits are currently destined to go into new nuclear weapons designs being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Thus, LLNL is supporting the effort on many fronts, as exemplified by its Fiscal Year 2025 budget request, where there was a nearly 50% increase for “Enterprise Pit Production Support” to $97.35m for the year.
Tri-Valley CAREs joined suit with our colleague groups, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Savannah River Site Watch, arguing that a full “programmatic” environmental review of the potential impacts of this multi-site program needed to be analyzed together, rather than in separate site specific documents, and a judge in South Carolina agreed. Now the agency has begun the process with a “scoping public comment” period to allow public input on the contents of the programmatic analysis.
The document must include a detailed analysis of the potential impacts of the plutonium pit support work at LLNL, including the associated transportation of plutonium in and out of the facility.
Anyone can submit a written comment on the scope, environmental issues, and propose alternatives for the government to consider.
Written comments can be submitted via email, by July 14th, to: [email protected]
NNSA’s Notice of Intent is available here. Click here for our press release.
After the July 14th deadline, the Department of Energy begin preparing a lengthy Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS) that should integrate/respond to the “scoping” comments and include detailed analyses of the impacts on the environment and potential risks of this plan at all of the sites that are part of it, including LLNL. Following the release of the Draft PEIS, there will be an in-person public hearing in Livermore, Washington DC, Santa Fe, Aitken, and Kansas City), as well as another opportunity to submit written comments on the full Draft PEIS.
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SAMPLE TALKING POINTS:
JOIN US:
Virtual Workshop
On the Nationwide Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the Expanded Production of Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Cores
Public comments help increase transparency and safety.
It is crucial that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and US Department of Energy hear from scientists, experts, and community members like you.
https://secure.ucs.org/a/2025-6-26-peis-comment-training-2
Public Comment Training #2: Expanded Plutonium Pit Production
Date: Thursday, June 26
Time: 3:00–4:00 p.m. PT
This workshop will feature:
- Talking points and suggested scoping comments
- Explanation of procedural process
- The Union of Concerned Scientists’ new comprehensive study of pit production at www.ucs.org/resources/plutonium-pit-production
- Question & answers with subject matter experts
Background: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and Tri-Valley CAREs successfully sued the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over its failure to complete a required nationwide “programmatic environmental impact statement” (PEIS) for its most costly program ever, the expanded production of plutonium “pit” bomb cores. Their production is the current chokepoint to resumed industrial-scale of nuclear weapons by the United States. Ironically, no future pit production is to maintain the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear stockpile. Instead, all future pit production is for new design nuclear weapons for the new nuclear arms race.
To meet its enforced legal obligation, the NNSA must consider written comments submitted by July 14 on what the scope of the PEIS should be. NNSA wants to keep its scope narrowly confined to discussion of alternative levels of pit production rather than questioning the need for production to begin with. A few examples of needed scope include compliance with the NonProliferation Treaty, reusing existing pits, ensuring nuclear safety, the lack of credible cost estimates and where radioactive wastes will go. For more see suggested scoping comments at https://nukewatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Pit-PEIS-suggested-scoping-comments-5-27-25.pdf
Scoping comments due by July 14 can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to:
Ms. Kristen M. Dors, NEPA Compliance Officer
NNSA Los Alamos Field Office
3747 W. Jemez Road, Los Alamos, NM 87544
For additional background, see NNSA’s formal Notice of Intent at https://www.energy.gov/nepa/articles/doeeis-0573-notice-intent-may-2025 for the PEIS Following publication of a draft PEIS (expected in a year), in person public hearings will be held in Livermore, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Kansas City, MO; Aiken; SC, and Washington, DC.
Let’s transform this Pit Production Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement into a public referendum on the new nuclear arms race!
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Get Prepared: A coalition of advocacy groups, including Union of Concerned Scientists, Tri-Valley CAREs, and NukeWatch New Mexico recently held a training to help participants prepare effective comments.
VIEW/DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION (PDF)