Current:Home > Contact-usUS nuclear weapon production sites violated environmental rules, federal judge decides-InfoLens
US nuclear weapon production sites violated environmental rules, federal judge decides
View
Date:2024-12-23 11:24:07
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The National Nuclear Security Administration failed to properly evaluate its expansion of plutonium pit production at sites in South Carolina and New Mexico in violation of environmental regulations, a federal judge has ruled.
Plaintiffs challenged a plan consummated in 2018 for two pit production sites — at South Carolina’s Savannah River and New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory — that they say relied on an outdated environmental impact study. They also say it didn’t truly analyze simultaneous production, and undermined safety and accountability safeguards for a multibillion-dollar nuclear weapons program and related waste disposal.
“Defendants neglected to properly consider the combined effects of their two-site strategy and have failed to convince the court they gave thought to how those effects would affect the environment,” Judge Mary Geiger Lewis said in her ruling.
The decision arrives as U.S. authorities this week certified with a “diamond stamp” the first new plutonium pit from Los Alamos for deployment as a key component to nuclear warheads under efforts to modernize the nation’s weapons.
Hollow, globe-shaped plutonium pits are placed at the core of nuclear warheads. Plutonium is one of the two key ingredients used to manufacture nuclear weapons, along with highly enriched uranium.
The new ruling from South Carolina’s federal court says nuclear weapons regulators violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to properly analyze alternatives to production of the nuclear warhead component at Savannah River and Los Alamos.
“These agencies think they can proceed with their most expensive and complex project ever without required public analyses and credible cost estimates,” said Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, which is a co-plaintiff to the lawsuit, in a statement Thursday that praised the ruling.
The court order gives litigants two weeks to “reach some sort of proposed compromise” in writing.
A spokesperson for the the National Nuclear Security Administration said the agency is reviewing the court’s ruling and consulting with the Department of Justice.
“We will confer with the plaintiffs, as ordered,” spokesperson Milli Mike said in an email. “At this point in the judicial process, work on the program continues.”
The ruling rejected several additional claims, including concerns about the analysis of the disposal of radioactive materials from the pit-making process.
At the same time, the judge said nuclear weapons regulators at the Department of Energy “failed to conduct a proper study on the combined effects of their two-site strategy” and “they have neglected to present a good reason.”
Plutonium pits were manufactured previously at Los Alamos until 2012, while the lab was dogged by a string of safety lapses and concerns about a lack of accountability.
Proposals to move production to South Carolina touched off a political battle in Washington, D.C., as New Mexico senators fought to retain a foothold for Los Alamos in the multibillion-dollar program. The Energy Department is now working to ramp up production at both Savannah River and Los Alamos to an eventual 80 pits per year, amid timeline extensions and rising cost estimates.
Plaintiffs to the plutonium pit lawsuit include environmental and nuclear-safety advocacy groups as well as a coalition of Gullah-Geechee communities of Black slave descendants along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.
Outside Denver, the long-shuttered Rocky Flats Plant was capable of producing more than 1,000 war reserve pits annually before work stopped in 1989 due to environmental and regulatory concerns. In 1996, the Department of Energy provided for limited production capacity at Los Alamos, which produced its first war reserve pit in 2007. The lab stopped operations in 2012 after producing what was needed at the time.
veryGood! (99879)
Related
- Rare Alo Yoga Flash Sale: Don’t Miss 60% Off Deals With Styles as Low as $5
- Foundation to convene 3rd annual summit on anti-Asian hate, building AAPI coalitions
- Real Housewives' Kyle Richards Says People Think She Has Fake Lashes When She Uses This $9 Mascara
- Internet providers roll out broadband nutrition labels for consumers
- Japan to resume V-22 flights after inquiry finds pilot error caused accident
- What is the best milk alternative? Here's how to pick the healthiest non-dairy option
- Why Nicola Peltz Beckham Wasn’t at Mother-in-Law Victoria Beckham’s Birthday Party
- Rapper Chris King Dead at 32 After Shooting: Justin Bieber, Machine Gun Kelly and More Pay Tribute
- Women’s baseball players could soon have a league of their own again
- An adored ostrich at a Kansas zoo has died after swallowing a staff member’s keys
Ranking
- Vogue Model Dynus Saxon Charged With Murder After Stabbing Attack
- Cleveland to pay $4.8M to family of teen killed by stolen car during police chase
- Taylor Swift’s Friend Keleigh Teller Shares Which TTPD Song “Hurts So Much” for Her
- Insider Q&A: Trust and safety exec talks about AI and content moderation
- Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira set to be sentenced, could get up to 17 years in prison
- Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez boost Joe Biden's climate agenda on Earth Day
- Sharks do react to blood in the water. But as a CBS News producer found out, it's not how he assumed.
- Celebrity blitz: Tom Brady set up for 'live, unedited' roast on Netflix next month
Recommendation
Lunchables get early dismissal: Kraft Heinz pulls the iconic snack from school lunches
2024 NFL draft rumors roundup: Quarterbacks, cornerbacks and trades dominate possibilities
'Extreme caution': Cass Review raises red flags on gender-affirming care for trans kids
5 people found dead, including children, in Oklahoma City home, police say
Why Cynthia Erivo Needed Prosthetic Ears for Wicked
See the bronze, corgi-adorned statue honoring Queen Elizabeth II on her 98th birthday: Photos
Israeli strikes in Rafah kill 18, mostly children, Palestinian officials say
2024 NFL draft rumors roundup: Quarterbacks, cornerbacks and trades dominate possibilities
Like
- Trump pledged to roll back protections for transgender students. They’re flooding crisis hotlines
- Feds bust another illegal grow house in Maine as authorities probe foreign-backed drug trade in other states
- Real Housewives' Kyle Richards Says People Think She Has Fake Lashes When She Uses This $9 Mascara