Dec 27, 2024
LAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THE RISKS & CONSEQUENCES OF TOMORROW
This human interest story from the “New Yorker” is very much worth reading, enjoying, and assimilating the entire article for its worthwhile sharing of values for all of us — friend or foe. I already know that one of my faithful readers who will soon be relocating to New Mexico, will take a great interest in what this article has to tell us all not only about New Mexico, but our entire country and the world . . .
Donald Trump’s shortcomings and associated nuclear-linked braggadocio attitude toward the United States’ nuclear war power is well-documented in this article. Just this one paragraph concerning the nuclear dangers of Trump as President should alarm you — even if you have been aware of his arrogant attitude toward the rest of the world when it comes to nuclear weapons of mass destruction. The story also quotes his now famous quote about the nuclear muscle of the United States. Here is a short copy of what the story says about that:
Donald Trump’s stance on nuclear weapons has been one of obsessive and reckless bombast. During his first term, Trump reportedly said, “If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.” He used social media to brag about the size of the U.S. arsenal and taunted Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea.
America and the entire world’s countries needs desperately to awaken and unite against the nuclear powers (even if we are living in one of them) and take action against this power-crazed man as well the similar leaders of other nuclear-armed nations. But it was Donald J. Trump who defined the word “woke” as “bullshit” just a few days ago . . . ~ llaw
New Mexico’s Nuclear-Weapons Boom
Los Alamos is growing at a pace not seen since J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
By Abe Streep
December 27, 2024
On a recent Wednesday, ten students filed into a classroom at Northern New Mexico College, in the town of Española, to learn about the dangers of nuclear radiation. The students ranged in age from nineteen to forty-four. Most of them were in a program designed to train radiation-control technicians to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, which is once again rapidly expanding to supply the nation with nuclear weapons.
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Los Alamos was built in secret during the Second World War—J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the lab there as part of the Manhattan Project. The town hovers high above the Española valley, on a handsome mesa called the Pajarito Plateau. Originally, the only way to access the enclave was through two gates. Today, it accepts visitors but remains a company town, housing many of the lab’s scientists and high-level staffers. The community has a population of about thirteen thousand, and boasts one of the nation’s densest concentrations of millionaires. In New Mexico, such wealth is rare. Española, which sits on the Rio Grande and is a twenty-five-minute drive away, has a median household income of fifty thousand dollars, a poverty rate approaching twenty per cent, and an entrenched fentanyl crisis.
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Northern’s small campus, where cottonwood trees front adobe-colored buildings, is usually quiet, since many of its students commute or study online. The school offers both a trades program and what it calls the most affordable bachelor’s degree in the Southwest. Many students are studying for a career in social work, to combat the ravages of drugs, or hoping to secure a job at the lab. An Air Force veteran named Scott Braley teaches all of the school’s radiation-safety courses. He often wears a T-shirt that reads “Radiate Positivity.”
When I visited, Braley and his students were midway through an introductory safety course. The lecture focussed not on Chernobyl or Fukushima but on less catastrophic accidents, including an incident at an Iranian oil refinery in which a janitor accidentally picked up radioactive equipment, and a medical-exposure case involving breast-cancer patients. “This is the scale of event I worry about,” Braley said. If a wildfire overtook the lab, or Russia launched an attack on New Mexico, which represents the nexus of America’s nuclear-weapons complex, there would not be much for a lab technician to do. Braley wanted students to consider quotidian risks that they could prevent themselves. “We’ve had fatalities at Los Alamos,” he told them. News articles highlighting lapses at the lab were pinned on a bulletin board outside his office. Next to one story, about a Los Alamos worker who took a radioactive swipe home, he had scrawled, “Don’t do that!”
In recent years, Los Alamos has been essential to a sweeping 1.7-trillion-dollar update of the country’s nuclear arsenal, which comes as China expands its atomic-weapons program and Russia assumes a newly confrontational stance. The U.S. government has nearly five thousand nuclear warheads, close to two thousand of which are deployed inside submarines, bombs, and intercontinental ballistic missiles. It also has thousands of plutonium pits—the fissionable cores of those warheads—in storage. But the plutonium in the stockpile is aging. Despite statements from groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, which argue that the arsenal remains sufficiently deadly to serve as deterrence, the government insists that it needs new warheads.
The nuclear-weapons overhaul involves facilities spread out across the United States. Its projects include fabricating new missiles, installing thousands of miles of fibre-optic transmission lines, building new computer centers at Air Force bases, and refurbishing the underground chambers where missileers control weapons. But Los Alamos is the only lab that is capable of actually producing the plutonium pits. (A second facility, in South Carolina, hopes to begin producing pits by 2032, but it is still under construction.) In the past two years, the lab has hired two thousand and seven hundred new employees. Traffic often clogs the road winding from Española, past the Pueblo de San Ildefonso and up the Pajarito Plateau. The private contractors who run the lab—Triad, which develops warheads, and N3B, which cleans up old waste from the Manhattan Project—have urgently recruited radiation technicians, electricians, welders, and even writers for its communications team. (Its staff includes former journalists from Outside magazine, which moved from Santa Fe to Boulder a few years ago.)
To support the boom, Los Alamos has invested millions of dollars in vocational pipeline programs at local colleges. Some of these programs teach transferrable skills—welding, electrical work. Others, like the radiation-tech program at Northern, are more likely to keep graduates tethered to Los Alamos. Radiation technicians at the lab use Geiger counters to make sure that scientists’ radiation levels are within a healthy range. They also monitor the rooms where workers move radioactive materials into secure containers. Salaries range from sixty-six thousand dollars to nearly twice that amount. On Española’s outskirts, near signs warning about fentanyl, billboards advertise the pipeline program with patriotic verve: “Support our community, serve our nation.”
New Mexico’s state budget is just above ten billion dollars. The federal government spends about as much money on just two laboratories: Sandia, in Albuquerque, which designs weapon components such as detonators, and Los Alamos. Kirtland Air Force Base, which stores nuclear weapons, has a budget of nearly two billion dollars. An underground nuclear-waste repository in New Mexico’s southern desert also receives federal funding; after a fire and an unrelated radiological release at the facility, ten years ago, the Department of Energy spent nearly five hundred million dollars on an update to its safety infrastructure. “It’s gone from being a company town to being a company state,” Zia Mian, the co-director of a program on science and global security at Princeton, said.
The interns in Braley’s class were already training with Triad and N3B. “They recruit us, send us to school, and pay for our school,” a student named Stevannah Marquez, who had grown up in the nearby village of Chimayó, said. Marquez, who is twenty-five, wore a Care Bears T-shirt and a necklace adorned with a cross. She had a job as a dialysis technician, but it paid less than what she expected to earn at Los Alamos. “An opportunity is given by God,” she said.
America’s rearmament is rooted in a deal that Barack Obama struck with Congress in 2010. Obama was strongly aligned with the philosophy of nuclear non-proliferation, which had driven a steady reduction in the U.S. stockpile since the end of the Cold War. His soaring rhetoric about a world free of nuclear weapons had helped win him the Nobel Peace Prize, and his views had bipartisan support. But, in many states, weapons production meant jobs. When Obama was working to secure congressional support for a nuclear-coöperation agreement with Moscow, Republican senators asked, in return, that he sign off on modernizing the country’s arsenal. He agreed.
At that point, nuclear-weapons development in Los Alamos was only one part of the lab’s remit. Its scientists had also carried out advanced research into nuclear energy, hydraulic fracturing, hydrogen storage, fuel-cell development, and carbon capture and sequestration. But, in 2015, Congress instructed the National Nuclear Security Administration to prepare to build new warheads, and Los Alamos refocussed its mission. A scientist there told me, “The center of mass has shifted from ‘We are a multipurpose lab’ to ‘We are an honest-to-goodness weapons laboratory, and that’s what’s going to dominate.’ ” He likened it to a factory.
The lab is supposed to be building the capacity to produce thirty war-ready plutonium pits per year. So far, it has created just one, even as the budget has tripled. Mounting international tensions have only increased the pressure. According to the Defense Department, China has developed more than six hundred operational nuclear warheads, and it could have twice as many by 2030. The treaty that Obama signed with Russia in 2010 expires next year, and it is not expected to be renewed. Last June, in an address recorded for the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association, António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, warned of the creeping threat of nuclear war. “Humanity is on a knife’s edge,” he said. In 2023, Russia de-ratified a landmark nuclear-testing-ban treaty, and in November, following Ukraine’s use of long-range American missiles, Vladimir Putin lowered his country’s threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump’s stance on nuclear weapons has been one of obsessive and reckless bombast. During his first term, Trump reportedly said, “If nuclear war happens, we won’t be second in line pressing the button.” He used social media to brag about the size of the U.S. arsenal and taunted Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea. His Administration also signalled interest in reviving America’s defunct underground weapons-testing program. In preparation for his second term, he has adopted Ronald Reagan’s old motto—“Peace through strength.” But his military aims have been difficult to pin down, and the views of his presumptive cabinet are scattershot. Sharon Weiner, a professor of foreign policy and global security at American University, said that Trump’s nominees appear “willing to violate norms and rules that have been in place for a long time.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., as fears about China reach a fever pitch, a sense of alarm is seeping into discussions about nuclear policy. During a recent panel, Robert Peters, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation who once worked as a lead strategist for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, discussed the slow progress at Los Alamos with frustration. “Let’s waive the environmental regulations, blow up the mountain, pave it over, build a highway that you need to get there, fire everyone who’s not building warheads,” Peters said. Increasingly, politicians have advocated boosting the number of nuclear weapons—not just updating the existing ones. “The U.S. is embarking on a pair of arms races,” Jeffrey Lewis, a non-proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said. “You hear from both Democrats and Republicans that expansion is inevitable.”
In Los Alamos, it is widely acknowledged that, during the Manhattan Project, environmental concerns were not a priority. Nuclear waste was simply dumped in the ground. This past August, a retired chemistry professor from Northern Arizona University named Michael Ketterer, who has studied nuclear sites around the West, announced that he had found what he called “the most extreme plutonium-contamination scenario” he has seen in an area close to Los Alamos. (The Department of Energy and the laboratory maintain that the radiation levels at the site are safe.) Worker-safety issues have also been a problem. In 2013, weapons development at the lab’s plutonium facility temporarily ceased after a series of incidents, including one in which staff members arranged plutonium rods together, for a photo opportunity, in a scenario that could have sparked an enormous nuclear reaction.
The contractors in charge of the lab maintain that they have learned from past errors. But the recent pressure to produce appears to align with a culture of haste. One of the oversight agencies that inspects the lab has published reports that reveal a concerning number of safety breaches. Last summer, plutonium was found on the hands of a worker who had handled radiological material without gloves. (“A key corrective action planned from this event is additional reinforcement of glove usage requirements,” the inspector wrote.) The following week, the same inspector reported that a glove box containing radioactive material had cracked, prompting an evacuation of personnel. A year earlier, a newly hired radiation-control technician was found to have been working for weeks without a dosimeter, the device with which workers monitor their exposure to radioactive materials. Suggested corrective actions included “ensuring that newly qualified RCTs receive their dosimeters prior to starting work.”
Like many of the people I spoke to in Española, Braley had complex feelings about the lab at Los Alamos. During the lecture I attended, he told students that, with incidents of radiation exposure, there was often no one to blame—accidents were more likely to be an unfortunate confluence of events in the presence of unforgiving materials. But he also reserved the right to skepticism. “I don’t feel like the workforce has really adopted a safety mentality,” he told me, of Los Alamos. “I think what they’ve got is a production mentality: ‘We have to meet certain milestones, and we don’t want to let a little bit of contamination slow us down.’ ”
More than twenty-five years ago, Congress, recognizing that Los Alamos’s economic dominance had been unhealthy for northern New Mexico, passed a law creating a foundation that would attempt to address inequities. The Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation now funds workplace-training programs and provides scholarships for nearby students, regardless of whether they go on to work at the lab. When I asked Alvin Warren, a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo and the foundation’s vice-president of policy and impact, what he hoped the region would look like in thirty years, he said, “That my grandchildren can hunt elk in our canyon and not worry about whether it’s safe to eat; that they can go to school where they want and pursue whatever career they think is appropriate for them; that, if they believe strongly that the lab is not a good place to work, they don’t feel compelled to work there.”
The contractors who run Los Alamos maintain that they, too, are trying to improve economic outcomes in the area. “We are trying to build a workforce for the entire region,” Rebecca Estrada, who oversees Los Alamos’s recruitment efforts, told me. The lab provides funding for the training of math and science teachers, and backs an apprenticeship program for early-education workers. It partners with a union representing welders, plumbers, and electricians that recruits kids out of high school. But the lab’s ubiquity also creates a narrow set of options. “It limits other types of economic growth and productivity,” Frank Loera, who directs the career-and-technical-education program at Northern New Mexico College, said.
Stevannah Marquez, Braley’s student from Chimayó, told me that she’d grown up with an embedded understanding of the risks of working at Los Alamos. As a child, she heard about numerous people and relatives who became ill after working at the lab. One friend, she said, was paralyzed from his exposures. “Older generations didn’t have the justice,” she told me. But, she added, optimistically, “We know now what to do.”
Marquez’s ties to northern New Mexico are deep. Her home town, which is situated in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, east of Española, is the terminus of a revered annual pilgrimage. In the week before Easter, New Mexico’s highways fill with people walking to the Santuario de Chimayó, a Catholic church. Every year, Marquez leaves water for the pilgrims outside her house. “I will never leave Chimayó,” she said. But her allegiance to her home has also curtailed her options. Chimayó has suffered from the opioid epidemic, and local jobs are limited. Marquez said that leaving her job in medicine was bittersweet. “I love taking care of people,” she told me. After her years with sick patients, she liked the idea of keeping workers at the lab safe. She hoped that one day she might be able to find a job cleaning up the environment—perhaps removing waste from the Manhattan Project that sits atop the canyons that funnel the summer monsoons into the Rio Grande. “Furthering your knowledge and understanding of anything is always a good opportunity,” Marquez said, “even if it may seem like it’s the only one.” ♦
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TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Friday, (12/27/2024)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Cautious optimism surrounds plans for the world’s first nuclear fusion power plant
The Week
While nuclear power plants have become ubiquitous, they all operate … And there is also heavy support on the business side of things for the plant.
Pompeo issues warning about Iranian nuclear threat: ‘Make sure this never happens’
YouTube
… all-encompassing news service delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network in cable, FNC has been the …
Inside the world’s first nuclear reactor that will power Earth using the same energy as the Sun
Euronews
… things, we need to make one as big as … Remember in the 50s when they promised nuclear reactors were going to solve all the world’s problems?
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Inside the world’s first nuclear reactor that will power Earth using the same energy as the Sun
Euronews.com
Euronews Next went behind the scenes at the world’s largest nuclear fusion device attempting to harness the same reaction that powers the Sun and …
Why Nuclear Energy is Suddenly Making a Comeback – YouTube
YouTube
In the 2010s, US nuclear plants were struggling to compete against cheap natural gas and renewable energy sources. But the intensifying threat of …
Earthquake-prone Indonesia considers nuclear power plan as 29 possible plant sites revealed – ABC
ABC
Indonesia’s energy council has proposed 29 sites for nuclear power plants in a bid to secure reliable energy sources and reduce carbon emissions.
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Ukrenergo has shown the power outage schedules for December 27: possible force majeure – 112
112
Accidents and Emergencies · Ukrenergo has … Czech company secretly supplied critical equipment for Ukrainian nuclear power plant today, 06:21.
Nuclear War
NEWS
Russia warns the United States on possible nuclear testing under Trump | Reuters
Reuters
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attends a meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin on operational issues at the …
Nuclear bunker sales up in 2024, but experts warn not a solution – NewsNation
NewsNation
Sales for private underground bunkers increased in 2024 · The invasion of Ukraine, war in Gaza and COVID-19 drove sales · Some professionals w..
New Mexico’s Nuclear-Weapons Boom | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
Abe Streep on the push to reinvigorate nuclear-weapons production at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and J. Robert …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
Trump once wanted to curb the threat of nuclear war. He should try again.
The Boston Globe
He is an iconoclastic leader who brings novel risks and possible benefits to the struggle to prevent nuclear war. The nuclear threat is great — and …
Opinion: Nuclear weapons are not a fact of life – The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the growing risk of nuclear war today. Russia is making regular nuclear threats. America is undertaking a large …
Iran’s turbulent 2025: Nuclear tensions, economic struggles, rising regional risks – Al Arabiya
Al Arabiya
… nuclear weapons, the specter of an Israeli military strike grows ever more likely. Israel has long considered Iran’s nuclear ambitions a direct threat
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
Experts Warn Of Imminent Risk From Volcanic Eruptions – The Pinnacle Gazette
Evrim Ağacı
For example, ice core samples reveal the eruption of the Samalas volcano … Helens and Yellowstone caldera, require comprehensive evacuation and …
IAEA Weekly News
27 December 2024
A look back at 2024’s big moments and more, read the top news and stories published on IAEA.org this week.
24 December 2024
IAEA Director General Visits Paraguay to Strengthen Cooperation on Nuclear Sciences and Energy for Development
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Paraguay as part of ongoing support for the country’s use of nuclear science to advance its development in the areas of food security, cancer care and clean energy. Read more →
23 December 2024
Top ‘Nuclear Explained’ Reads in 2024
The IAEA’s ‘Nuclear Explained’ series takes scientific and technical subjects related to nuclear topics and makes them easier to understand. Here are our top five explainers from 2024. Read more →
20 December 2024
IAEA Year in Review 2024
The IAEA had another eventful year in 2024, expanding its work to support peace and development even further out into the world. Read more →