Fukushima Be Damned, Federal Court Brushes Off Seismic Nuke Risks

In the lawsuit, LASG contended that the project should not proceed without a valid, new environmental impact statement (EIS) to address seismic risks that building the facility at Los Alamos might incur. Apparently, the area is at risk of earthquakes as large as those that rocked Japan. Worse, the site rests on loose volcanic ash especially susceptible to shifting should an earthquake occur, which can result in fire and the release of radiation.

An EIS hasn’t been worked up for the facility since 2003 and LASG believes that simply revising it in the form of a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) is woefully inadequate in light of how much plans for the facility have expanded. Unfortunately, the judge didn’t agree and dismissed the lawsuit. From LASG’s latest newsletter:

Judge Herrera’s opinion rested heavily on the [SEIS] now underway, stating that this process itself, which began only after the Study Group’s litigation was filed, and its “public participation” component in particular were sufficient for the court to stay its hand — and dismiss the lawsuit. The judge did not rule on the Study Group’s motion to enjoin the project. [LASG] has been urging members of the public to stay away from the SEIS hearings, which it regards as illegitimate.

And which, as has been pointed out to me, began the day that the judge dismissed the suit. Of the hearings, Mello said

“We need to call them ‘hearings,’ in quotations . . . because the public record is replete with Administration statements saying it is not under any circumstances going to reconsider its commitment to this project, unlike what is implied in the hearing process. . . . [LASG] has instead called citizens to engage substantively with government on all levels to challenge. . . . Local government resolutions supporting [LASG's] lawsuit were passed by four local governments.

In the end, writes Mello:

This decision, while disappointing, will not stop our opposition to this highly destructive project. It’s a speed bump. If NNSA thinks they are in the clear now, they are wrong.

Nor does the ruling

. . . change the facts on the ground — the high seismicity, the cramped site and poor geology, the lack of need, the lack of money, and the basic horror and immorality of the mission.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Los Alamos Study Group is manning the front lines of disarmament: the actual building of nuclear facilities. In a sense, what it’s doing is trying to save the Obama administration — and the United States — from itself. The vast amount of money being spent on the CMRR-NF and the nature of one of its products — the cores of nuclear weapons — undermines any message of nonproliferation that we’re trying to send to the world with initiatives such as the new START treaty. Excuse me if I repeat myself, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think our disarmament double-dealing escapes the notice of a state like Iran.

Cross-posted from the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.

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