Posted on February 25, 2011 by Thomas M. Hnasko
The Los Alamos Study Group (the “Study Group”) is presently challenging the United States Department of Energy (“DOE”) and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (“NNSA”) efforts to construct the new Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility (“CMRR-NF”) at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The Study Group’s complaint, in federal district court in Albuquerque, asserts that the project has changed so dramatically that an eight-year old environmental impact statement (“EIS”) does not begin to adequately analyze the environmental impacts of the present iteration of the CMRR-NF, and that defendants’ offer to conduct a supplemental environmental impact statement (“SEIS”) is merely a fait accompli to continue with the detailed planning and initial construction of the massive venture.
In considering the original Nuclear Facility, the federal defendants issued an EIS in 2003, and followed it with a Record of Decision (“ROD”) in 2004. The 2003 EIS addressed a Nuclear Facility to be built no deeper than 50-75 feet below grade. In the years that followed, however, seismic conditions underlying Los Alamos became better understood, and the federal defendants were faced with a project that arguably did not take into account those conditions. There was no discussion in the 2003 EIS of deeper excavation and no reference to a layer of volcanic ash known to underlie the site that would greatly complicate plans to construct at a greater depth, or meet then-known seismic safety criteria. The ROD stated that: “[B]ased on the CMRR EIS, the environmental impacts of the preferred alternative” (built 50 feet or less deep) would be “minimal” and “small.”
Moreover, since 2004, the project has seen further fundamental changes. The original budget for the Nuclear Facility was estimated at $350-$500 million. In 2003, the estimate, as reported to Congress, was $600 million. The EIS stated that construction would be completed in 2009; now, it is estimated to conclude in 2022, at a cost approaching $6 billion.
In 2003, NNSA reported that the Nuclear Facility would have 60,000 square feet of Hazard Category 2 space within 200,000 square feet of gross area. The CMRR-NF has now changed from a structure to be built to a depth of 50 feet, to a structure requiring an excavation to 125 feet, with the bottom 50-60 feet of the hole filled with concrete. As a result, the total volume of excavation for the CMRR-NF has increased from about 167,000 cubic yards in 2003, to 579,000-704,000 cubic yards in 2010, a three-to-four fold increase in construction equipment, spoilage, and disposal needs. The volume of soil now remaining to be excavated has increased six-fold.
Additionally, changes in the basic concept of the Nuclear Facility have expanded to include the introduction of the so-called “hotel concept” that would accommodate various unknown future missions, but would require large open floor areas and significant increases in concrete and steel. The concrete now needed is 371,000 cubic yards, up from 3,194 cubic yards. This is more concrete than was used for the Big-I Interchange in Albuquerque, or for the Elephant Butte Dam in southern New Mexico. The steel needed is now 18,539 tons, up from 242 tons. That is roughly the equivalent of the Eifel Tower. In short, the Nuclear Facility dwarfs the Manhattan Project and would be the largest construction project in the history of the State of New Mexico.
The Los Alamos Study Group case is one of first impression, as it is the first to contest the federal defendants’ decision to perform a SEIS as opposed to a new EIS altogether. Unlike a SEIS, an EIS must consider all available alternatives, including refurbishment of existing, under-utilized buildings at Los Alamos, and any other alternative besides the construction of the present iteration of the $6 billion CMRR-NF. Many of those alternatives, rejected in the original 2004 Record of Decision, may now be viable given the significant cost increases in the present version of the Nuclear Facility.
The federal defendants have filed a motion to dismiss based on prudential mootness and other grounds. All pleadings and other filings in the case may be obtained on the Study Group’s website.
Tags: Nuclear Waste