Affordable housing. Quality education. Accessible healthcare – these are the demands of local people opposing the expansion of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.
The rush to upgrade is due to a 2018 US Congress mandate to increase production of plutonium ‘pits’. These spherical shells, the size of a bowling ball, begin the chain reaction used to create nuclear weapons. LANL, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, was established in 1943 to conduct scientific research for the Manhattan Project. The Laboratory has been given the target of producing 30 pits each year in order to meet the mandate’s goal.
