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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 26, 2026:

GOVERNMENT INCREASES PLUTONIUM AT LIVERMORE LAB:

Decision Made “In the Dark,” Circumventing Public Environmental Review Process; Must be Retracted, Says Watchdog Group

Contacts:

Scott Yundt, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Executive Director, scott@trivalleycares.org, 415.990.2027 (cell)

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs’ Senior Advisor, marylia@trivalleycares.org, 925.255.3589 (cell)

Livermore, CA – Late last week, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) quietly posted a simultaneous Record of Decision (ROD) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) approving “Enhanced Plutonium Utilization” at the Lab, located in the San Francisco East Bay and one of two locations that designs all U.S. nuclear warheads and bombs. No draft EIS was ever publicly circulated and no public hearing on the draft plan occurred.

The Final EIS and ROD, effective immediately, “green light” the most significant changes in plutonium work at Livermore Lab since 2008, when the Lab failed a force-on-force security drill and was compelled to downsize its plutonium usage, storage and transportation by 2012.

Now, eighteen years later, the EIS and ROD reveal a major increase in plutonium work at the Lab. All figures in the EIS and ROD are compared to the Livermore Lab’s present-day activities. Thus, the risks already associated with these activities will rise commensurately. Figures are annual. The new decision codifies that:

• There will be an 180% increase in the number of plutonium shipments into and out of Livermore Lab;
• There will be a 400% increase in transuranic nuclear waste (which designates a higher concentration of plutonium than “low level” plutonium-contaminated waste);
• There will be a 20% increase in “low level” radioactive waste generated at the Lab;
• There will be a 6.6% increase in the dose to transportation crews;
• There will be a 21% increase in latent cancer fatalities in the populations along the transportation routes; and,
• There will be a 27% increase in the collective worker dose from radiological emissions.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Public Hearing tomorrow 5/12 on Plutonium Bomb Core Production Plan, and Livermore Lab’s Role

Lawsuit by Livermore Non-Profit Results in Government Public Hearing about New Nuclear Weapons Production and the Dangers Involved

Livermore – The third of five public hearings taking place across the country will happen here in Livermore on Tuesday evening, May 12, beginning at 5pm at Garre Vineyards  (7986 Tesla Rd.) The public will finally get the opportunity to comment on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans to build up to 205 new plutonium pits per year for a new generation of nuclear weapons designs.

The designs include those in development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, specifically the W87-1 warhead for the new Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program which is already years behind schedule and famously over budget. In addition, Livermore Lab has already received over $160 million in funding for “Enterprise Plutonium Pit Support” work in the last few budget cycles, and is slated to receive $167 million more for this work in fiscal year 2027. It is a major player in certification of new plutonium pits for its weapons designs and will carry out the “sub-critical” tests of the new warheads at the Nevada National Security Site necessary to certify a new warhead with all new components.

Production of plutonium will occur elsewhere in the nuclear weapons complex (at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and at Savannah River Site in South Carolina as currently proposed). However, Livermore Lab is so deeply involved in the project, and has announced the need for “Enhanced Plutonium Utilization” at the site. This will require an increase to its Security Category to allow increased “plutonium throughput” and increased quantities of plutonium at individual workstations at the Lab. 

The public around the site has expressed serious concerns about the plan. Many plan to show up to the hearing to express not just issues with the plutonium plans at the Lab, but problems with the process. Local resident and board member at Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (CAREs), Mary Perner, stated, “with more than 85,000 people living in Livermore, and neighborhoods, including my own, stretching right up to the fenceline, I am concerned about the Lab’s plan to “enhance plutonium utilization” in my backyard.”

Tri-Valley CAREs, which was a plaintiff in the lawsuit that resulted in Tuesday’s public hearing coming to Livermore, is led by Executive Director, Scott Yundt. “This hearing is the result of several years of letter writing and litigation that coalesced the efforts of communities around the country expressing the need for the government to release a nation-wide analysis of the impacts of this major nuclear weapons development plan to include all of the directly affected communities, including Livermore,” Yundt said.

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South Carolina Environmental Law Project

Savannah River Site Watch

Nuclear Watch New Mexico 

Tri-Valley CAREs 

Union of Concerned Scientists

Plaintiffs Tour the Savannah River Site’s Plutonium “Pit” Bomb Core Plant, Most Expensive Building in U.S. History is Key to New Nuclear Arms Race

For Immediate Release April 22, 2026

Contact: Tom Clements, Director, SRS Watch, 803-240-7268, tomclements329[at]srswatch.org; 

  Jay Coghlan, Nuclear Watch NM, 505-989-7342, cell: 505.470.3154, jay[at]nukewatch.org

  Shelby Cohen, Comms Manager, SC Env. Law Project, 864.414.7726, shelby[at]scelp.org 

Columbia, SC – On April 21, plaintiffs Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs toured the plutonium “pit” bomb core production plant at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina. They were accompanied by their attorney from the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and a science consultant from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Plutonium pits are the core components of all U.S. nuclear weapons. The NNSA is seeking to expand production to at least 30 plutonium pits per year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and at least 50 pits per year at SRS, which has never previously produced pits. NNSA pushed forward with the project without required public review, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

Plaintiffs sued in federal court in Columbia, SC and won, requiring the NNSA to complete a nationwide programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS), with public hearings to be held this May (listed below). The court-approved settlement agreement also required an inspection of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility by plaintiffs to ensure that no production begins before the completion of the final PEIS and simultaneous Record of Decision, which NNSA now says is expected in early 2027. NNSA officials also informed plaintiffs that 90% design and “rebaselined” costs will not be completed until September 2026, which means that once again Congress will be appropriating taxpayers’ money without knowing full costs. 

The SRS pit plant will be the most expensive buildings ever built in the USA, with a current NNSA estimate of up to $30 billion even before all total costs are known (includes at least $5 billion in sunk costs for SRS’ failed MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility being “repurposed” to pit production). The agency’s recent budget request for FY 2027 (pp 17-19) reveals an 87% jump in combined pit production funding for LANL and SRS, averaging $5 billion for each of the next six years. 

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