BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Los Alamos National Laboratory DOE/NNSA Federal Manager Ted Wyka told Los Alamos Council Tuesday evening during their regular session that LANL is currently operating under full budget authority, expecting to receive $5.2 billion in federal appropriations with a significant portion coming to support our expanding nuclear weapons activities.
“There will be increased construction activity as NNSA continues to work to modernize infrastructure around the site. I also expect the Lab will do well in maintaining their Research & Development capabilities as they focus on such issues as artificial intelligence, small modular reactors, the nuclear fuel cycle and geothermal power generation. Overall, I expect LANL’s budget to be solid and stable,” Wyka said.
On hiring, he said because of LANL’s continued responsibility in the nuclear weapons arena, he expects them to hire somewhere between 1,000 and 1,400 new employees this year.
“Let me be very deliberate in what those numbers mean; LANL typically attrites about 900 staff a year, so the numbers I just mentioned would include that attrition in adding 100-500 new staff on top of the 900. The message on hiring is that it will continue and there is no planned hiring freeze,” Wyka said.
With regard to operational safety, he said LANL continues to exert significant effort into their safety and compliance activities.
“They recently passed their annual New Mexico Environment Department RCRA inspection with no violations, which is pretty incredible for an operation of their size. In addition the success they have had reestablishing pit production could not have been achieved without steadily improving operational safety. My office recognizes that continual safety improvement is the goal across the site and my staff is working hard to not lose focus on that goal,” Wyka said.
He told Council the NNSA Los Alamos Field Office is finalizing a contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct two important studies in Rendija Canyon.
“The first is a housing feasibility study that will focus on the feasibility of housing in Rendija Canyon. The second is a comprehensive unexploded ordinance scan. This study arises from earlier negotiations between NNSA and Los Alamos County. It will develop a cost estimate and recommendation to scan for any unexploded ordinance to a depth of greater than four feet. An initial scan has been done for three inches,” Wyka said.
He added that Triad is finalizing paper to allocate about $500,000 for both studies. A performance period is expected to begin this month and go through the end of this year. Wyka said the project experienced a significant delay due to the deferred resignation program during which more than 317,000 federal employees resigned or retired. Consequently the southwest region of the U.S. Corps of Engineers was unable to support the work and it is assigned to the Omaha Division.
Wyka said the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade Project (EPCU) mobilized construction in October 2025, starting with underground utility work that began impacting West Jemez traffic on site in February.
“The new transmission line and internal system upgrades will ensure that the Lab can continue to operate and retain vital missions. The project will begin upgrades to onsite substations as early as May and will continue substantial electrical utilities work across the site through 2028. NNSA and Lab staff are actively negotiating finalizing permits with the Bureau of Land Management as well as Santa Fe National Forest Service. I expect work to begin on the Caja del Rio Plateau this fall,” he said.
Wyka also discussed the recent posting of Volume 2 of the final report detailing downwind air and soil sampling measurements conducted in support of Flanged Tritium Waste Container Depressurization Operation last fall.
“This volume summarizes downwind environmental sample results and explores different modeling scenarios that were performed after the operation concluded. Volume 1 of the report discusses in detail the execution of the FTWC plan. Both volumes contain a day-by-day rundown of the operations and are available on the Lab’s FTWC webpage,” he said.
Wyka recognized the performance of the more than 100 employees from the various organizations who he said worked very deliberately on this project over the last several years.
“Depressurization of the four containers began Sept. 15 and the final container was shipped off site to WCF in Texas on Nov. 14. There were no operational safety concerns pertaining to the job. They were very deliberate in their operations. In all the emissions were very low compared to active air emission standards,” he said.
Stephanie Stringer, Deputy Field Operations Manager for Missions and Stewardship to give an overview of the LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement.
The Los Alamos Field Office worked with DOE Environmental Management to create the new SWEIS, which evaluates operations for the next 15 years, through 2038. The last SWEIS was published in 2008 and there were subsequent analyses to that. This SWEIS analyzes the future planned operations at LANL with three different alternatives shown in the graphics below.
A couple of years was spent drafting the LANL SWEIS and a draft was published in January 2025 and the public comment ran through April 10, 2025. The Final SWEIS has not yet been issued for the public but Stringer said it is expected to be released any day now. She said it is a really massive document when you include all the appendices and associated documents.
Stringer said the SWEIS evaluates projects that are proposed in the Campus Masterplan and other documents and covers a period of up to 15 years. LANL is a very big area and the masterplan eases the organization and is helps plan what needs to be done at the Lab to feed into the analyses in the SWEIS.
Stringer said not all of the projects listed on the three graphics are approved nor will they all be implemented.
“We wanted the analyses to be comprehensive for all of the planning so that we are ready to proceed on the projects we did want to move forward on. A lot of it just depends on getting funding for them and evaluating the need as we go,” she said. “Our preferred alternative is the Expanded Operations Alternative, which is the one we recommended for approval.”
“We want to understand what those impacts are and we want to minimize or avoid any of those potential impacts as part of this process,” Stringer said, referring to the chart above. “A good example of that is cultural resources. The SWEIS indicates that up to 15 or 16 cultural resources could be impacted from these activities, however, our goal is always zero impact and we have a very robust program that really avoids any impacts. If we identify a cultural resource that is being impacted, we stop work and we do everything we can to avoid or mitigate that.”
Stringer said the input and comments received from stakeholders were included in the final draft.
“The notable changes that I wanted to mention that occurred during our process included: there was a recission of executive orders relating to environmental justice and climate change impacts from greenhouse gases; and there was a recission of the Environmental Council of Quality NEPA regulations. While those executive orders were implemented, a lot of the concepts were covered in related areas. For example, environmental justice – a lot of that went into the socioeconomic analysis section and a lot of the climate change impacts went into different environmental sections of the document,” she said.
She noted that there were new NEPA implementing procedures that came out in June 2025 that somewhat streamline the document.
“We had already begun before those procedures came out so it was pretty minimally impacting our processes. There were page limits that we had to meet in order to align with the applicable requirements so we did have to reduce it. We tried to make the document as readabledoes as possible with very complex subjects, all of the planning goes into LANL and the environmental analysis, so there are very lengthy appendices that provide the context and the supporting information to that shortened document,”
Other changes noted by Stringer included updates to analytical parameters for total workforce, the estimated worker dose in PF4 and the projected waste generation during PF4 refurbishment and pit production.
“I would say that was one of the areas that we goy a significant number of comments and Ted (Wyka) pulled together a working group to make sure we had the most accurate data feeding into that final document, so I feel that was a good improvement and response to the comments that were received through the process,” she said. “There were also mission changes that we had to incorporate into the document to reflect and align with our leadership.”
Wyka interjected that the SWEIS looks at everything that could happen within the next 15 years. He said it doesn’t mean everything will be done.
“We have to issue record of decisions of everything that we’re going to do from this impact statement. If our mission should change, there’s other vehicles we would use to continue the analysis. If our pit production numbers increases, we would do a supplement and other analysis to support those,” Wyka said.
In a response to a question from Councilor Beverly Neal Clinton, Wyka said, “Operational impacts would be on our mission space, those affecting the community in terms of traffic, in terms of the workforce up here. We’ve sort of analyzed for that as well. As I mentioned, our workforce isn’t going to increase all that much. We’re mainly making up for attrition. The work skill mixes may change as we get into operations from construction and D&D to workforce with crafts, trades, subject matter experts. In terms of the operations, I don’t think there is going to be a significant impact to Los Alamos County. The traffic is probably where we are now – where we have a lot of programs in place to try to reduce that. We’re using remote working where we can. We have buildings in Santa Fe that we can house people in as well as bussing and doing all we can to reduce the number of folks that will actually be up here doing mission type work,”
Councilor David Reagor asked about the small modular reactors mentioned by Wyka. Stringer said there is NEPA coverage for a micro-reactor but that it doesn’t mean there will be a need for it right away. Wyka said the analysis was done in case during the next 15 years there is a need for additional power supplies but the small modular reactor is not something he anticipates being done.
Council Theresa Cull asked about the logo on the NNSA slides that says, “Peace Through Atomic Strength” and where it came from. Wyka said he believed that it was referred to by the last speaker at the nuclear deterrence summit.
“Our job here is to implement national security policies. We don’t develop the policies, we implement them and we do it in a safe, secure and environmentally compliant manner,” Wyka said.
Councilor Cull also said she is assuming the Lab is still doing some basic science in addition to being funded by NNSA to do pits and other similar things.
“Absolutely,” Wyka responded. “Science is still probably the jewel of the complex in terms our science and research development, not only in our national security research areas but in all aspects – energy, medical, environmental – you name it. Los Alamos is involved in it. And it’s important because that’s how we get the best of the best from the universities. There’s no master’s degree or PhD in pit building. We get them with interest in other things and we’re able to attract the best by coming up and doing science work. Some of them come into the national defense sectors so it’s a benefit to keep doing the great science that we’re doing as well as our critical national security work.”
Councilor Ryn Herrmann asked if all of the changes mentioned in the SWEIS would happen on the existing LANL imprint. Wyka affirmed that it would happen on the 40 square mile footprint in the canyons as well as on the mesas.
Council Chair Randall Ryti asked about a couple of things he said were in the news lately.
“It has been reported about the number of pits going from 30 to 60 and I just wondered how that relates to the SWEIS. The other thing that was reported was about rad dose and the work being done on that,’ Ryti said.
Wyka again noted that NNSA doesn’t set policy but implements policy defined by the President or the Department of War.
“This SWEIS is based on a nuclear posture from 2018 or 2019 which had 3up to 30 pits here in Los Alamos by 2028 with a surge capacity of 80 as well as including Savannah River for its 50. So we’ve designed for at least 30 with a surge capacity of 80 and if our requirements are increased or changed, then we would do a supplemental analysis to confirm whatever numbers we’re supposed to go to to implement those national security requirements,” Wyka said.
Ryti said he was struck by the fact that the headcount for LANL workers had increased by 10,000 from 2015 to 2025. He said one accident can lead to many hours of delay for people trying to leave. He asked if Wyka could share some information on the impact of the measures that have already been put in place and whether or not people are taking advantage of the other commuting options.
Wyka, who lives in the Los Alamos community, said the traffic measures are important for quality of life, noting that his workers and the LANL workers tell him that the most terrifying part of the day is driving to work and driving home.
“I really appreciate the partnership with the Council as well – doing what we can to control and reduce traffic a little bit. Part of that means speed cameras and a great partnership with the Los Alamos Police Department from an enforcement perspective. We also get it from a performance perspective. The Lab Director and I enforce the policy that if you’re driving recklessly and getting tickets, there’s no confidence that you’re going to follow rules when you go into your nuclear facilities as well. So it’s a behavioral performance issue that we’re enforcing as well to obey the rules to drive in a proper manner,” he said.
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