Fate of LANL building rests in judge's hands

From the Santa Fe New Mexican.com - National security met environmental protection in a crossfire Monday, as a federal legal team wrapped up its defense on behalf of the largest construction project in New Mexico history, aside from the interstate highway system. When the hearing began Wednesday in federal court, attorneys for the Los Alamos Study Group, a nonprofit public-interest organization, presented their case for stopping all work on a $4 billion to $6 billion proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory while a new environmental impact statement is prepared. Andrew Smith, a trial lawyer in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, representing the National Nuclear Security Administration, argued the NEPA process under way is an extension of several previous environmental studies that led to a formal record of decision in 2004 to build the nuclear facility. Read more

Fate of LANL building rests in judge's hands