By KRWG News
Los Alamos – The National Nuclear Security Administration has released the final supplemental environmental impact statement for a $5.8 billion proposed plutonium laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The document covers the nuclear facility portion of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project, known as CMRR.
The facility would replace a 60-year-old building that has been declared seismically unsafe. The proposal has been lingering for years, and the NNSA proposes changing the building's design to address earthquake dangers and making other improvements.
Critics claim the building is too expensive and that it would open the possibility to the lab increasing its nuclear bomb-making capabilities.
Officials have said the intent is to have an adequate facility for research that supports the security and reliability of existing nuclear weapons as well as nonproliferation efforts.
___
Final supplemental EIS: http://1.usa.gov/qS7wpK
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.