Federal memo urges increased plutonium pit production at LANL - Justin Horwath, Albuquerque Journal
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense programs argued in a memo last month that Los Alamos National Laboratory should increase its annual production of plutonium pits.
“Strategic deterrence is as critical to U.S. national security today as it has been at any point in history,” David E. Beck wrote in the Feb. 11 memo, sent to more than two dozen officials, including LANL Director Thom Mason. “Our adversaries are advancing their capabilities in key nuclear domains, eroding traditional sources of the United States’ strategic advantage.”
The memo was released by the Los Alamos Study Group, a LANL watchdog.
“The memo outlines the Trump administration’s plans to accelerate design and production of nuclear weapons,” said Greg Mello, executive director, in an interview with the Journal on Friday. “NNSA has been told to go fast and get ready.”
The federal Department of Energy describes plutonium pits as a key part of nuclear warheads, which are spherical shells of plutonium about the size of bowling balls.
NNSA on its webpage says that, for various factors, including plutonium aging, these pits need to be replaced from time to time. But for three decades, the U.S. has not been able to produce them in quantities required for the nuclear weapons stockpile.
The agency is statutorily required to produce no fewer than 80 pits annually by 2030. The agency wants to recapitalize facilities at LANL and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to increase pit production.
Mello said increased production of the plutonium pits raises environmental and safety issues as it would lead to “more transportation of plutonium waste products.”
“Los Alamos National Lab and NNSA are loosening the safety rules,” Mello said.
A LANL spokesperson declined to respond to Mello’s comments and directed questions about the memo to the NNSA. The administration did not respond to an email seeking comment.
LANL produced the first plutonium pits as part of the Manhattan Project in 1945, its website notes. But it limited pit production for research purposes after World War II, and the Rocky Flats plant near Denver took up plutonium pit production during much of the Cold War.
The Colorado facility closed in 1989 after the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency raided it over environmental contamination. From 2007 to 2011, LANL ran a short production campaign to support the W88 warhead.
LANL’s PF-4 facility “currently contains the sole U.S. pit production capability and will reach its 50-year life before 2030,” NNSA says.
Beck’s memo calls for the completion of “near-term” modifications to the LANL pit facility to enable the production of 100 pits and achieve a sustained production rate of at least 60 pits per year. As that work occurs at LANL, Beck in the memo called for the Savannah River Site to “facilitate expanded pit production at LANL until the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility achieves full operations.”
“Pits are to be qualified by being produced using qualified processes, equipment, and staff rather than each pit being independently evaluated and qualified,” the memo adds.
Following his nomination, Beck told Congress that he has over 40 years of experience in the nuclear weapons complex, seven of which were spent at LANL as the associate director for weapons and engineering and as a principal deputy for its weapons programs.
His memo advocated for accelerated development of long-range, nuclear-armed cruise missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles, the B61-13 thermonuclear gravity bomb and for the completion of “required initial flight tests of the W93 and W87-1 warheads, achieving test objectives and readiness to proceed to subsequent development phases.”
Those warheads are used by the U.S. Navy’s ballistic submarine force.
“Our overarching imperative is to forge a nuclear security enterprise with the agility and resilience to prevail in an era of renewed great power competition,” the memo said. “Only such an enterprise will be able to field a more diverse, flexible, and effective deterrent on a timeline that influences our adversaries’ calculus surrounding the use of force against the United States and its allies.”
NM regulatory staff asks for more info on PNM $400 million stock sale - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission legal staffers on Thursday filed a brief seeking more information about a $400 million stock sale between PNM’s parent company and an affiliate of the private equity firm seeking to acquire it.
Prosperity Works, an Albuquerque nonprofit with a focus on anti-poverty initiatives, first filed a motion with the PRC earlier this month challenging the 2025 stock sale. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez last week filed a brief in support of the motion and alleged that TXNM could have violated state law when it signed over $400 million worth of stocks to an affiliate of the private equity firm Blackstone at roughly the same time as the acquisition announcement. Torrez’s brief alleged that the transaction required oversight under the state Public Utilities Act, which charges the PRC with overseeing stock sales.
TXNM and Blackstone announced plans for an $11.5 billion acquisition in May of 2025. PRC staffers in the filing said TXNM and private equity firm Blackstone have yet to provide strong evidence that the stock sale was unrelated to the acquisition. However, both sides have denied any wrongdoing.
In their Thursday filing, Public Regulation Commission staff said TXNM and Blackstone should submit evidence that the stock sale was “a standalone financial transaction…unrelated and not for the purposes of the pending acquisition merger.” PRC attorneys also wrote that the parties should submit proof that the stock sale did not result in a controlling share of the company.
State law “requires prior express commission authorization for acquisitions of utility stock made in connection with a merger,” Santa Fe clean energy advocacy organization New Energy Economy Executive Director Mariel Nanasi said in a statement. “That approval was never sought before Blackstone’s $400 million stock transaction closed. You cannot close first and ask permission later.”
The issue is now in the hands of PRC commissioners or the case’s hearing examiner. A PRC spokesperson noted that there is no deadline for when either of those parties must act on the staff filing.
In an emailed statement to Source NM, a Blackstone spokesperson wrote that the firm “has regularly acquired public shares of listed utilities without an expectation of control.”
Likewise, TXNM Vice President of Investor and Community Relations Lisa Goodman told Source NM in an email that the company disagrees with the PRC staff’s interpretation of state law, but said they “welcome the opportunity to provide additional evidence demonstrating that last year’s non-controlling stock issuance, completed in June 2025 and currently funding TXNM Energy’s capital requirements, was in compliance with the law.”
Mayoral candidates crying foul on Española election rules - Santa Fe New Mexican
In Espanola, two candidates competing for the office of mayor against incumbent John Ramon Vigil are questioning the city’s handling of the municipal election.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the candidates have questioned the city clerk’s handling of next Tuesday, Mar. 3 municipal election. They also see some policies as putting them at a disadvantage.
The New Mexican also reports all of the candidates agree on one point: In the future, Espanola should consider opting into the statewide local election program. That would move the municipal elections to November in odd-numbered years, which is the practice in most other New Mexico cities.
Vigil faces challenges from former City Councilor Dennis Tim Salazar as well as write-in candidate Joann Salazar. Both have questioned why voters are not allowed to use cellphones while voting as well as the lack of voter lists provided to candidates during early voting. Lists have been provided in past years.
Joann Salazar said as a write-in candidate, her voters need to be able to spell her name correctly on the ballot. She believes her voters are being “disenfranchised” by the prohibition of phones.
Also, Española straddles both Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties, which observe different policies regarding cellphone use at the polls.
Espanola is following the Rio Arriba phone prohibition.
Judge tosses 2nd lawsuit over Duke Rodriguez’s eligibility to run for New Mexico governor - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
Duke Rodriguez, the former New Mexico cabinet secretary and cannabis CEO seeking the Republican nomination for governor, earned another victory in court Friday morning. A Santa Fe judge dismissed a lawsuit that alleged Rodriguez does not meet the state’s residency requirements.
Former Public Regulation Commissioner and fellow Republican candidate for governor James Ellison filed the lawsuit and accused Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver of failing to verify Rodriguez’s residency. It also accused Rodriguez of predominantly voting in Arizona rather than New Mexico.
A spokesperson for the New Mexico Secretary of State on Tuesday told Source NM that Rodriguez registered to vote in New Mexico in 2010, but noted that his registration was canceled in 2021 as part of a “statutory voter list maintenance process in compliance with the federal National Voter Registration Act.” Rodriguez registered to vote in New Mexico again on Jan. 14 of 2025.
Friday’s decision marked the second time this week a judge has struck down a challenge to the legitimacy of Rodriguez’s campaign. An Aztec judge on Tuesday dismissed a complaint from former Republican Party of Bernalillo County Chair John Rockwell and Navajo Dam resident James Maes that accused him of not meeting the residency requirements spelled out under the state Constitution. Rodriguez’s attorney countered that those requirements are to hold office — not to appear on the ballot.
“Two courts have now dismissed these residency claims…New Mexicans deserve a real campaign — not courtroom theater,” Rodriguez told Source NM Friday.
The state’s constitutional residency requirement for candidates mandates that they “have been continuously registered to vote here for five years” and “have maintained a residence here,” the Secretary of State’s office previously told Source NM.
Rodriguez in litigation has previously referred to himself as a “resident of Scottsdale, Arizona.” And for years when New Mexico court officials attempted to serve him with parking tickets, the envelopes were often sent back to court and marked “return to sender.
Rodriguez announced his Republican campaign for governor in December. He faces Ellison, as well as first-term state Sen. Steve Lanier (R-Aztec), Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and former New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission Chair Doug Turner. The primary election is June 2.
PNM creates new power shutoff alert system for residents in wildfire-prone areas - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
As wildfire season ramps up in New Mexico, the state’s biggest electrical utility has rolled out a new system to alert residents before the utility shuts off power during periods of dangerous fire weather.
Last February, the Public Service Company of New Mexico announced it was considering “public safety power shutoffs” for the first time in areas of the state prone to wildfires. On days with particularly high winds or dry conditions, PNM said it would pre-emptively turn off electricity to prevent a live power line from igniting a wildfire.
Despite multiple warnings, PNM officials only initiated one such shutoff last year: On April 17, the utility briefly cut power to about 2,300 residents in the Las Vegas area.
This year, utility officials determined that they needed to improve how they communicate with the public about the possibility of pre-emptive power shutoffs in their area, PNM spokesperson Eric Chavez told Source NM.
The utility will now place six fire-prone areas in the state under different tiers of alert levels. Residents will be in a shutoff “advisory” two days before severe weather is forecasted and then a “watch” one day before the weather is expected to occur.
The utility asks residents in areas under those categories to prepare for extended outages.
The highest risk level — a “warning” — will turn red on a map the utility announced Wednesday. That will mean that the utility officials will quickly make a decision about shutting off power.
The six areas the utility has designated as high-fire-risk areas subject to shutoffs are in and around Ruidoso, Santa Fe, Silver City, Clayton, Las Vegas and the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque.
Chavez said PNM modeled the new system after National Weather Service weather alerts and is designed to provide residents ample and timely notification.
“We had a lot of opportunity to communicate with customers about public safety power shutoffs last year, and we learned a lot,” he said. “We learned when was too early and when was too late.”
Pre-emptive shutoffs are increasingly necessary, he said, amid increasingly dry and windy conditions to prevent catastrophic wildfires. Recent outlooks from the National Interagency Fire Center say most of Central and Eastern New Mexico will experience above-normal fire risks through March.
Also, the lack of snow this winter across the West raises the risk of early-season wildfire, according to scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Most of the West experienced record temperatures between November and January, and snow cover across the region is far below historic medians.
Christus Health, Southwest Care Center warn patients of possible data security incidents - Santa Fe New Mexican
Christus Health and Southwest Care Center are alerting New Mexico patients to separate data “security incidents,” both of which may have exposed personal information to unauthorized access.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports the privacy alerts from Christus Health stem from a January 2025 incident at laboratory information software vendor Oracle Health. During the incident, an unauthorized user may have accessed Christus Health patients’ names, Social Security numbers, and laboratory records.
The hospital said the incident did not compromise Christus Health information technology systems or clinical operations.
Southwest Care Center, which operates clinics in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, experienced a separate “cybersecurity incident” in June 2025. A notice sent to patients said an unauthorized party may have acquired patients’ personal information. The notice also said the center “has no reason to believe that any individual’s information has been misused as a result of this event.”
A group of patients affected by the incident has filed a class-action lawsuit in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, alleging Southwest Care Center failed to properly safeguard its computer systems and patient data.