Los Alamos National Laboratory is slowing its hiring and growth with aims to alleviate overcrowding in the community, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in answer to a local’s question at a large and vocal town hall Monday.

“We’re not going to continue to grow the lab,” Jill Hruby, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said in answer to a question about the agency’s plans to address workforce and housing issues in New Mexico communities that house the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s workers.

“They’ll still be hiring and replace people who leave the laboratory but not to grow the size of the laboratory,” Hruby added. “So we’re trying to… make sure that growth doesn’t just continue forever. Hopefully the housing can catch up.”

Hruby spoke alongside DOE Environmental Management senior adviser Candice Robertson in a town hall panel at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder in Los Alamos County in Santa Fe, N.M. The crowd, both virtual and in-person, was vocally oppositional toward the lab, with many asking what NNSA planned to do about the lab’s effects on housing, traffic, and waste cleanup.

“This is going to have to be a joint activity,” Hruby said. “Together we need to try to solve this problem so that people can live high quality lives in this area.”