POJOAQUE — Members of the audience held signs that said, “Ban the Bomb” and “No Nukes.”

“Feds Stop Destroying New Mexico,” read a large, white banner at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder.

A steady stream of people gathered at the casino resort denounced Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium pit production mission during a town hall Monday night held by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy responsible for overseeing the production of key components of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Attendees also spoke out against a controversial proposed power line that would cut through 14 miles of the ecologically significant Caja del Rio Plateau to shore up the lab’s power supply.

As a part of a multibillion-dollar effort, the lab is working toward the production of nuclear bomb cores with a goal of making 30 per year by 2030. The pursuit for years has generated controversy throughout Northern New Mexico, with critics raising concerns about environmental impacts and potential health risks. Some people at the town hall cited legacy waste that remains on lab property.

“How can we believe you that you are cleaning things up when the federal government has never acknowledged the harm of Trinity on its own citizens?” asked Meredith Maines, referring to the first detonation of an atomic bomb at the Trinity Test Site in Southern New Mexico. She drew wild applause, whistles and whoops from an often raucous audience.

“No more pits,” dozens of people chanted as the event was winding down.

National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and Candice Robertson, the Energy Department’s senior adviser for environmental management, characterized the forum as an opportunity to hear from members of the public and address their concerns.

Los Alamos National Laboratory — responsible for creating the first plutonium pits in 1945 during the Manhattan Project — is the lone facility in the country currently producing the nuclear warhead cores.

Federal officials have reiterated the need for the lab and Savannah River Site in South Carolina to produce a combined 80 plutonium cores yearly to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal as Russia, China and other countries improve their first-strike capabilities and assume a more assertive posture.

Early in her comments at the start of the event, Hruby spoke about global nuclear deterrence, noting China’s strengthening of its nuclear arsenal and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Despite these advances, we do not want an arms race,” Hruby said. “This administration does not want an arms race. The NNSA does not want an arms race. We are trying to exercise leadership and transparency, but we also can’t sit on our hands.”

Last year, the lab saw its budget swell to an all-time high of more than $5 billion, with almost $2 billion of that for pit operations and modernizing the plutonium facility. The lab has also hired 2,500 new workers, the most ever.

Anti-nuclear groups and nuclear watchdog groups have noted the project has experienced delays.

In a meeting with news media ahead of the town hall, however, Hruby said, “Los Alamos and the pit production mission is going very well.” The goal, she said is to “get more consistent as we approach 2030” in producing 30 pits a year.

Federal officials said the lab reached a key milestone in February when it developed its first plutonium pit that could be placed in a nuclear warhead.

Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, maintained in an interview before the event the Los Alamos lab is “accident prone” and “a bad fit” for the production of nuclear bomb cores. He added, “They don’t need it here.”

Federal officials have said a new high-voltage power line to the lab is needed to support two existing lines that are anticipated to reach capacity by late 2027. The additional line would also give the lab a backup power source, which is crucial for the lab’s supercomputers, officials have said.

Joseph Brophy Toledo, a member of Jemez Pueblo, criticized the the plan for transmission towers and a 100-foot-wide path from the lab through White Rock Canyon, south across the Caja del Rio Plateau and then east through the Santa Fe National Forest to a substation.

“The Caja del Rio is a peace-making part of our area. It’s not a place where we should have all of these disturbances coming through the land,” he said.

Santa Fe County Commissioner Anna Hansen called the power line proposal “unworkable.”

During a public meeting in January at Santa Fe Community College, several dozen people spoke out against the project, decrying the environmental damage it would cause on the Caja del Rio.

According to LANL’s website, the Department of Energy and NNSA are preparing a final environmental assessment that includes public comment.