Our government has embarked on a “modernization” program for America’s nuclear weapons, with Los Alamos National Laboratory producing the radioactive warhead cores (called pits) for a replacement ground based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Sentinel. This program will profoundly impact New Mexicans at local, state and national levels.

Both Los Alamos and Carlsbad will be affected. The former, still beset with unremediated pollution from previous radioactive production, will be vulnerable to increasing pollution hazards and, simultaneously, find its local infrastructure stretched beyond capacity. Moreover, Native American concerns will be compromised. Carlsbad, the home of the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) designed to store low grade radioactive materials, will now house additional radioactive waste.

From the state perspective, New Mexico will become the transit route of nuclear components and waste. Plans reportedly call for radioactive materials to be moved from Los Alamos to a weapons facility in South Carolina and then back to New Mexico and the WIPP site.

All New Mexicans can anticipate two impacts at the national level — ever-increasing spending and reestablishment of a destabilizing and unnecessary system. First, some projections assert that the full modernization program will cost taxpayers an estimated $2 trillion over 30 years. Current analyses show that Sentinel alone is already 80% over budget, behind schedule and will ultimately cost somewhere between $172 billion and $382 billion in 2024 dollars including the warhead and plutonium core.

Second, a nuclear-armed, land-based intercontinental missile is both destabilizing and redundant. ICBMs increase potential for accidental war since they are located at fixed sites well-known to potential adversaries and among the initial targets of any attack on the U.S. Because incoming warheads would destroy Sentinels in the first wave, the president would have only minutes to decide if a warning is a real attack before triggering American retaliation. But, once launched, land based ICBM flight cannot be interrupted and warheads will strike and destroy their targets — even if the warning turned out to be a false alarm.

While a nuclear conflagration is unimaginable, America can deter and, if necessary, fight with a parallel nuclear warfare capability that exists and eliminates the destabilizing aspects of the land-based system. Submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) provide identical strike capabilities as ICBMs but their invulnerability to detection eliminates the destabilizing aspect of the land-based component.

Production of warhead pits for Sentinel at Los Alamos puts New Mexico at the center of this issue. It is imperative that New Mexico’s political leaders at the national, state and local levels vigorously engage in the debate over the strategic weapons modernization program — especially Sentinel. Unfortunately, their recent performance has not been reassuring. A prime example: Last year senior leaders from the Department of Energy on both the weapons and remediation sides were in Santa Fe for a town hall to discuss long unresolved contamination at Los Alamos and the broad impacts of pit production at the lab. None of the New Mexico congressional delegation attended, nor did the governor or any of her state Cabinet. Only one state legislator and one second-level county executive were introduced. More disappointing, apparently no staff members representing national and state-level leaders attended.

Nuclear weapons modernization will have profound impacts on New Mexicans. In addition to all the other arguments including its spiraling cost, Sentinel’s increased potential to inadvertently set off an accidental nuclear exchange argues strongly for the cancellation of that program — especially when less destabilizing options exist. It is imperative that our representatives get involved, get informed and take vigorous action to assure that a cataclysmic nuclear war never occurs, especially by accident.