A non-profit watchdog has filed a suit to stop the construction of a new, US$4 billion weapons facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The Los Alamos Study Group claims that the new facility, known as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement (CMRR) project has violated federal law by failing to produce an Environmental Impact Statement. The lab’s overseers produced an impact statement for an earlier version of the facility in 2003, but the group claims that the CMRR has been extensively redesigned and the old document no longer applies.

The new facility, which would be capable of producing plutonium triggers, or “pits”, for hydrogen bombs, has sparked fears amongst many arms control activists of reviving (or appearing to revive) a nuclear arms race. A nice sceptic’s view can be read in this article form the local Santa Fe Reporter. And a lively discussion about the modernizing the arsenal and its implications for arms control can be found on the always informative Arms Control Wonk.