NNSA’s Ted Wyka gives semi-annual report
NNSA’s Ted Wyka gives semi-annual report
The field office manager updated Council on road safety, housing, and future plans
At the Los Alamos County Council meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24, Ted Wyka, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) field office manager, gave his semi-annual update on key Lab/town issues — his previous Council update was March 19. The meeting covered many topics: Mission updates, LANL hiring, the ongoing Rendija Canyon land transfer negotiations, and more. Because this presentation — like the March presentation — happened weeks after a fatal car crash, road safety took the forefront.
“The most fearful part of your day is driving”
Roads: Wyka said the Lab is trying to manage traffic speed and curb aggressive driving, a growing concern for residents and commuters — not only because of the high-profile crashes but because of an increase in distracted and reckless driving. According to Wyka, these traffic issues have intensified with the increasing number of vehicles commuting to and from LANL daily.
“I hear from my employees that the most fearful part of your day is driving up and going home down the hill,” he said. “If they’re not worried about themselves, they’re worried about their significant other or their kids.” Wyka said that LANL approaches employee driving behavior as a performance issue rather than a legal issue. Legal enforcement is up to the police, he said, and hinted at potential future collaboration to expand the use of traffic cameras, both on LANL property and in the county.
Wyka connected LANL’s growth, road safety issues, and housing challenges. He said that LANL plans to hire about 1,400 people in 2025, replacing around 900 positions due to attrition, with an additional 500 hires for new programs. (Boomtown confirmed through a separate statement from NNSA that rumors of a hiring freeze are incorrect.) Strategies like remote work and alternate schedules are helping ease the commuter burden, but traffic and housing pressures remain.
Wyka reiterated multiple times throughout his presentation that while making commuting safer is something to work on, most workers would prefer not to commute at all: “I think it would turn out that probably most of the workforce wants to be up here or wants to live closer.”
Rendija Canyon: There are two related issues: the land transfer and the cleanup. Wyka said there are ongoing discussions between LANL, the Department of Energy (DOE), and Los Alamos County regarding transferring certain parcels of land in Rendija Canyon. The goal is to make canyon portions available for recreational use and emergency evacuation routes. However, legal and logistical challenges complicate the full land transfer, especially due to concerns over unexploded ordnance and environmental risks in certain areas. For these same reasons, the NNSA has said housing will not be part of the land transfer.
The “Rendija Canyon Wildland Fire Fuels Reduction and Defensible Space Project” is part of LANL’s effort to protect the community from wildfires by reducing the amount of combustible vegetation. While this cleanup project improves the safety and health of the forest, it also supports the future recreational and emergency use of the land by creating defensible spaces that reduce the wildfire threat, he said.
The third transmission line: Because the current two lines won’t be able to handle the Lab’s electrical power needs by 2027, LANL is working on the Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade (EPCU) project, which includes building a third transmission line to serve the Laboratory and the County. The new line is critical, Wyka said, for national security work like running powerful supercomputers and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) accelerator. Wyka outlined the involved process that EPCU is undergoing, including extensive National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews, tribal consultations, and work with federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to address environmental and cultural concerns. The final decision is expected in early 2025, he said.
Council questions: housing, commuting, and road safety
Randall Ryti: Worker safety and shift work fatigue
Councilor Randall Ryti was the first to raise questions, focusing on the safety risks faced by LANL employees who work long shifts and then face exhausting commutes home. Ryti asked whether the Lab considered the dangers of shift-work fatigue and if this was part of their ongoing investigations into worker safety. “Maybe it’s just inherently unsafe for people to be coming up certain hours of the day,” Ryti said. “People are coming from, you know, Albuquerque. So you’re adding two plus hours to a 10-hour shift.”
Wyka acknowledged the concern and said it was something LANL could further explore. “As we ramp up and go to 24/7 [operations], that is a discussion that we [must] have,” he said. The Lab continuously monitors how seasonal changes, such as winter weather, exacerbate road safety risks. He said these conditions, with the long hours, create an issue for the Lab’s safety protocols.
Melanee Hand: LANL’s transportation plan and holistic road safety
Next, Councilor Melanee Hand brought up the broader topic of LANL’s transportation plan, linking road safety to inclement weather and other commuting challenges. She said that road safety involves a “holistic approach” and asked Wyka whether the Lab had a coordinated transportation plan that addresses these issues. (Note: The Lab’s 2023 transportation plan can be read here.)
Wyka outlined some of LANL’s ongoing efforts, such as telework for non-essential employees, park-and-ride services, and alternate work schedules. “Part of the equation is keeping people off the hill that don’t need to be up here, and that’s why we have facilities in Santa Fe: Pacheco and Guadalupe,” he said. When workers are tired from the commute and scared for their lives, it’s a distraction at work, he said, so LANL is looking for creative solutions — and allies — to manage the situation: “That’s why we need partnerships to help address the traffic problem.”
David Reagor: Housing shortage and commuting alternatives
Councilor David Reagor asked if Wyka would agree that Los Alamos was short 10,000 housing units, and Wyka said “absolutely,” adding that workers want to live in “this great, wonderful community.” The Lab needs an entire range of housing, he added: “Lower income, as well as single family, condos, because we have a lot of single postdocs and staff” who need housing.
Reagor suggested pivoting from new housing to new roads as a solution to the traffic problem in Los Alamos, wondering if a direct route to Albuquerque or Rio Rancho along the Rio Grande could make the commute shorter. Wyka explained that while LANL is considering various options for smoother commuting, many employees would actually prefer to live closer to the Lab. “A lot of folks don’t want that hour-and-a-half, two-hour commute. They want to live closer,” he said.
Reagor seemed unsatisfied by this response and asked again if the NNSA would support building public transportation, such as a rail line along the river, to solve the problem: then the commute would only be a half-hour, he said. “Is that on the agenda? That’s got to be a high priority, to develop public transportation.”
“It’s not on our agenda to build public transportation,” Wyka replied. “It’s on our agenda to figure out solutions for workforce like carpooling, parking, buses, things that we can do.” He acknowledged that NNSA would support public transit if another agency led the effort but said it’s not a job for the NNSA.
Theresa Cull: Road safety metrics and emergency exit routes
Councilor Theresa Cull asked about the metrics LANL is using to assess the success of its road safety initiatives. Specifically, she asked whether the Lab tracks the number of cars on the road and the overall safety of driving conditions. She also asked whether emergency exit roads, such as the one through Rendija Canyon, could be modified to allow for more frequent use during incidents like the semi-truck that rolled over on August 29, causing a multi-hour traffic shutdown.
Wyka confirmed that LANL collects a wide range of data through drones and speed cameras to monitor traffic behavior, such as aggressive driving and parking violations. While the data has been useful in identifying issues, a partnership with the county is needed to provide legal enforcement, he said.
Regarding emergency exit roads, Wyka said that the Lab is continuing to look at how such routes might be used more regularly, but that agreements with the Pueblo of San Ildefonso and other stakeholders would need to be considered. “It’s something we have to look at,” he said.
Cull finished by asking whether LANL had considered providing overnight housing for workers who prefer not to drive back to Albuquerque, particularly during bad weather. “We’ve been told that there are people sleeping in their cars in Los Alamos because they don’t want to drive back to Albuquerque,” she said.
Wyka confirmed that LANL leadership frequently discusses this issue, but legal and logistical challenges complicate the process. He said the Lab is exploring potential options for temporary housing, especially as LANL moves to 24/7 operations, but no solutions are in place yet.
Suzie Havemann: Cultivating a culture of road safety
Councilor Suzie Havemann wanted to know what Lab officials are doing to change a culture that accepts reckless driving, speeding, and texting while driving. “Maybe public information through your own communications offices, to really start cultivating a culture where we just are not going to tolerate this anymore,” she suggested. “I think we all collectively need to be working on that, not just speeding and aggressive driving, but distracted driving.” She shared her own close call that had just occurred the same day, where a driver near Totavi drifted into her lane, forcing her into the median. “I turned to my right to look at what he was doing, and he was on his phone. I looked in my rearview mirror and he was still doing the same,” she said.
“You hit on a great point about culture,” said Wyka. “This nuclear business, it’s all about safety culture.” He said that this culture extends to driving behavior — or should. Peer pressure has already started to play a role in holding employees accountable, with workers reporting unsafe driving or bad parking to leadership. Wyka also said that LANL is exploring ways to work with the county and neighboring pueblos to make the roads safer, including potentially adding more speed cameras.
Chair Denise Derkacs: Temporary housing and park-and-ride programs
Chair Denise Derkacs closed the round of questions by thanking the NNSA for cooperating with the county to clear certain parcels of land in Rendija Canyon, while acknowledging that cleaning up the entire canyon may not be feasible. She also asked about LANL’s park-and-ride program and wondered if the Lab had considered offering incentives to encourage more employees to use it. “We’ve heard that there’s some reluctance from some employees to use that because they like the convenience of having their cars,” she said. Wyka responded that the challenge isn’t just about offering park-and-ride services but also ensuring that employees can easily run personal errands, like picking up children or attending appointments. “People don’t want to give up their cars unless they have a system in place to get them where they need to go,” Wyka said.
Wyka’s report was given without any slides or outline, but you can watch the full video here.