LANL News:

The U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) proposes to install two eight-foot-wide microwave dishes and accompanying infrastructure on the roof of a leased property in Santa Fe.

The microwave dishes are needed to provide redundant network capabilities with the communications tower recently installed at Technical Area 53 (TA-53) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Installation would include the two microwave dishes and accompanying infrastructure on the roof of the Pacheco Complex and two eight-foot microwave dishes on the cellular tower at the bend of Leda Road in TA-53 at LANL.

The existing tower at TA-53 is a 70-foot-tall monopole structure with radio antennae. Investigations of microwave technology have identified a clear line of sight of approximately 22 miles between the Pacheco Complex and the TA-53 communications tower.

The microwave dishes would be used alongside the primary overhead fiber-optic cable to provide the required level of bandwidth (5 Gbps) to keep communications intact.

LANL has identified a need for this project by recognizing the vulnerability for communications with the existing fiber-optic line between LANL and Santa Fe due to power outages and mechanical failures.

The Categorical Exclusion can be accessed online at https://energy.gov/nepa/articles/cx-270680-pacheco-microwave-tower-project.