Advocacy Group Questions NNSA PF-4 Seismic Analysis Willingness

Advocacy group Los Alamos Study Group (LASG) yesterday said it was “appalled” by the possibility that the National Nuclear Security Administration might not complete the alternative seismic analysis for Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility after the agency told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board that it expected to complete the review in March 2015. “[W]e…do not know if NNSA has decided to halt, or complete, the ‘alternative’ seismic analysis of PF-4, upon which all future upgrades depend,” a July 6 LASG press release states. “We, like the DNFSB, were appalled that NNSA might not complete…this after two or three years of work.  Without this study, nobody really knows if any PF-4 system whatsoever is safety class, because nobody knows whether the building itself will stand.” NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said in a Feb. 13 letter to the DNFSB that NNSA had expected to complete the seismic review “by the end of March 2015.” That letter came two months after a December DNFSB letter expressed frustration at NNSA’s progress on examining PF-4 seismic vulnerabilities. Neither NNSA nor LANL contractor Los Alamos National Security have released whether the agency has started the analysis. LANL and NNSA officials did not respond to requests for comment.