Plutonium Pit Production

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 5/9/2014 A provision in the House Armed Services Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that would have boosted authorized construction funding for the wobbling Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility was stripped from the bill late in the evening of May 7 with opponents of the project […]

A review of criticality safety issues at Los Alamos National Laboratory has revealed widespread problems that led to the ongoing shutdown of its Plutonium Facility last summer, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report released last week. The report describes Los Alamos’ Criticality Safety Infractions Causal Analysis, which identified five “root causal factors” […]

Could Los Alamos National Laboratory’s latest plans for plutonium infrastructure be scaled back again? That’s one of the main questions raised by a new report from the Congressional Research Service, which suggests that existing facilities at Los Alamos—with some tweaks—could allow for the eventual production of between 50 and 80 pits. Such a move would […]

A modular plutonium strategy planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory is expected to be a significantly cheaper alternative to the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, but the price tag for the Uranium Processing Facility could be growing, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Defense’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group. The […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s modular plutonium strategy planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory received the backing of House and Senate lawmakers in the negotiated version of the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. House and Senate leaders last night released details about the expansive legislation, and the bill largely mirrors a provision in […]

After pushing out indefinitely the release of a final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, the National Nuclear Security Administration last week sought to extend a support contract for the EIS until September 2014. The NNSA released its draft report in July 2012, and had planned to release its final SEIS early this year. […]

The National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) at the Nevada National Security Site has not fully restored its ability to perform plutonium-based criticality experiments, the Department of Energy Inspector General said in a report released Friday. Officials moved four criticality machines from Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Area-18 to Nevada’s Device Assembly Facility due to […]

Almost a month after pausing Plutonium Facility operations, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan said the lab has started restarting work at the facility in phases. “I assume we’re going to be resuming in phases,” he said in a telephone interview with NW&M Monitor. “Where we’re in better shape, we’ll do those first and […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory will resume operations at its Plutonium Facility in phases, but the restart will be accompanied by a “rapid” expansion of qualified criticality safety analysts and revamped procedures for operating the lab’s plutonium production hub, acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Bruce Held said in a recently released letter to the Defense […]

With the end of the fiscal year looming, Congress has still not signed off on a $120 million reprogramming request from the National Nuclear Security Administration to begin work on an alternate plutonium strategy despite dire warnings from Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. In a July letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz obtained […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is expected to complete an alternate analysis of seismic risks at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility by mid-December, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman said in a letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board yesterday. The NNSA has poured millions into upgrading the facility against a massive earthquake, which […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration continues to study its plutonium options at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the wake of the deferral of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, the Government Accountability Office urged the agency to think long-term as it zeroes in on a plutonium solution. The agency is considering a modular […]

House appropriators have finally signed off on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plutonium reprogramming request, but the agency isn’t getting all of the money it wanted. In a letter sent to Department of Energy Deputy Chief Financial Officer Alison Doone late last week, Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio)—the chairman and ranking member […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has pressed the National Nuclear Security Administration to take a new look at the modeling techniques used to gauge the risk of a seismic-generated collapse at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility, and now the Board is pushing the NNSA for information on the status of its “alternate” analysis. […]

More details about the Obama Administration’s alternate plutonium strategy are emerging, including plans to build a series of smaller facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory to house capabilities that had been planned for the now-deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility. Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan first mentioned the approach in February, but an April […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory is planning to remove or repackage more than 500 kilograms of plutonium at its Plutonium Facility during Fiscal Year 2013 in an effort to reduce the potential exposure risks in the event of a building collapse, Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In his March […]

U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler advocated yesterday for a permanent solution to the nation’s plutonium needs during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, but he suggested that an interim plutonium capability being pursued by the Obama Administration could be sufficient to allow additional reductions to the size of the nation’s nuclear stockpile. “I […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration will take another approach to evaluating the ability of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4) to withstand an earthquake, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman said in a recent letter to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board that pledged to increase cooperation with the Board on the much scrutinized effort […]

The House Armed Services Committee, which has staunchly backed the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in the face of the Administration’s push to defer construction of the facility, isn’t signing off on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s request to reprogram $120 million for an alternate plutonium strategy. The committee, led by Chairman Buck McKeon […]

The chair of the Los Alamos County Council wrote to the National Nuclear Security Administration Tuesday expressing concerns about a new safety risk analysis made public by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in January. The Safety Board expressed concern about “the potential for very high offsite dose consequences” under a scenario in which a […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee appears willing to support a National Nuclear Security Administration plan to reprogram $120 million in Fiscal Year 2012 funds for an alternate plutonium sustainment strategy, with a catch: that the agency use part of the money to keep the deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility alive. Suggesting he was […]

As the National Nuclear Security Administration refines its alternative plutonium strategy, Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler said yesterday that he is is slowly gaining confidence in the plan. Since the Obama Administration decided to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in February, deciding to pursue an alternative strategy that includes […]

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday upheld a lower court ruling that the National Nuclear Security Administration’s environmental review of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility was adequate under federal law. Given the Obama Administration’s decision in February to indefinitely defer the project, it was a hollow victory for the NNSA in the […]

Today, the National Nuclear Security Administration will hold a public hearing on its draft Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement at the North Augusta Municipal Center in South Carolina at 5:30 p.m.

A bipartisan group of eight Senators wants the Obama Administration to reverse course on the deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, and they are appealing to the Department of Defense to lead the effort. In a June 29 letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta obtained by NW&M Monitor, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Ben Nelson […]

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4) is continuing to draw concern from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. In its second PF-4-related letter to the Department of Energy in the span of a month, the DNFSB said it was concerned about the ability of the facility to withstand an earthquake and that it was […]

Can Los Alamos National Laboratory easily ramp up pit production to reach Department of Defense requirements for 50 to 80 pits without the now-deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility? That was the suggestion made by retired Gen. James Cartwright, the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command, at a Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee […]

New Mexico’s two Democratic Senators, Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, formally requested that the Obama Administration reverse its plan to delay construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility for at least five years in letters to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Energy Secretary Steven Chu last week. The Senators called the NNSA’s plan […]

Gen. James Cartwright, the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated this week that Los Alamos National Laboratory could increase pit production to meet Pentagon requirements without building a new multi-billion-dollar plutonium facility by adding a second production shift. After Cartwright first made the suggestion […]

Despite recent upgrades to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility, potential exposures in the case of an earthquake-induced fire still exceed Department of Energy guidelines, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in a recent letter to the National Nuclear Security Administration. In the sharply worded June 18 letter, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said that […]