Plutonium Pit Production

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s new Plutonium Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina will not be up and running until 2032 at the earliest, according to the contractor who manages the site.  Stuart MacVean, president and CEO of Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, said Wednesday that the new Savannah River Plutonium […]

Though the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to dramatically ramp up plutonium pit production around the time a key arms control treaty expires in 2026, there are no plans to test fire any weapons, agency Administrator Jill Hruby said Monday in New Mexico. Hruby sat through two hours of questioning – and occasional haranguing – […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2024 includes a funding boost for plutonium pit production in New Mexico, with the goal of building 80 per year as close to 2030 as possible.  Also in the request, the NNSA provided a new cost and schedule estimate for completing the Uranium Processing Facility […]

A nearly two year-old federal lawsuit filed by environmental groups against the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned plutonium-pit plant in South Carolina should enter its final stages this summer, recent court filings show. In a scheduling order filed Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in Aiken ordered the environmentalists to […]

A nearly two year-old federal lawsuit filed by environmental groups against the National Nuclear Security Administration’s planned plutonium-pit plant in South Carolina should enter its final stages this summer, recent court filings show. In a scheduling order filed Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina in Aiken ordered the environmentalists to […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — With delays piling up for its two planned plutonium pit factories, the National Nuclear Security Administration already believes it will have to exceed the military’s minimum annual order for the nuclear weapon cores, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “We anticipate that due to all the different things going on […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory might still be able to make 30 nuclear-weapon cores before 2030, even though the equipment needed to do it is not supposed to be ready until then, the lab’s director said here Tuesday. In January, the lab’s owner, the Department of Energy, approved a formal cost and […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The National Nuclear Security Administration changed the design for the nuclear core of a planned intercontinental ballistic missile warhead late last year, a senior agency official said here Tuesday. Altering the design of the W87-1 plutonium pit, being developed by the agency’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the Air Force’s […]

ARLINGTON, VA. — The National Nuclear Security Administration changed the design for the nuclear core of a planned intercontinental ballistic missile warhead late last year, a senior agency official said here Tuesday. Altering the design of the W87-1 plutonium pit, being developed by the agency’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the Air Force’s […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The Los Alamos National Laboratory might still be able to make 30 nuclear-weapon cores before 2030, even though the equipment needed to do it is not supposed to be ready until then, the lab’s director said here Tuesday. In January, the lab’s owner, the Department of Energy, approved a formal cost and […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — With delays piling up for its two planned plutonium pit factories, the National Nuclear Security Administration already believes it will have to exceed the military’s minimum annual order for the nuclear weapon cores, the head of the agency said here Tuesday. “We anticipate that due to all the different things going on […]

Two long standing government bosses, Jeffrey Allison and Randall Hendrickson, lead a joint team working out details of transferring responsibility for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the agency’s nuclear weapons branch from the nuclear cleanup office, feds said last week in Aiken, S.C. The group led by Allison, deputy […]

Two long standing government bosses, Jeffrey Allison and Randall Hendrickson, lead a joint team working out details of transferring responsibility for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the agency’s nuclear weapons branch from the nuclear cleanup office, feds said last week in Aiken, S.C. The group led by Allison, deputy […]

Two long standing government bosses, Jeffrey Allison and Randall Hendrickson, lead a joint team working out details of transferring responsibility for the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina to the agency’s nuclear weapons branch from the nuclear cleanup office, feds said Thursday in Aiken, S.C. The group led by Allison, deputy manager […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory will install by 2030 the equipment needed to make at least 30 plutonium pits annually, according to a Jan. 19 memo from the deputy secretary of energy. Formally known as the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project 30 Base Equipment Installation subproject, the installation will provide the lab with “the […]

The Los Alamos National Laboratory will install by 2030 the equipment needed to make at least 30 plutonium pits annually, according to a Jan. 19 memo from the deputy secretary of energy. Formally known as the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project 30 Base Equipment Installation subproject, the installation will provide the lab with “the […]

Feds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are busy planning to transfer responsibility for the complex to DOE’s nuclear weapons office from the cleanup branch in fiscal 2025, a top local boss said Monday. “As we discussed before, we have been charged to come up with a plan by June […]

Feds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are busy planning to transfer responsibility for the complex to DOE’s nuclear weapons office from the cleanup branch in fiscal 2025, a top local boss said Monday. “As we discussed before, we have been charged to come up with a plan by June […]

Feds at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina are busy planning to transfer responsibility for the complex to DOE’s nuclear weapons office from the cleanup branch in fiscal 2025, a top local boss said Monday. “As we discussed before, we have been charged to come up with a plan by June […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration planned to have a detailed cost and schedule estimate for producing new nuclear weapon cores for the first time since the Cold War by Sept. 30, 2025, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. That’s the date by which the agency planned to advance its two planned plutonium […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration begins 2023 in search of a new industry partner at the Pantex Plant in Texas and the competition for that contract will be the first since the agency pledged to overhaul the structure of its major site-management accords. The agency can bake into the new standalone contract to manage the […]

Inching forward with plans to dispose of surplus plutonium at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the National Nuclear Security Administration plans public hearings after New Year’s on its just-released draft environmental review of the project, the agency said Friday. The nuclear-weapons agency on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement about its planned Surplus Plutonium […]

A building slated to become a key cog in the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium pit-production complex is taking longer than expected to be authorized to hold enough plutonium for its new mission, a spokesperson said this week. The Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) should be recategorized as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility by March […]

A building slated to become a key cog in the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium pit-production complex is taking longer than expected to be authorized to hold enough plutonium for its new mission, a spokesperson said Tuesday. The Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building (RLUOB) should be recategorized as a hazard category 3 nuclear facility by March 2023, […]

Congressional leaders said they still wanted to pass the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act before Republicans take control of the House in January, but partisan maneuvering over issues unrelated to Department of Energy nuclear-weapon programs have held the bill up. The House Rules Committee was scheduled Monday to set the terms of debate for the […]

Wise Services paid about $300,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that the company billed the government for non-existent construction materials at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., the Justice Department said Monday. The Dayton, Ohio-based company was a subcontractor to CB&I MOX Services, which was building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

Wise Services paid about $300,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that the company billed the government for non-existent construction materials at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., the Justice Department said Monday. The Dayton, Ohio-based company was a subcontractor to CB&I MOX Services, which was building the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility […]

Local childcare providers near the Los Alamos National Laboratory are complaining that lab management is undercutting their business with a planned offsite daycare center for lab employees, according to an anonymous note circulated by the city chamber of commerce to local media including the local Los Alamos Reporter. The lab “made no effort to work […]

By Dan Parsons Engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory continue to upgrade the ventilation system at the plutonium pit production facility after two separate incidents where the system failed to blow contaminated air away from clean rooms where employees were working.  The most recent failure occurred on Aug. 22, when ventilation in the Plutonium […]

Starting after Thanksgiving, citizens of the city of Aiken, S.C., can give the city council their two cents about how to spend $25 million in federal settlement money the city got because of a federal lawsuit involving the Department of Energy’s canceled plutonium recycling plant at the Savannah River Site, local media reported Monday. Aiken […]