The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board isn’t happy with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s progress on an alternate analysis of the seismic vulnerabilities of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4), and wants answers from the agency within 30 days. In a Dec. 17 letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz published Friday, DNFSB Chairman Peter Winokur said the alternate analysis had stalled despite a 2012 commitment from then-Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman to perform the analysis as a way of checking the validity of NNSA’s methods and results. The NNSA is currently trying to figure out the extent of upgrades needed for PF-4. “The completed analysis is essential for NNSA to make sound technical determinations regarding the necessity for any additional structural modifications to PF-4 or compensatory measures that may be needed in order to protect the public,” Winokur wrote.
DNFSB Chides DOE For Stalled Alternate Seismic Analysis of PF-4
Nuclear Watch New Mexico seeks disclosure of pit production study
A nuclear watchdog group in New Mexico has filed suit against the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) seeking to force disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of a study concerning costs of plutonium pit production. The complaint was filed July 23 by Nuclear Watch New Mexico in U.S. […]