The Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility (PF-4) could resume all suspended operations by the end of this year, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
The National Nuclear Security Administration site in 2013 halted work at PF-4 due to concerns over criticality safety and other issues. It subsequently sought to remedy those problems and restart various operations.
In mid-December, the lab’s associate director for nuclear and high hazard operations submitted a formal request to the NNSA Field Office to restart pit flow sheet (PFS) work at PF-4, according to a Dec. 18 DNFSB site report. “The request also included the PFS federal readiness assessment corrective action plan for approval and the PFS federal readiness assessment pre-start closure package for adequacy verification.”
It was not immediately known whether the NNSA had approved restart authority for the pit flow sheet operations. That work would represent the fourth PF-4 operation resumed through the formal readiness process in 2015, the DNFSB report says. Another four operations are due to undergo formal readiness efforts in 2016. “Successful resumption of these activities will represent a complete restart of the Plutonium Facility operations paused by the Laboratory Director in June 2013,” the site rep said.