Los Alamos plutonium facility moves into 24/7 operations, DNFSB reports

Triad National Security, the prime contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, announced the beginning of phasing into 24/7 operations at the New Mexico lab’s plutonium facility, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report.

The nuclear watchdog report dated April 18 said that contractor management determined continuous operations at the facility were needed at this phase in the pit production mission. Resident inspectors at the site also reported “significant equipment changes,” including rooms where gloveboxes were removed and preparations for new installations started.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) told the Exchange Monitor outside a recent House subcommittee hearing that he gathered that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “seem[s] to be ready to produce” the fissile nuclear weapon cores at Los Alamos at the level required.

Section 3120 of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act put into law that NNSA produce 30 plutonium pits by 2026 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Additionally, the NNSA announced plans recently for a detailed review of environmental impacts of planned plutonium pit production as part of a federal judge’s ruling last fall. NNSA will hold public hearings and meetings as part of the process.

Los Alamos would initially make cores for the first stages of W87-1 warheads, which are to top the Air Force’s planned silo-based Sentinel missiles some time next decade. The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility will make cores for the W93 warheads, which would top the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.