Los Alamos National Laboratory exceeded its fiscal 2026 production goals and finished the year with a plutonium pit production rate 2.6 times its original target, Laboratory Director Thom Mason said during the lab’s final virtual town hall of the year.
Mason called it the most successful period in the history of PF-4, the lab’s plutonium facility, which began operating in 1978. Production took place alongside infrastructure upgrades, including installation of new fire protection and glove boxes.
The lab completed the first phase of decommissioning, decontaminating and demolishing legacy glove boxes dating to the facility’s original era, and made significant progress installing replacements, Mason said. As the new glove boxes come online, they are expected to support further production increases.
The lab also completed a subcritical experiment and conducted stockpile surveillance and research in PF-4. Mason called the year’s results as evidence that production and facility modernization advanced in parallel.
Los Alamos’s fiscal 2027 funding remains uncertain as Congress weighs competing spending proposals. The lab is operating under a continuing resolution through early December. President Donald Trump’s spending plan would increase LANL’s budget to about $6.6 billion, while a full-year continuing resolution would leave funding flat, according to the town hall presentation.
Senate appropriators on Thursday proposed $28.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and oversees LANL. The proposal is $4 billion below the $32.8 billion Trump sought.
LANL’s procurement awards have exceeded $2 billion for several years. About $803 million went to New Mexican companies in FY26.
Mason said the lab expects stable funding at minimum, with the possibility of further growth, supported by strong bipartisan backing for its national security mission.
