ARLINGTON, VA – Scott Pappano, Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), said Tuesday that Savannah River can still play a “supporting role” in pit production between now and the completion of its pit production facility.
Pappano gave a keynote on the second day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
NNSA must be able to produce 80 or more pits yearly to replenish the nuclear stockpile. Savannah River is expected to make upwards of 50 once its Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) completes construction at an expected date of 2035, and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is expected to make upwards of 30. NNSA also expects SRPPF’s design to be 90% complete in 2026.
SRPPF entails converting the unfinished 400,000 square foot Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) into a plant to make plutonium pits. Such pits are critical to nuclear weapons.
“We’re not pressurized on pit production for the program record right this minute, but we will be in the future,” Pappano said. “Make sure we get the capacity built out, the capability built out.”
While Pappano said NNSA needs to evaluate how to continue to “push production and construction” to “get Savannah River where I need it to be” since he is “committed to the two-site solution,” he is also thinking about “what can Savannah River do in a supporting role” before SRPPF is at full time capacity in 2035.
“What can I do between now and 2035?” Pappano said. “Could it be training? Could it be some front end production of plutonium?”
Pappano also said he challenged the Savannah River team on whether converting the MOX Facility into the pit facility was the most efficient path as opposed to “green fields,” or starting from scratch. “I’m convinced that sticking with MOX right now, conversion, is the right way to go, but we’ll continue to evaluate those as we go along.”
“You can’t get to this job not hearing about pit production, right?” Pappano said, before adding, “but pit production is only one piece of the puzzle.”