SENATE PANEL URGES STREAMLINING OF FIRST PARTS OF LANL PU PROJECT

With a 2019 exit date for the aged Chemistry and Metallurgy Research facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory creeping up, the Senate Armed Services Committee is directing the National Nuclear Security Administration to streamline efforts to increase the use of the existing radiological laboratory utility office building and repurpose space within the existing Plutonium Facility. The actions represent the first two phases of Los Alamos’ plutonium capabilities revitalization plan—the third involves building small “modules” for other plutonium work—and a provision included in the committee’s version of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act released yesterday directs the NNSA to focus on tasks which support getting out of the CMR facility by 2019. The bill requires NNSA to report to the committee by September on what activities can be accelerated to meet the exit date milestone. “It is important that such streamlining should not in any way degrade reasonable program control and oversight,” the committee said in a report accompanying the bill. “… The intent of streamlining is to avoid deferring tasks that will reduce the risk in either CMR or PF–4, while awaiting broader approvals on critical decisions.” The committee said it supported approaching the third phase as a line item project.