Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) wrote a letter Dec. 16 to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright asking DOE to review the need and scope of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) pit production program.
Warren and Garamendi are both members of their respective chambers’ Armed Services Committees and of the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group.
“In rushing to production, NNSA has developed an excessively risky program structure, with management concerns around fundamental aspects such as the cost and schedule,” the lawmakers said in the letter. “To prevent further risk DOE should halt the planned production of new plutonium pits at the Savannah River site until preliminary or complete aging studies validate the requirement for new pits.”
The letter also brings up the “special study” that then-Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly said in August he was ordering on pit production, wherein Danly said he was “increasingly concerned” about NNSA’s ability to deliver on production capabilities. “For nearly three decades, the United States has not had the ability to produce plutonium pits in the quantities required for the nuclear weapons stockpile and to maintain nuclear deterrence,” Danly continued.
In a statement about the lawmakers’ letter, it said Warren and Garamendi believe the study will find “years of mismanagement have put billions of taxpayer dollars at risk with an unrealistic pit production schedule and goals.”
“The Trump administration is blindly spending tens of billions of dollars to produce plutonium pits for nuclear weapons without a real budget or plan,” Warren said in the statement. “This program is already years behind schedule and over budget, and Congressman Garamendi and I are urging the Secretary of Energy to conduct a vigorous review to rein in years of waste and mismanagement.”
Garamendi concurred, adding he has called for years “for Congress to take action to fix the failing plutonium modernization effort. Congress has continued to pour billions of dollars into efforts to restart production with arbitrary targets.”
“This letter cuts to the core of the matter and asks necessary questions of NNSA, including about the questionable management and faulty assumptions underlying the program,” Garamendi added. “I eagerly await their response, along with the results of the Department of Energy’s 120-day special investigation.”