The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) suspended most of its nuclear operations in late March because of COVID-19, but expansion of the site’s underground subcritical testing laboratory came back online in the first week of April.
Expanding the existing U1a Complex as part of the U1a Complex Enhancements Project (UCEP) is central to plans to install new hardware in the underground facility that will help the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) assess the aging of refurbished nuclear weapons, such as the planned W80-4 air-launched cruise-missile warhead.
The NNSA estimates the whole UCEP effort will cost more than $525 million, with construction wrapping in fiscal 2024. Honeywell-led Nevada site prime Mission Support and Test Services is subcontracting the mining of extra space in the U1a Complex, but has not identified the sub. The complex houses the current subcritical testing lab, where the NNSA explosively compresses plutonium to determine whether it has retained its destructive potential over the decades.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UCEP activities paused in mid-March when the NNSS assumed a Mission Critical Operations status,” an NNSA spokesperson in Washington wrote Tuesday in an email. “UCEP mining activities resumed on April 6 after the [Nevada site] moved to a Limited Operations status.”
The Nevada National Security Site ceased most of its nuclear operations on March 23. That included operations at its low-level waste facility, where the Department of Energy disposes of radioactive waste from current and legacy nuclear-weapon programs. That pause continued all the way through April, the NNSA said this week.
It was not clear whether the operational lull would push any of the Nightshade subcritical tests planned in U1a for calendar year 2020 into 2021. A spokesperson for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is leading the tests, deferred to NNSA headquarters for comment. Headquarters did not reply to the request by deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The NNSA planned three Nightshade tests – A, B, and C – in 2020, according to the agency’s latest budget request. Once the agency shoots a subcritical test at the U1a Complex, it can take weeks or even months to reset for the next shot.
