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Los Alamos Seeks to Quadruple Pit Production
The U.S. Energy Department is seeking the authority to quadruple the production of plutonium “pits” at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 8). The National Nuclear Security Administration wants annually to produce up to 80 nuclear cores that trigger the explosive chain reaction in a nuclear bomb. The laboratory is now authorized to make 20 pits a year, and expects to reach that production level in 2007. New triggers could be used as replacements in existing nuclear weapons and to test production technology, said Thomas D’Agostino, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs. Allowing production of up to 80 pits would cover those that are not certified for use, he said. Los Alamos, however, might only manufacture 30 to 40 pits a year, he said. Some would replace those removed for testing while the others would be used for new procedures. “We want to test out (the technology we would use in a real factory, D’Agostino said. “These are very unique processes. You want to test them so then you can feel comfortable going to spend money on equipment and laying out equipment in the right way.” The watchdog group Nuclear Watch of New Mexico said the plans would produce more nuclear waste and plutonium to be stored at the facility and in other parts of the state. Nuclear Watch director Jay Coghlan said the expansion indicates an emphasis on weapons production at the New Mexico facility, AP reported. “As a result, the lab will inevitably lose its veneer as some kind of scientific ivory tower,” Coghlan said in a release. “Given the end of the Cold War and new national security threats such as energy independence and global climate change, is this really the best Los Alamos can do?” (Jennifer Talhelm, Associated Press The National Nuclear Security Administration eventually plans to remove plutonium from both its Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories and promote other areas of research at the facilities (Jennifer Talhelm, Associated Press, June 27). Los Alamos also plans to upgrade the plutonium pit facility, extending its life by 25 years, according to an environmental impact statement. The expansion would generate another 250 cubic yards of radioactive waste annually, increasing the number of “transuranic” waste barrels sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant by 1,800 each year, Nuclear Watch said in a press release. The statement also reported the laboratory stored 6.6 metric tons of “special nuclear materials inventory, mainly plutonium.” The Energy Department said in 1994 it possessed 2.7 metric tons of plutonium at Los Alamos, but has not given a reason for the increase, the Nuclear Watch release said. The anticipated expansion of nuclear weapons operations would process 87,000 pounds of high explosives. Up to 79,000 pounds of diminished uranium would be blown up in “dynamic experiments” every year. More than 2,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium would be used to make nuclear weapons components and 200 reservoirs of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in nuclear weapons, would be made annually (Nuclear Watch release, June 26).
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