NNSA Chief Says U.S. to Press Forward With Plans to Consolidate Nuclear Weapons Materials

The United States plans to aggressively transfer its nuclear weapon-usable materials into fewer, consolidated storage sites, according to the newly sworn in head of the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (see GSN, June 29, 2006).

Thomas D’Agostino, who formally took the NNSA reins last week, described a six-point agenda during a conference call with reporters.

“The view I have is to put in place activities that focus on a smaller, safer, less expensive complex that essentially will leverage the capabilities of our workforce — both the scientific and technical capabilities — that meet our current national security requirements,” he said.

In particular, D’Agostino said he plans to push for reducing the number of sites keeping weapon-grade nuclear material, Inside the Pentagon reported.

“There is a real opportunity over the next 12 to 18 months to put ourselves down a track where we aggressively move materials out of our sites and consolidate them,” he said.

Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico is slated to be the first site to have much of its material removed, a process that is scheduled for completion next year, he said.

“That change alone will take these nuclear materials … out of the area and in essence save a significant amount of money in protecting that material, as well as making Albuquerque safer by not having the materials there,” D’Agostino said.

Next would be Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

“I want to … look at more aggressively moving plutonium out of the (Livermore) Valley, the date I have in mind to get it done is 2012,” he said.  “More importantly, the key is starting now, actually moving material now out of the valley.”

The consolidation program would also apply to Energy Department sites that that produce weapon-grade materials, D’Agostino said.

“We have a number of reactors, plutonium-producing reactors that we want to shut down in fiscal 2008 and we are on track to do that, but it is going to require vigilance and it is going to be significant,” he said.  “We do want to shut them down because they make plutonium and plutonium can be used, obviously, for bad things” (Carlo Munoz, Inside the Pentagon, Sept. 6).

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