Global Security Newswire

The rate of nuclear warhead dismantlement has increased this year at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, The Knoxville News Sentinel reported yesterday (see GSN, March 30).

“Historically, it’s been viewed as sort of filler work. That has changed this year,” said Dan Linehan, Directed Stockpile Work manager.

Treaty requirements, storage space issues and the need to recycle materials for other uses have spurred the faster pace.

The dismantlement rate is several times higher than prior years, Linehan said. It is expected to persist as the facility deals with warhead parts that have been in storage for up to several decades, the News Sentinel reported.

There are up to seven retired weapons systems set for processing over the next five years, according to a quarterly plant report.  Among those are parts from Minuteman 1 and 2 ICBMs, the Lance tactical missile and the Spartan surface-to-air missile.

“The Moscow Treaty of 2002 commits the U.S. and Russia to a total of 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads each by the end of 2012,” the Y-12 Report states. “This commitment requires accelerated dismantlement and disposition efforts to reduce the need to hold large amounts of materials in reserve. The question is how and where to dispose of the surplus material in a safe, secure and environmentally sound way.”

Construction of the new $350 million weapon-grade uranium storage facility at Y-12 is at the halfway point, and a planned $1 billion uranium processing facility is expected to be finished around 2015 (Frank Munger, The Knoxville News Sentinel, May 29).