On March 16, 2022, the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) released its annual plans for nuclear weapons. Called the “Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan,” it lays out NNSA support for keeping the US on the footing to fight a full-scale nuclear war.
To no surprise, the documents supports the proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP) at SRS BUT ADMITS FEW PERSONNEL AT SRS are working on that project, which would make plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons! The staff figure presented is far too low to get the challenging SRS pit plant, faced with big schedule delays and huge cost overruns, back on track at a site with zero (0) pit-production experience. The PBP is already slated at $20 billion, including sunk costs, so watch that cost go higher.
See page E-69: “As of September 30, 2020, SRS reported a headcount of 885 personnel supporting DOE/NNSA programs. 82 of those personnel are involved in the SRS portion of DOE/NNSA’s Plutonium Strategy.” The nuclear weapons plan is linked from this NNSA website: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/stockpile-stewardship-and-management-plan-ssmp
So, is this project going further off the rails? It almost appears as they know the project won’t succeed and that the U.S. going to have to come up with other plans, like arms control and disarmament negotiations – if there is anyone to negotiate with – or reuse of some of the 15,000+ pits now in storage at DOE’s Pantex site in Texas.