DOE is using “pit aging” as a justification to fabricate new pits for new nuclear weapons. We challenge them to back up their claim with scientific data!
The justification by the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for building new capacity to produce plutonium “pits (cores) for new nuclear weapons is that the pits are aging and need to be replaced. Where is the data to back up that NNSA position?
The only public data released by NNSA, including the 2006 JASON “Pit Lifetime” report that said pits have a minimum lifetime of 100 years, points to the opposite conclusion as the one being put forward by NNSA and boosters of new plutonium pit fabrication at the Savannah River Site and Los Alamos National Lab..
If NNSA has data on pit aging that supports its costly and provocative program to make pits for new warheads and replace all pits in all nuclear weapons, then NNSA should release the data. So far all we have is silence.
In an effort to get information into the public realm, SRS Watch on June 10, 2023 filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for two documents named in a 2019 JASON “letter report” on pit aging:
1. A 2018 NNSA report on pit aging by the Defense Program Advisory Committee (now the Advisory Committee for Nuclear Security). FOIA request linked here: initial request NNSA 2018 plutonium pit aging report June 10 2023
2. The Appendix to the above-mentioned 2019 JASON letter report (“The Appendix (S//RD) contains JASON’s Findings and Recommendation for this letter report.”) FOIA request linked here: initial request appendix to JASON pit aging report June 10 2023
To underscore just how badly NNSA is dragging it’s feet on releasing plutonium pit aging information, NNSA has been stiff arming us on providing a key pit aging document required by Congress in 2020, the “Research Program Plan for Plutonium Pit Aging.” This demonstrates how broken NNSA is in responding to FOIAs request and how it has yet to present evidence to justify costly pit-production programs that are helping create a new nuclear arms race.
In July 2021, SRS Watch requested the pit aging plan required by Congress and as of June 10, 2023, almost two years later, we have still not had a response. We were told on May 3, 2023 that “The Estimated Time of Completion (ETC) for FOIA 21-00276-R is 1 Aug 23. The case is undergoing a declassification review!” We’re not holding our breath about the response. See initial NNSA FOIA acknowledgment response, of July 26, 2021, posted here: initial NNSA response for plutonium aging plan July 26 2021
Photo: Partially building plutonium fuel (MOX) building at SRS, which NNSA aims to convert into the SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant, at a cost of $11 billion or more. The PBP would initially make new pits for the W87-1 warhead of a new ICBM and them for the W93 warhead for a new Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (a weapon being developed for the United Kingdom). Photo by High Flyer.