New plutonium pit production facilities at the Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina are being pursued to initially make pits (cores, or triggers) for two new nuclear weapons. These weapons are not for “deterrence” but rather for fighting a full-scale nuclear war and SRS and LANL are at the heart of this dangerous and costly preparation for nuclear war.
After the pits for those weapons are manufactured, which will be a monumental challenge, especially as SRS has zero experience with pit production, the weaponeers and profiteers will turn their eyes to making new pits for the remainder of the stockpile. That will be a never-ending task costing untold billions of dollars and designed to keep the US on a footing to fight a full-scale nuclear war, for a large number of weapons far beyond any claimed to be needed for deterrence.
Colleague Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a sister group in the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), explore the dangers of new pit production:
LANL growth fueling new nuclear arms race
Santa Few New Mexican, September 10, 2022
Aerial photo of proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant – in partially finished plutonium fuel (MOX) building – is by High Flyer