Safety Board Concerned about Safety of Plutonium Pit Storage at DOE’s Pantex Site in Texas – Implications for Unsafe Production at Proposed SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP)?

Storage of plutonium “pits” (core of nuclear weapons) aren’t being stored to safety requirements at DOE’s Pantex site in Texas.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff report “Pantex Plant Pit Inventory Review” says that “The Board is concerned that if the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) does not maintain an appropriate prioritization of pit repackaging, the population of pits in unsealed containers will continue to grow, with potential impacts to safety.”

If NNSA can’t store pits safely (the easy part) – there are over 15,000 pits in storage at Pantex – can we trust them to produce pits safely (the hard part) in the proposed $20 billion SRS Plutonium Bomb Plant (PBP)?

“Pantex Plant Pit Inventory Review” posted here: https://www.dnfsb.gov/sites/default/files/document/25061/Pantex%20Pit%20Inventory%20%5B2022-100-011%5D.pdf