DOE admits Los Alamos National Lab to look at production of 80 plutonium pits/year – to fuel the new nuclear arms race – which underscores the requirement for preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement ( PEIS) on the matter, as SRS Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tri-Valley CAREs have been saying for well over over a year.
“New study says LANL nuclear pit production could go higher“
Santa Fe New Mexican, March 27 2020
“Los Alamos National Laboratory should be able to produce 80 plutonium pits to meet surges in demand, not just the official goal of 30 pits a year, according to a proposed update to the lab’s last sitewide analysis.
Defense plans call for the lab to produce 30 pits — the grapefruit-sized explosive centers in nuclear warheads — in 2026 and the Savannah River Site to manufacture 50 in 2030. Various documents allude to creating “surge capacity” or the ability to go beyond the normal volume for short periods, but the draft supplement to the lab’s 2008 sitewide review is the first to make 80 pits the goal for production surges.”
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“Another watchdog group thinks there’s a good chance the lab could wind up as the sole pit producer, or at least the primary site.
The federal government has yet to come up with a solid plan on how it will convert Savannah River’s stalled mixed-oxide plant to a pit factory, said Tom Clements, executive director of SRS Watch.
While spending almost $8 billion to build the failed mixed-oxide facility, the Energy Department installed faulty central-air systems, piping and structures, which all would have to be overhauled, Clements said.
And unlike LANL, Savannah River has no experience producing nuclear cores, he said.
“I’ve seen no evidence they can pull it off,” Clements said.”
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>>> Please share any information you may have on “reuse” of pits (stored at DOE’s Pantex site in Texas) vs. fabricating new pits. To get to the near-impossible goal of production of 80 pits/year at Los Alamos by 2026, pit reuse may be required. This means pit reuse will have to be covered in legally mandated environmental-review documents – namely a “Programmatic Environmental impact Statement” (PEIS). SRS Watch: srswatch@gmail.com