Why bring up siting a new nuclear bomb plutonium “pit” plant at SRS? Don’t bother as we don’t want it at SRS!
Several years ago, public interest groups beat back an effort by special interests to locate the Modern Pit Facility (MPF) at SRS. Each year, that facility would have made up to 250 plutonium “pits” or trigger for nuclear weapons. The whole plan and the Environmental Impact Statement being prepared for it was scrapped, as some of us predicted it would be.
Now, is there something going on behind the scenes to site a new pit plant at SRS….? See mention of SRS below. Click here for link to this report:
Manufacturing Nuclear Weapon “Pits”: A Decisionmaking Approach for Congress
Congressional Research Service (CRS), August 15, 2014
“A “pit” is the plutonium “trigger” of a thermonuclear weapon. During the Cold War, the Rocky Flats Plant (CO) made up to 2,000 pits per year (ppy), but ceased operations in 1989. Since then, the Department of Energy (DOE) has made at most 11 ppy for the stockpile, yet the Departmentof Defense stated that it needs DOE to have a capacity of 50 to 80 ppy to extend the life of certain weapons and for other purposes. This report focuses on 80 ppy, the upper end of this range.”
“Since the United States no longer produces plutonium, all U.S. plutonium is “old,” such as from retired pits. As plutonium decays, it produces other elements, such as uranium and americium. These must be removed by chemical processes to purify plutonium for use in new pits. (Chemical processes do not remove specific isotopes of plutonium.) PF-4 uses 10,400 sf for plutonium recycle and purification. How much plutonium could thatarea purify per year? How many ppy would that capacity support? How much more space would be needed to provide plutonium for 80 ppy? Alternatively, could these processes be moved to another site, such as Savannah River Site?” (page 15)