Representative John Garamendi (D-CA) offers amendment on plutonium pits
May 24, 2016
May 26, 2016
House Kills Anti-Modernization, MOX-Closure Amendments to DOE Budget Bill
By ExchangeMonitor
The House on Wednesday killed proposals from a California congressman that would have curtailed plutonium pit-production at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) PF-4 facility, and allowed the Energy Department to close the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) introduced both proposals late Tuesday as amendments to the 2017 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act — a bill the White House threatened Monday to veto, even before any amendments were offered. President Obama objects, among other things, to the House’s proposal to provide $170 million to continue licensing the Yucca Mountain waste repository his administration effectively cancelled in 2010.
The House was set to vote on other amendments after deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Lawmakers plan to vote on the bill itself Thursday. The roughly $34.7-billion proposal would provide slightly less money for DOE in 2017 than a companion spending bill the Senate approved May 12.
Garamendi’s LANL pit-production amendment, No. 32 to the bill, was defeated by voice vote late Wednesday. The MOX amendment was defeated by voice vote Tuesday after Garamendi’s fellow Democrat and House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee ranking member Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) opposed it.
Plutonium pits are the cores of nuclear weapons, containing the fissile material that makes a nuclear reaction possible. Los Alamos’ PF-4, which has not been in full operation since 2013, is currently the only U.S. production facility capable of producing pits. A 2014 law requires DOE to produce between 50 and 80 pits a year beginning in 2030.
The MOX facility, which Congress supports, would get $340 million a year in the House’s 2017 DOE budget bill, and some $270 million in the Senate’s bill. Under construction at DOE’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., the MOX plant is designed to turn weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for commercial reactors, per a nuclear arms-reduction pact with Russia that was finalized in 2010. The Obama administration proposed cancelling MOX in February.
Representative John Garamendi
Not every member of Congress is on board with the new mandate. “I strongly disagree with ramping up plutonium pit production, no matter whether it’s at a new facility in Los Alamos or anywhere else,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who sits on the Strategic Forces subcommittee.
“Moreover, the NNSA hasn’t even told us why they feel the need to increase pit production when we already have an unused stockpile of thousands of pits,” he told TAC in a statement, noting that he unsuccessfully filed an amendment to the 2015 NDAA that would have required the NNSA report on the rationale and cost of expanding pit production.
The best one can hope for, say critics, is that the process for the renewed pit production will again be overcome by cost and bureaucratic obstacles. Despite the $2.1 billion Los Alamos is getting in the president’s budget, there is no line item for the modules, just money for “plutonium production.”
“Moreover, the NNSA hasn’t even told us why they feel the need to increase pit production when we already have an unused stockpile of thousands of pits,” he told TAC in a statement, noting that he unsuccessfully filed an amendment to the 2015 NDAA that would have required the NNSA report on the rationale and cost of expanding pit production.
The best one can hope for, say critics, is that the process for the renewed pit production will again be overcome by cost and bureaucratic obstacles. Despite the $2.1 billion Los Alamos is getting in the president’s budget, there is no line item for the modules, just money for “plutonium production.”
(READ FULL ESSAY AT THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE)
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB)
Opportunities for Risk Reduction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Plutonium Facility through the Minimization of Material-at-Risk
September 2015
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