For immediate release Aug 11, 2021

NNSA proposes new plutonium processing facility at LANL

Contact: Greg Mello, 505-265-1200 office, 505-577-8563 cell

Permalink * Prior press releases

Albuquerque, NM -- On July 9, 2021 the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) approved Critical Decision Zero (CD-0, "Approve Mission Need") for a new plutonium processing facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for plutonium "pit disassembly and processing," with an estimated "rough order of magnitude" cost range of $1.0 to $3.4 billion. The project would be completed in the fiscal year (FY) 2031 to FY 2035 range.

Pits are the fissile cores of the first stage of thermonuclear weapons.

CD-1 ("Approve Alternative Selection and Cost Range") is expected by the end of FY 2023. The secretarial executive in charge overall is David Turk, Deputy Secretary of Energy. The project is "owned" by Assistant Deputy NNSA Administrator Jessica Halse in Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation (DNN).  No project number has been assigned.

CD-0 begins a number of planning and design activities, including an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), an independently-reviewed conceptual design, a funding profile, various management plans, and a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) strategy. The location, scale, and nature of the proposed facility will not be settled until CD-1.

The CD-1 estimate of project cost could be as much as double the "rough order of magnitude" cost currently estimated.

In addition to LANL -- the nominal location for this capability at present -- the Savannah River Site (SRS) and (with less likelihood, because it is a site without any history of plutonium processing) the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, are possible locations. No specific locations at LANL were mentioned in the terse CD-0 announcement, which is not publicly available.

The "mission need" for this facility arises from the conflicts between the plutonium disposition mission and the plutonium pit production mission, discussed in depth by the Government Accountability Office (GAO; link goes to our press backgrounder). In short, NNSA has had no viable plan for its plutonium disposition mission.

Approval of this project represents an about-face for DOE. A prior "Pit Disassembly and Conversion Facility" (PDCF, Project 99-D-141-01), then seen as a feeder facility for the later-cancelled Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF), was cancelled in FY2012 after an expenditure of $730 million (p. 11). DOE's then-new 2012 strategy was to "use some combination of facilities" at LANL and SRS to disassemble pits and produce plutonium feed for MFFF (FY13 DOE Congressional Budget Request, p. 445).

With NNSA's May 2018 decision to produce plutonium pits at LANL's PF-4, looming space and safety envelope conflicts in that facility became acute, as noted. Last month's decision to provide a separate capability flows from those conflicts.

Study Group director Greg Mello:

"Although the new NNSA Administrator has expressed her support for the "dilute and dispose" method of plutonium disposition, we hope her agency takes a broad look at alternatives -- including alternatives which require neither pit disassembly nor processing. The "Red Team" review of plutonium disposition (project leader, Thom Mason, the current LANL director) included such alternatives, as had prior National Academy analyses. We believe there are safer, cheaper, faster disposal alternatives that should be carefully reviewed de novo.

"Yes, we believe WIPP is the right place for this plutonium, although not necessarily in such a dilute form.

"Squeezing pit disassembly and plutonium oxidation out of PF-4 must be laid at the door of the pit production program. Assuming this project proceeds, its cost is attributable to pit production. Until pit production took over PF-4 space planning, NNSA did not need a new facility, the agency said.

"It will be interesting to see where NNSA believes this facility could be built at LANL. There is only one possible place: TA-55. All other locations would require a wholly new security perimeter just for starters, which NNSA has said would entail a $1 billion expense in itself. Constructing any such facility at TA-55 is however beset with almost insurmountable engineering and logistical challenges.

"Since 1989, NNSA has never once been candid about the purposes and capabilities of the various plutonium facilities it has planned for LANL. At this early stage there is no discernible difference between a facility designed to process old plutonium for disposal, and a facility designed to process old plutonium into feedstock for new weapons.

"Not counting the cost of this project, NNSA's plutonium modernization and pit production program is going to cost between $32 billion and $40 billion through 2033, when pit production at SRS may come on line. This proposed project is just the latest wrinkle in these huge, complex plans, which at LANL's crowded site strain credulity far past the breaking point.

"Given the cost of prior efforts, we expect the cost of this facility -- should it proceed -- to be much greater than currently estimated.

"Processing anywhere from 26 to 44 metric tons of surplus plutonium metal will obviously create not just a large transuranic waste "product" after dilution, but also ancillary TRU waste streams. The environmental impacts of this project would be dramatic -- nationwide. Again, we do not think pit disassembly, conversion to oxide, and dilution is necessarily the best approach to surplus plutonium disposition.

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