The United States Senate today passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, 86-14.
Thursday, July 23, 2020 PRESS RELEASE: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/inhofe-reed-praise-senate-passage-of-national-defense-authorization-act-of-fiscal-year-2021
- Full text of Bill: https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s4049/BILLS-116s4049rs.pdf
- Report to go with Senate NDAA, which passed the full Senate on July 23: https://www.congress.gov/116/crpt/srpt236/CRPT-116srpt236.pdf
Responsibility for Los Alamos Plutonium Facility 4 and Technical Area 55
Plutonium Facility 4 (PF–4) at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Technical Area 55 is the primary plutonium handling facility within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). PF–4 is currently undergoing major modifications to produce war reserve plutonium pits, with a production goal of 30 pits per year by 2026.Given the limited space and high cost of operations in PF–4, coordination of programmatic efforts within the facility are paramount. At the same time, PF–4 is used for a number of other missions involving the handling and processing of plutonium. The second largest requirement for space in the facility is the Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) program, which converts excess plutonium, shipped from the Pantex Plant in Texas, to oxide powder. The powder is then shipped to the Savannah River Site (SRS), in South Carolina, to be packaged and then shipped back to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The committee notes that the Government Accountability Office’s October 2019 report titled ”Surplus Plutonium Disposition: NNSA’s Long Term Plutonium Oxide Production Plans Are Uncertain” (GAO–20–166) found that the NNSA was planning to increase oxide production in PF–4 through the 2020s, requiring additional space and even a new entrance to the facility. Both of these changes would almost certainly increase risk to plutonium pit production goals in the same time period. Given competing demands on space in PF–4 and the cost of and risk inherent in shipping plutonium, the committee believes that the NNSA should consider alternative locations for the oxide production mission, including at the SRS. Therefore, the committee directs the Administrator of the NNSA to provide a report to the congressional defense committees no later than March 1, 2021, on options for continued plutonium oxide operations, including continuing the mission in PF–4 and moving it to the SRS. In the analysis of continuing operations in PF–4, the Administrator shall list estimated annual costs as well as the expected impact to the priority PF–4 mission of plutonium pit production of 30 pits per year and at a surge level of 50 pits per year.
In the analysis of moving the ARIES mission to the SRS, the Administrator shall include the estimated timeline and costs for doing so and estimated annual cost of operations. Either option should also include consideration of the need to meet the requirements to remove a certain amount of plutonium from the state of South Carolina by the end of next year. Finally, the report shall also include the designation of one official at the NNSA to coordinate and approve all programmatic operations in PF–4, including weapons programs and nonproliferation programs, in order to deconflict valuable space. That individual shall be below the Deputy Administrator level and shall also consider other facilities in Technical Area 55 related to plutonium science, including the Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building.
Review of plutonium infrastructure at the National Nuclear Security Administration
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is rebuilding its plutonium infrastructure to meet DOD and statutory requirements to annually produce 80 plutonium pits by 2030. This
effort includes two new line item construction projects and an annual expenditure of operational funds to refurbish and expand existing plutonium capabilities. Given the importance of the plutonium mission, the committee directs the Comptroller General of the United States to periodically review the NNSA’s plutonium modernization plans. This review should include the requirements, cost, schedule, and technology readiness levels, as appropriate, of the projects and related plutonium operations, including:
- The Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project (21–D–512) and associated plutonium modernization operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory;
- The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (21–D–511) and associated modernization operations at the Savannah River Site; and
- The integration of these two projects with the NNSA’s overall plutonium operations and capability sustainment program.
The committee requests a preliminary briefing on the status of these efforts no later than March 1, 2021, with subsequent reviews to be conducted in consultation with this committee and in consideration of the critical decision process for the projects and the NNSA program management requirements. The briefing and reviews may be coordinated with the Comptroller General’s activities in monitoring the NNSA’s progress on pit production activities pursuant to the request in the House Committee Report accompanying H.R. 2960 (H. Rept. 116–83) of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2020.
In text of bill – full pit authorization: https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/s4049/BILLS-116s4049rs.pdf
Los Alamos Plutonium Operations ……………………………….. 610,599 610,599
21–D–512, Plutonium Pit Production Project, LANL ……. 226,000 226,000
Subtotal, Los Alamos plutonium modernization ………………………. 836,599 836,599
Savannah River plutonium modernization
Savannah River plutonium operations …………………………… 200,000 200,000
21–D–511, Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility,
SRS ………………………………………………………………………. 241,896 241,896
Subtotal, Savannah River plutonium modernization ………………. 441,896 441,896
Enterprise Plutonium Support ……………………………………………. 90,782 90,782
Total, Plutonium Modernization ………………………………………………….. 1,369,277 1,369,277