Pit production at Savannah River Site inches closer with new NNSA verdict

• By Colin Demarest cdemarest@aikenstandard.com
• November 5, 2020

The National Nuclear Security Administration in a federal notice Thursday confirmed it would pursue the production of nuclear weapon cores at the Savannah River Site, utilizing the mothballed Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility as a springboard.

The record of decision, published in the Federal Register, edges plutonium pit production south of Aiken one step closer to fruition and caps an environmental review process.

The nuclear-weapons mission, though, is still subject to a raft of other approvals and designing, is dependent on significant funding and congressional favor, and faces a challenging deadline.

Additionally, observers and environmental groups, including Savannah River Site Watch and Nuclear Watch New Mexico, have repeatedly hinted at lawsuits over what they see as roughshod decision making and saber-rattling. This week’s publication seemingly revived the grievances.

The NNSA’s view of National Environmental Policy Act requirements “is that it’s paperwork that has to be taken care of, as to not trip up projects,” said Greg Mello with the Los Alamos Study Group. “And it remains to be seen whether their supplement analysis has insulated them legally from challenges.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s announcement Thursday reinforces previously pitched plans – crafting 50 plutonium pits, maybe more, at the Savannah River Site by 2030 and beyond. The verdict also arrives weeks after hundreds of pages of SRS-specific environmental analysis were published.

At one point, officials anticipated issuing a Savannah River Site record of decision this winter.

“They have been expected, and they are what was expected,” Mello said. “We don’t see anything startling in the records of decision.”

Federal law mandates the production of 80 plutonium pits per year by 2030. And as the notice in the Federal Register mentions, “NNSA’s current pit production capacity cannot meet this requirement.” The last place where nuclear cores were forged en masse – the Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado – was raided by the FBI decades ago. It has since been scuttled.

To satisfy the pit production demand, the NNSA and the Defense Department in May 2018 recommended a two-state approach: At least 50 pits per year would be made in South Carolina, at what’s now known as the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility, and at least 30 pits per year would be made in New Mexico, at Los Alamos National Laboratory north of Albuquerque. 

Either site could produce the required 80, if necessary, according to a pair of Trump administration environmental assessments.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, has previously said a tandem approach is “just critical for the efficacy of this program.”