The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board will hold its first public hearing of the Donald Trump administration in Santa Fe, N.M., on Wednesday, when the independent nuclear watchdog will consider the nuclear-safety of the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium production program.
The hearing, “Understanding the Safety Posture of the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory,” will be broken up into three sessions. Board members will invite officials with the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Los Alamos National Security, the lab’s prime contractor, to discuss the lab’s plutonium inventory in general, and its Plutonium Facility in particular.
The session is set to start at 5 p.m. Mountain time and run through 9:45 p.m. at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St., according to the Defense Nuclear Safety Facilities Board (DNFSB). That includes up to an hour and fifteen minutes for public comment. Those interested can still register by emailing [email protected] or calling DNFSB’s office of the general counsel at (202) 694–7062 or (800) 788-4016.
The PF-4 Plutonium Facility — a crucial cog in the DOE nuclear weapons programs for which President Donald Trump has proposed a billion-dollar budget increase next year — has drawn the wrong kind of national attention lately. Most recently, a fire broke out there in April. A worker suffered burns during this mishap, though DOE reported no release of radiation from the accident.
A detailed description of the discussion planned at Wednesday’s hearing is on DNFSB’s website
