Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
10/17/2014
Plans for a new pit storage facility to replace an aging storage bunker at the Pantex Plant are again moving forward. The NNSA Production Office last month requested Critical Decision-0 approval for a new Material Staging Facility at the plant, according to a recently released memo from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The DNFSB did not say whether the CD-0 document, establishing a mission need for the facility and triggering work to analyze alternatives, was approved, and the NNSA refused to provide a copy of the authorization letter. Pantex contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security did not respond to a request for comment.
A project to overhaul Pantex’s pit storage facilities has long been proposed at the Pantex Plant, but the NNSA site officials denied CD-0 approval for a project in 2012. In its Sept. 5 memo, the DNFSB said that the new CD-0 approval request was revised to include new cost information. “The mission need estimates the projected work load will require increased staging capacity of nuclear weapons and up to 20,000 nuclear components,” the DNFSB said.
The project would replace existing facilities in Pantex’s Zone 4, where currently 18 modified Richmond magazines and 42 steel-arch construction magazines are between 45 and 65 years old. The DNFSB did not identify any cost estimates for the project, but it said CNS estimated that the project would hit a “break-even point” after between seven and 12 years compared with maintaining the Zone 4 facility. Money would be saved because a Perimeter Intrusion Detection Assessment System for Zone 4 would not be needed, nor would transportation between Zone 4 and Zone 12, the site’s other pit storage area.
Increased Security Posture, Reduced Costs Touted in Site Plan
According to the site’s 25-year plan, “A new underground facility will provide the capability and capacity for safe and efficient staging of weapons and weapon components while enhancing the site’s security posture at a reduced infrastructure cost. The facility supports the consolidation of the Pantex site and reduces the future recapitalization mortgage related to Zone 4 West and the associated Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Assessment System (PIDAS) replacements.”
Pantex is authorized to store up to 20,000 pits, a threshold established under an Environmental Impact Statement former Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary signed in 1997. Pantex quietly began stockpiling plutonium after safety and environmental concerns halted plutonium production at the former Rocky Flats plant in Colorado, and the site is believed to currently house more than 14,000 pits, a number that will continue to rise as weapons dismantlement efforts continue at the site.
