The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced on Feb. 26 it had finished dismantling canned subassemblies for the W69 warhead at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The canned subassembly, along with the plutonium pit, is part of the warhead’s nuclear explosive package. During the warhead dismantlement process, plutonium pits are stored securely at the Pantex Plant in Texas, and uranium parts – which include the canned subassemblies – are taken apart at Y-12, the announcement said. It noted that dismantlement helps prevent misuse of nuclear material, recycling it instead for defense purposes such as the NNSA’s ongoing warhead life-extension programs.
The short-range attack missile warhead was taken out of the U.S. nuclear stockpile in 1992 and the last W69 weapon dismantled in 1999, the press release said. Y-12 began disassembling the canned subassemblies in 2012, it said. An NNSA spokesperson declined to specify the number disassembled.
Consolidated Nuclear Security took over management of Y-12 and Pantex in July 2014.
