Progress is Very Slow

In a letter dated 20 June, 2013 the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board congratulated Dr. Ernest Moniz upon his appointment as the new Department of Energy Secretary. The Board went on to remind the new Secretary of the challenges facing him, of which the most pressing was the possible collapse of the Plutonium Facility (PF-4) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the event of a design basis earthquake.

 The Board noted that its previous studies of seismic hazards at LANL had shown that the collapse of PF-4 during a design basis earthquake was a plausible outcome, along with the release of massive amounts of plutonium dust into the air over the nearby communities. Subsequently, LANL's own in-house analysis showed that the risk of such a catastrophic accident was not negligible. Consequently, LANL has been working to upgrade the earthquake resistance of PF-4, as well as to reduce the amount of plutonium being stored at the site.

 Citizen activist groups in the Los Alamos area have continued to remind the DOE of its obligation to protect
surrounding communities from the dangers inherent in having a nuclear weapons lab in their midst. These groups have provided input to the DNFSB, supporting its judgement of the dire effects on local populations of a design basis seismic event at PF-4. (For example, see my blogpost of 24 Nov 2011 entitled "Accidental Fall-out from LANL.")
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 The Obama Administration has announced its intent to abandon construction of the Mixed OXide waste plutonium fuel facility at the Savannah River nuclear weapons site, the escalating costs of this unfinished factory having been judged to be prohibitive. However, no acceptable alternative plan for disposition of plutonium from retired nuclear weapons is being proposed. An unintended consequence of this failure to follow through with the MOX fuel program may be the collapse of the agreement with the Russians to dispose of excess plutonium from nuclear weapons. (See my blogpost of 22 Aug 2012 entitled "MOX Redux: Better to Bury than to Burn?")
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 The Obama Administration has also announced its intent to reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads in the US arsenal to ~1000, contingent upon the Russians agreeing to a similar reduction. However, the Russians have expressed an unwillingness to proceed, citing America's threatening increase in the size of its anti-ballistic missile forces. (Since the US unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002.)
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 Finally, the Obama Administration intends to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, especially from coal burning power plants, principally by EPA regulations authorized under the Clean Air Act. As an important component of this program, construction of new nuclear power plants is being encouraged. (See the Presidents speech at Georgetown University on 25 June 2013.) Unfortunately, however, no provision is being made for the disposition of waste from these new power plants, nor for the disposition of waste from the ~100 aging nuclear power plants still in operation. (A problem since the Administration decided to abandon construction of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in 2010.)
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 Saturday, 29 June 2013: Both the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Los Alamos Monitor report that the LANL Director Charles McMillan announced on Thursday that certain operations involving plutonium at PF-4 will be halted until safety problems identified in a recent DOE Office of the Inspector General report have been mitigated. This report, entitled "Mitigation of Natural Disasters at Los Alamos National Laboratory", and dated June 2013, is available online. It makes for some very interesting reading.