The Department of Energy’s fiscal year 2022 budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration has been released and includes some eye-opening amounts for a project that includes the Savannah River Site.
The mission calls for producing pits, bowling ball-sized shells of plutonium that are an integral part of nuclear weapons production, at Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility and the Los Alamos Plutonium Pit Production Project.
The FY 2022 budget calls for $1.1 billion dollars for SRS, nearly double the FY 2021 budget request.
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About $475 million would be used to convert the failed MOX facility at SRS to pit production, and $603 million for plutonium modernization.
Testifying before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Jill Hruby, the nominee for Under-Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and Administrator at the NNSA, said the stockpile needs a minimum of 80 new pits a year.
“The current plan that NNSA has developed, and that I support, includes producing pits at both Los Alamos and Savannah River; 30 pits per year minimum at Los Alamos, 50 pits minimum per year at Savannah River,” said Hruby.
She said Los Alamos is on track to deliver 30 pits a year starting in 2026.
The timeline for the SRPPF has also changed in the FY 2022 budget.
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Hruby said, “The 50 pits per year at Savannah River, originally planned for 2030, is likely to now be somewhere between 2030 and 2035, a decision that will be made at the Critical Decision 2 point.”
Greg Mello with the Los Alamos Study Group likened the changes to the proverbial shoe dropping:
“First, a month ago, we had the announcement that the sucker’s price, the down payment, for LANL’s pit facility modifications had doubled in price. Then came official testimony that, like it or not, the 2030 deadline to produce 80 pits per year is unlikely to be met — no surprise there!”
He added, “Then came the May 28 announcement that the Savannah River pit project was going to cost much more than originally advertised and take much longer to build. Well, more shoes will drop. Pit production is expensive, difficult, dangerous — and unnecessary any time soon even if you want to keep a huge arsenal, which is madness to begin with.”
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Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch, said he expects the price tag to keep climbing.
“The FY 22 funding level for the SRS pit project is well below a survival level; funding request doesn’t make sense if the project has any chance of survival. It needs $1+ billion/year for next decade — can the funding make the big leap to this level and where will this money come from?” Clements asked.
Kevin Bishop, spokesman for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., provided a statement: “The senator supports the Fiscal Year 2022 budget request of $475 million for pit production at the Savannah River Site. We cannot delay this important project any longer and need to fund it appropriately both now and in the future.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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