A Year After Pausing Plutonium Operations, Two-Thirds of Los Alamos PF-4 Work Back Up

摘要

Los Alamos National Laboratory has resumed about two-thirds of work at its Plutonium Facility after operationsrnwere shut down a year ago due to criticality safety and conduct of operations issues, a senior laboratory officialrnsaid this week, but there is no clear timetable for a full resumption of activities. A recently released May 30rnDefense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board site representative report suggested that a “large number” of fissilernmaterial operations were slated to be restarted before the end of June, noting that a “war room” had beenrnestablished to support seven-day-a-week efforts to restart operations in the facility. In addition to the work that hasrnbeen restarted, the lab official said “many more are in the normal resumption process, to include internal andrnexternal readiness assessments for activities that have been substantially improved or are undergoing significantrnequipment upgrades.”