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| | | published Saturday, August 16, 2008 | 483 Views :: 0 Comments |
Associated Press -- August 16, 2008
by Lisa Cornwell
The Fernald Preserve and its visitors center make their public debut Wednesday at the former site of the government facility that processed uranium metal for nuclear weapons from 1952 to 1989
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| | | published Saturday, April 12, 2008 | 0 Views :: 0 Comments |
Plutonium pits— carefully fabricated spheres of metal— and high explosives are the “triggers” for modern thermonuclear weapons. The U.S. manufactured pits at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver until 1989, when the FBI raided the facility to investigate environmental crimes, effectively ending industrial-scale plutonium pit production.
THE U.S. ALREADY HAS TOO MANY PITS
The U.S. presently has about 25,000 plutonium pits. Nearly 10,000 are in existing nuclear warheads. Five thousand are in “strategic reserve” and more than 10,000 “surplus” pits are stored at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, TX. The May 2002 Moscow Treaty requires Russia and the U.S. to reduce their nuclear arsenals to 2,200 or fewer deployed strategic warheads each by December 31, 2012, but fails to mandate irreversible dismantlement. Even under this treaty, he U.S. will likely retain some 25,000 pits.
Download PDF: ANA Pits final.pdf
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| | | published Saturday, April 12, 2008 | 0 Views :: 0 Comments |
In spite of a decade of work on its program to eliminate surplus weapons plutonium, not a single gram has been disposed by the Department of Energy (DOE). By any standard, the program is a failure. Left unchanged, it will continue to suffer from chronic bad management, escalating costs, and technical uncertainties. A better alternative is for Congress and a new administration to put the disposition program onto the safer and less costly vitrification track.
Download PDF: ANA MOX final.pdf
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| | | published Thursday, May 10, 2007 | 4696 Views :: 0 Comments |
 The
Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Program is a congressionally created
plan “for improving the long-term safety, reliability, and security of
the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.” RRW was adopted by Congress to
reduce the need to return to full-scale nuclear weapons testing and
facilitate deep cuts to the stockpile.
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| | | published Thursday, April 12, 2007 | 0 Views :: 0 Comments |
Plutonium pits are the “triggers” for modern thermonuclear weapons. The U.S. manufactured pits at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver until 1989, when he FBI raided the facility to investigate environmental crimes. That raid effectively ended industrial-scale plutonium
pit production in the United States.
Download PDF: Pu FS 2007.pdf
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| | | published Thursday, February 01, 2007 | 8699 Views :: 0 Comments |
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA), a national network representing communities downwind and downstream from U.S. nuclear weapons facilities, is concerned that spending on nuclear weapons and energy will divert funds away from environmental cleanup, radiation health programs and plutonium disposition.
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| | | published Wednesday, November 29, 2006 | 3567 Views :: 0 Comments |
Independent Review of Department of Energy Study Undermines Need for New Nuclear Weapons; Groups call on Energy Department to abandon discredited “Complex 2030” Plan.
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| | | published Wednesday, April 12, 2006 | 0 Views :: 0 Comments |
Plutonium pits — carefully fabricated spheres of metal — and high explosives, are the “triggers” for modern thermonuclear weapons. Until 1989, the U.S. manufactured pits at the Rocky Flats Plant near Denver. That year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the facility to investigate environmental crimes, effectively ending industrial-scale plutonium pit production in the United States.
Download PDF: PitProduction2006.pdf
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| | | published Thursday, April 01, 2004 | 0 Views :: 0 Comments | |
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