Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire: Los Alamos Minimizes Plutonium Lab's Seismic Vulnerability: Analysis

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Los Alamos Minimizes Plutonium Lab's Seismic Vulnerability: Analysis

The Plutonium Facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. An earthquake could cause the laboratory's nuclear-weapon core production site to emit radioactive material in levels four times higher than estimated possible last year, a federal watchdog panel said in a recent analysis (Los Alamos National Laboratory photo).

Seismic activity could cause an aging nuclear-weapon core production site at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to emit radioactive material in levels four times higher than estimated possible last year, a federal atomic safety watchdog said in a May assessment reported on Tuesday by the Project on Government Oversight (see GSN, Dec. 5, 2011).
The New Mexico research site's 2011 estimate suffers from "multiple, substantial deficiencies," and the more dire analysis demands "additional safety protocols" and "prompt action," Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board head Peter Winokur stated.
Meanwhile, the nation's nuclear-weapon research sites have sought to operate more independently of outside supervision, according to the POGO report.
“Burdensome” scrutiny of operations at Los Alamos has prompted personnel to develop "‘workarounds’ to avoid confrontation with the overseers,” including the safety watchdog, former Los Alamos laboratory head Robert Kuckuck stated on on June 27 in prepared remarks to a House of Representatives panel (Project on Government Oversight release, July 10).