Best site option for nuclear weapons production between Savannah River Site, Los Alamos (construction jobs)

[Airforceguy]

Hopefully SRS wins

The federal agency that oversees the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile is expected this week to release a report on the best site option for the United States as it looks to ramp up production of the plutonium cores that trigger nuclear warheads.

At stake are hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in federal funding that would be needed to either revamp existing buildings or construct new factories to support the work.

New Mexico’s U.S. senators have been pushing to keep the work at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the once-secret city in northern New Mexico where the atomic bomb was developed decades ago as part of the Manhattan Project. The other option would be to move it to the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site, which formerly produced components for the nation’s nuclear weapons cache.

Shuttered since the mid-20th century, work at the Savannah River Site since then has been primarily focused on cleanup and storage.

Best site option for nuclear weapons production between Savannah River Site, Los Alamos - News - The Augusta Chronicle - Augusta, GA

[Airforceguy]

A decision has been made to split the work between Los Alamos and SRS.
Plan recommends Savannah River Site and Los Alamos for pit production; MOX facility would be repurposed - News - The Augusta Chronicle - Augusta, GA

[cst8670]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

A decision has been made to split the work between Los Alamos and SRS.
Plan recommends Savannah River Site and Los Alamos for pit production; MOX facility would be repurposed - News - The Augusta Chronicle - Augusta, GA

Makes sense as putting all your eggs in one basket is foolish.

[Airforceguy]

Pit Production could bring as many as 800 permanent jobs, but they are at least a decade away.

Though MOX could have employed as many as 3,000 construction workers while it was being built, it would have provided about 500 to 700 permanent operations jobs. The pit mission could bring up to 800, Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon said Friday.

MOX was supposed to complete its mission of converting plutonium to fuel for nuclear power generation in 15 years, then those operational jobs would have disappeared, too, Williams noted.

“In effect, we never really got the MOX jobs, so all we’re really losing right now is the construction jobs,” Williams said. “MOX had a 10- to 15-year window where it would operate and then it would be done. Pits will need to be produced as long as we have nuclear weapons.”

Pit mission could bring as many jobs as MOX - News - The Augusta Chronicle - Augusta, GA