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Nuclear Weapons: Key Nuclear Weapons Component Issues Are Unresolved

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Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Nov. 9, 1998
Report No. RCED-99-1
Subject
Summary:

The Department of Energy (DOE), which manages the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons, lacks the ability to produce a key nuclear weapons component for use in the stockpile. The component is a trigger, or "pit," which is made from plutonium and is needed to start a chain reaction in a nuclear weapon. DOE lost its capability to make pits when production stopped at DOE's Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado in 1989. DOE is reestablishing the capability to manufacture pits at its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This report discusses (1) DOE's plans and schedules for reestablishing the manufacturing of pits at Los Alamos, (2) the costs associated with these efforts, and (3) unresolved issues regarding the manufacturing of pits between the Defense Department and DOE.

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