Future of Los Alamos National Nuclear Laboratory in doubt, following recent fire
US nuclear lab’s future up in the air after recent fire http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/us-nuclear-labs-future-air-recent-fire-47681951 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A recent fire has put a national laboratory’s ability to operate safely into question.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board announced Friday that it will hold a hearing next month to discuss the future of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported (http://bit.ly/2qmP0CY). The board is an independent panel that advises the U.S. Department of Energy and the president.
A fire broke mid-April at the lab’s PF-4 plutonium building where the plutonium cores of nuclear weapons are produced. Lab officials said that the fire was put out quickly and only caused minor injuries.
According to the report, the board is unsure if the lab is fit to continue to operate and handle increasing quantities of plutonium in coming years after a series of problems with management in the maintenance and cleanup of the dangerous materials.
The Department of Energy has announced plans to increase manufacturing of the plutonium pits at Los Alamos over the next decades. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal will also increase funding for weapons work in the next fiscal year.
The moves make local nuclear watchdog groups uneasy.
“Fattening up our already bloated nuclear weapons stockpile is not going to improve our national security,” said Jay Coghlan, the director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, in a news release issued Friday. “New Mexicans desperately need better funded schools and health care, not expanded plutonium pit production that will cause more pollution and threaten our scarce water resources.”
The board will have the chance to get the opinion of a number of experts on the matter at its June 7 hearing. Information from: The Santa Fe New Mexican, http://www.sfnewmexican.com
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1.This Month
EVENTS
25 January Takoma Park USA Commemorating ‘Nuclear-Free Zone’
with Virtual Film Screening
Hibakusha: A-bomb survivor, 95, never giving up the
battle to eliminate nuclear weapons
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201229/p2a/00m/0na/032000c
December 30, 2020 (Mainichi Japan)
Tsuboi released comments expressing his joy after he
learned that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons would enter in force.
“I am filled with excitement, thinking, ‘At long last.
This is great.’ It is a major step toward my long-held,
earnest desire for nuclear weapons to be banned
and eliminated,” he said. At the same time, he
noted that states with nuclear weapons, as well
as Japan, had not ratified the treaty and said, “The road hereafter may be rough.”
Still, each time I have met Tsuboi, he has
repeatedly stated, “I won’t give up until there ar
e zero nuclear weapons. Never give up!”
JAN 28 AT 7 AM UTC+11 – JAN 28 AT 8:30 AM UTC+11
Webinar: Ending the global security threats of nuclear power
Event by Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick, Beyond Nuclear and 2 others
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