Pantex Plant
The Pantex Plant near Amarillo , Texas, is part of the American nuclear weapons complex . Pantex was the most important facility for the final production of US nuclear weapons and is now entrusted with the maintenance, modernization and disposal of nuclear weapons, among other things. The plant is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department of Energy and is for that of Babcock & Wilcox operated Technical Services Pantex, LLC (B & W Pantex).
history
The Pantex facility was commissioned in November 1942 as a conventional arms factory for the US Army . Bombs and artillery shells were loaded with explosives in it . At the time the factory was operated by the Certain Teed Products Corporation. With the end of the Second World War , it was shut down in 1945. In 1947, the facility and associated land was rented from Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University ) and purchased for $ 1 in 1949 to conduct experimental cattle ranching.
In 1951, at the request of the Atomic Energy Commission , the US Army used a contractual clause to repurchase the main facility and some of the surrounding land from the Texas Technological College. Subsequently, the facility was rebuilt for the completion of nuclear weapons for the arsenal of the United States. The work was carried out by Mason & Hanger - Silas Mason Co., Inc, and the contract for the renovation and expansion of the plant was worth $ 25 million. The first 5-year contract was given to Procter & Gamble Defense Corporation to operate the plant. This company refused to extend the contract, and so from 1956 Mason & Hanger was commissioned to operate Pantex.
In 1963 the US Army handed the plant over to the Atomic Energy Commission. This was followed by a consolidation of the nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities in the USA. The tasks of the facilities in Clarksville (Tennessee) , Medina (Texas) and Burlington (Iowa) were handed over to the Pantex facility until 1975 and from that year onwards it became the only production and dismantling facility for US nuclear weapons. In 1989, the rest of the surrounding area was bought back by Texas Tech University and is now used as a security zone. In the same year, the production facility for plutonium cores for weapons (so-called "pits") in Rocky Flats ( Colorado ) was shut down due to safety concerns. A new interim storage facility for these cores was therefore necessary and it was decided to store the cores on the Pantex system.
Pantex's last new nuclear weapon was completed in 1991. After that, the focus of activities on the dismantling, maintenance and modernization of existing weapons in the US arsenal shifted.
Today's tasks
The current task of the Pantex facility is divided into three areas: work for the stockpile stewardship program, activities in the context of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and activities in the context of protection and security. These are in detail:
- Stockpile stewardship
- Testing, retrofitting and repair of nuclear weapons as part of deployment time extension programs and certification of weapon reliability and safety
- Development, testing and manufacturing of high explosives
- Nonproliferation
- Dismantling of decommissioned nuclear weapons
- Storage of plutonium cores
- Cleaning of components of dismantled nuclear weapons
- protection and safety
- Protecting employees, equipment, materials and information
In the 1990s, the number of weapons dismantled was more than 1,000 per year. By 2003 the number had dropped to 100 and subsequently increased to around 300 per year by 2008. At the moment, around 14,000 plutonium cores (around 38 t plutonium) from old weapons are stored at the Pantex facility and the storage capacities of the existing facilities are largely exhausted. Extensions are necessary in order to be able to store additional cores in the future.
The plutonium cores are stored in closed stainless steel containers, which in turn are stored in 60 bunkers ("igloos"). Each igloo can hold 240 to 400 cores. Part of the metallic plutonium from the cores is to be converted into plutonium oxide and processed into MOX fuel elements for nuclear power plants in the Savannah River . Further cores are to be retained as a strategic reserve.
Bibliography
- ↑ a b Pantex Plant History.
- ↑ "Pantex Plant" website ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "US nuclear forces, 2010" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists May / June 2010
- ↑ "Dismantling US nuclear warheads," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists January / February 2004
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 18 ′ 41.6 ″ N , 101 ° 33 ′ 35 ″ W.