We Found the Weapons of Mass Destruction. They’re in Our Backyard. The core component of a nuclear weapon is called the “pit.” A pit is a sphere of plutonium surrounded by conventional explosives. When the explosives are detonated, the plutonium is compressed, which creates a nuclear explosion. This is the type of bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), located 25 miles northwest of Santa Fe, was home to the Manhattan Project, where the first plutonium pits were made. 107 Cienega There has been continuous pit production at LANL since the 1940s. So if you’re Santa Fe, NM 87501 looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction, they’re in our backyard. The (505) 986-1973 Tel Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) (505) 986-0997 Fax has indicated that production will continue there indefinitely. For example, www.nuclearactive.org
[email protected] • Pit production was done at LANL when the DOE facility at Rocky Flats, Colorado was shut down several times due to fires. Although pit production at LANL has been primarily research-based since then, in April 2003, LANL produced the nation’s first stockpile certified pit since the closure of Rocky Flats. This means that LANL produced the first pit capable of powering a nuclear weapon since 1989. • Through equipment installation in existing facilities, the pit production facility at Technical Area 55 (TA-55) is expected to have the capacity to produce 20 pits per year by 2007. • In 1996, the final decision for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Stockpile Stewardship and Management Program stated that pit production at LANL's TA-55 would be expanded to 50 to 80 pits per year.