{"id":44102,"date":"2021-05-27T16:31:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T16:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/05\/27\/biden-nuclear-nominee-would-continue-trump-era-plutonium-pit-production-plans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:42:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:42:03","slug":"biden-nuclear-nominee-would-continue-trump-era-plutonium-pit-production-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/05\/27\/biden-nuclear-nominee-would-continue-trump-era-plutonium-pit-production-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden nuclear nominee would continue Trump-era plutonium pit production plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee to oversee nuclear warhead development, Jill Hruby<\/a>, said Thursday the U.S. should continue plans to ramp up production of plutonium cores<\/a>, a key component in nuclear weapons, by using two sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal officials, under President Donald Trump, set a deadline of 2030 for increased production of the plutonium cores or pits, with work split between Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina<\/a> \u2015 which is 25 percent into a refit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At stake are jobs and billions of federal dollars to upgrade buildings or construct new factories, and it\u2019s been an open question whether Biden would review those plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hruby, who would lead the National Nuclear Security Administration, said at her Senate confirmation hearing that expanding pit production is the \u201cbiggest issue\u201d facing the agency. While Los Alamos is on track to produce 30 pits per year by 2026, plans to produce 50 pits per year at Savannah River have slipped, pushing the 80-pit target to \u201csomewhere between 2030 and 2035,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., described it, nuclear modernization efforts \u2015 which include five warhead programs and facility recapitalizations \u2015 are fueling NNSA\u2019s highest workload since the 1980s. The organization is a semiautonomous agency of the Energy Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Angus King, I-Maine, prompted Hruby to affirm that the 80-pit goal is part of nuclear maintenance and modernization vital for deterrence and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number of pits that are projected to be needed are a minimum of 80 pits per year. That\u2019s a significant capability at Los Alamos. If we were to do it all there, it would require much more infrastructure investment,\u201d Hruby said, adding that the expansion at Savannah River \u201callows us to have a cost-effective program, use the talents across the NNSA complex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel\u2019s top Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, whose support for an NNSA budget increase in 2019 fueled one<\/a> of several clashes<\/a> with then-Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, recounted Thursday that he\u2019d personally intervened with then-President Trump. In a sign Hruby\u2019s nomination is in good shape, Inhofe said he agrees with her priorities around weapons programs, infrastructure and the workforce \u2015 and he elicited her agreement to keep him informed of her progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\t