Hearing today in S.F. on Los Alamos plutonium facility

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent adviser to the U.S. Energy Department and the president, is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday in Santa Fe on the plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The plutonium facility, known as PF-4, last year restarted development of test plutonium pits — the softball-size cores that trigger a nuclear weapon explosion. The Department of Energy wants to ramp up production to 80 pits per year by 2030.

The defense safety board and other federal oversight agencies have flagged PF-4 over the years for numerous safety issues at the aging building, including shortcomings in the program to prevent nuclear reactions, as well as problems with seismic stability and the fire system.

Most recently, a small fire at the facility in April raised questions about safe handling of toxic waste.

The board said its goal is to “gather information on the risk associated with current and future plutonium facility inventory levels,” the implications of the facility’s long-term operation, safety issues and ways to minimize risk.

Experts from the lab and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons programs, will be questioned during the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy St. Public comment will be allowed, beginning at about 8:30 p.m.