Does the U.S. Need a New Plutonium-Pit Facility?
Does the U.S. Need a New Plutonium-Pit Facility?
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Date
2004-05
Authors
Fetter, Steve
von Hippel, Frank
Advisor
Citation
Steve Fetter and Frank von Hippel, "Does the U.S. Need a New Plutonium-Pit Facility?" Arms Control Today, Vol. 34, No. 4 (May 2004), pp. 10-14
DRUM DOI
Abstract
Each nuclear weapon in the U.S.
arsenal contains a “pit,” a hollow
shell of plutonium clad in a corrosion-
resistant metal, which is surrounded by
chemical explosive. When the weapon is
detonated, the explosives compress the pit
into a supercritical mass and a fission chain
reaction is triggered. All the pits in the current
U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile were
manufactured at the Department of
Energy’s Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado,
which was shut down in 1989 because of
flagrant violations of safety and environmental
regulations. During the Cold War, warheads were replaced by new designs well before the
end of their design lifetimes. With the end
of the Soviet-U.S. arms race, however, the
need for new weapon designs also ended,
and the longevity of the pits has become an
issue. The pits in current U.S. warheads are
expected slowly to deteriorate and at some
point they will have to be replaced if the
warheads are to remain in the stockpile.