Apr 9, 2008

TA-55 MOX Mission Terminated

The DNFSB Weekly Report for 14 March 2008 indicates that some operations at TA-55 have been terminated.
Plutonium Facility: The programmatic mission to use TA-55 aqueous processing capabilities to produce 330 kg of polished plutonium oxide by 2012 for use in the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility has been terminated. This provides an opportunity to use this newly available aqueous processing capacity to expedite other ongoing efforts, such as chemical stabilization of legacy materials (Rec 94-1/00-1). Current plans call for legacy residues to be repackaged into more robust storage containers by late-2010, but subsequent handling of these materials would still be required for ultimate processing and stabilization. Although it requires more up-front funding, accelerating legacy material stabilization would reduce worker exposure and risk by eliminating the need to handle these items multiple times. This approach could also increase operational flexibility by freeing up highly constrained vault space currently being consumed by these items.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

10 year successful program that Mike and crew destroyed. Thanks LANS! What's the next successful program and LANL is Mike going to crater or send to LLNL before he leaves in June?

Anonymous said...

So, no energy mission, just pits.

Anonymous said...

What is next Mike? Gonna kill RRW? Oh that is right, you already did that!

Anonymous said...

Wow, you think the Director is leaving in June? Where did you get that?

Anonymous said...

The lead assembly was finished and shipped. What was there to continue?? How can you "destroy" a program that successfully completed?

Anonymous said...

8:09 PM is correct. MOX was successfully completed.

You wouldn't know it from looking at the typical LANL project, but sometimes "success" is defined in terms of finishing the work, not dragging it on for all eternity.

Anonymous said...

"It's really embarrassing and very troubling when they enter into an agreement and then the feds come along and don't have the money to do it," Domenici said in an interview after the hearing. "

No, the embarassment is Domenici. Through his leadership or lack thereof, we are now saddled with a legacy that will haunt northern New Mexico for generations to come. But what the hell, look at all the millionaires we created in the process. Thanks Plutonium Pete. Thanks for nothing!

Anonymous said...

Considering that LANL finished the MOX project AND finished it before schedule I would think - and I know this is silly of me to say - that LANL would be advertising this as a success story. Kinda goes to show you what brilliance we have at the top of the leadership ladder ...

Anonymous said...

MOS shipped 2 years ago. I was part of this project. This is old news. and there was a mission to continue. LANL was asked to polish another "X" kg PuO2 for PDCF. This had nothing to do with Mike but poor management at the DOE level.