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LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Plutonium Facility/Superblock

The Plutonium Facility (Building 332), also known as the Superblock, is largest building in the Superblock complex and in 1961 was the first to become operational. The complex has also housed the Hardened Engineering Test Building (Building 334), a separate facility to simulate weapons environments and conduct intrinsic radiation measurements and physical tests on non-explosive nuclear weapon components, and the Tritium Facility (Building 331), which was set to be used to produce the tritium and deuterium targets for NIF. The Plutonium Facility supports the NNSA's Stockpile Stewardship Program. It is used for research and development activities, including non-nuclear testing of weapons components, engineering experiments on plutonium and investigation into remanufacturing it, as well as research on highly-enriched uranium. This work is slated to be moved to facilities elsewhere. The facility's original mission was to support the nation's nuclear weapons program by conducting research to understand the physical, metallurgical, and chemical properties of plutonium. In 1977, the mission expanded to include fabrication, testing, and assembly of plutonium device parts in support of the LLNL nuclear testing program. According to the 2007 Annual Report put out by LLNL, the weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium will be consolidated to fewer sites. Some Security Category I/II quantities will be removed all together, so that only Security Category III will be used for small-scale experiments. As of 2006, the LLNL was authorized to keep 1,540 pounds of plutonium and it was estimated that it had 880 pounds. The removal of weapons-grade nuclear materials, which began in 2006, is scheduled to be completed by 2012 ahead of the 2014 deadline.

Superblock Support Facilities

Building 233 vaults stores plutonium sources (among other things). Building 239, a non-nuclear facility, is used to conduct radiography in support of plutonium operations.

Building 231 conducts vault operations limited to shipping, receiving, inspecting, weighing, packaging, and storing of controlled materials and sealed sources, and onsite transportation functions. Many of the sealed sources are excess and must be stored and managed in order to retain control of them. Building 231 also has a large industrial area that has a variety of research laboratories, a machine shop, and an assembly bay in support of the nuclear weapons program. Some of the research activities include chemical vapor deposition, advanced plastics work, and composites development.

Building 233 vault contains sealed sources, precious metals, and classified materials. This vault is also used to store some beryllium in sealed drums. The fenced-in Canopy Area is a temporary storage area for high curie transuranic waste in 55-gallon drums that exceed the levels allowable for Building 625.

There are two primary support buildings:

Building 232 is a fenced, covered support building that stores hazardous materials (non-classified storage).

Building 343 houses pressure testing of containers to certify them for shipping special nuclear materials.