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Sensitive Nuclear Material Moved Out of Los Alamos Facility

03 November 2005

Most nuclear materials now housed at high-security facility in Nevada desert

By David A. Denny
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington –- The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it has removed the most sensitive types of nuclear weapons-usable materials from a Los Alamos National Laboratory site to more secure locations.

As one of five nuclear-weapons states that are members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States has international obligations to secure and protect not only its nuclear weapons, but also its nuclear technology and its weapons-grade materials.

In a November 2 press release, NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks said the nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU), was sent to the Nevada Test Site, the Y-12 National Security Complex and Los Alamos' Technical Area 55.

"It is important to U.S. national security that we have the highest level of security for our most sensitive assets,” Brooks said.  "This material transfer would not have happened without the cooperative efforts by a number of [Department of Energy] DOE and NNSA sites, including our Los Alamos Site Office and the lab itself, and the Nevada Site Office and its contractors.”

Brooks added that it had taken “hard work and cooperation” to move the materials to more secure sites.

The plan to move the sensitive materials to more secure facilities was announced in 2002.  The first movement of materials began in September 2004 and was completed in October 2005.

According to the NNSA, more than half the materials previously kept at the less-secure Los Alamos facility have now been moved to the Nevada Test Site’s highly secure device assembly facility.  The remaining materials –- which are of the less-sensitive categories –- will be removed by 2008.

The material transfer is part of Brooks' five-part initiative started in July 2003 to reinforce security oversight and strengthen long-term security operations in the nuclear weapons complex, according to the NNSA.

The press release is available on the NNSA Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)