Plutonium: Aging mechanisms and weapon pit lifetime assessment

Planning for future refurbishment and manufacturing needs of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex critically depends on credible estimates for component lifetimes. One of the most important of these components is the pit, that portion of the weapon that contains the fissile element plutonium. The U.S. government has proposed construction of a new Modern Pit Facility, and a key variable in planning both the size and schedule for this facility is the minimum estimated lifetime for stockpile pits. This article describes the current understanding of aging effects in plutonium, provides a lifetime estimate range, and outlines in some detail methodology that will improve this estimate over the next few years. For more information, contact J.C. Martz, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Enhanced Surveillance, MST-DO, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545; (505) 667-2323; e-mail jmartz@lanl.gov. Editor’s Note: A hypertext-enhanced version of this article is available on-line at www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0309/Martz-0309.html