FMWG partner the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) outlines the Department of Energy’s new initiative to build and operate a new small-capacity national military uranium enrichment plant could be decades premature. The plan will cost between $3.1 -11.3 billion. Frank von Hippel finds that, “DOE’s proposal to have a new national enrichment plant on line to produce LEU by 2038 would be premature by at least two decades. This conclusion should be checked by analysts with access to the classified information on how much HEU is in operational U.S. nuclear warheads.”
Find the blog post here.
Full analysis here.