WASHINGTON – In a wide-ranging interview last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright discussed how the U.S. can bring nuclear power to the fore for both energy and defense purposes, starting with rebooting otherwise dormant ‘pit’ production.
Under the first Trump administration, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sought to meet the Pentagon’s goal of manufacturing 80 such pits – spherical hulls of plutonium sized from a grapefruit to a bowling ball – according to the UK Guardian.
Wright suggested he wants to see the plan realized, as the same Energy Department laboratory in New Mexico where J. Robert Oppenheimer helped develop the atom bomb is reportedly working to return to earnest pit production.
The U.S. has never imported plutonium pits but also hasn’t done any such major manufacturing since the end of the Cold War.
