The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility, usually referred to as the CMRR, is a facility under construction at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico which is part of the United States' nuclear stockpile stewardship program. The facility will replace the aging Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) facility. It is located in Technical Area 55 (TA-55) and consists of two buildings: the Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) and the Radiological Laboratory, Utility, and Office Building (RLUOB). The two buildings will be linked by tunnels and will connect to LANL's existing 30-year-old plutonium facility PF-4.^[1] The facility is controversial both because of spiraling costs and because critics argue it will allow for expanded production of plutonium 'pits' and therefore could be used to manufacture new nuclear weapons.

Rutherford's initial research was studying alpha particles, which he hypothesized were helium nuclei. With the help of Hans Geiger, Rutherford conducted the gold foil experiment, which justifies that the nucleus of an atom is a dense collection of protons and contains the majority of an atom’s mass.

Background[edit]

Construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research (CMR) building began in 1949 and was completed in 1952.^[2] The building contained six wings and in 1959 a seventh laboratory wing was added. In 1960, Los Alamos built Wing 9, a 64,000-square-foot (5,900 m²) addition containing hot cells with remote handling capabilities. In total, the CMR building now contains roughly 550,000 square feet (51,000 m²) of laboratories and related facilities.

According to Los Alamos officials, 'many of the CMR facility systems and structural components are aged, outmoded, eroding, and generally deteriorating.' In 1999, the NNSA decided to plan for the 'end-of-life' of the CMR building around 2010.^[2][3] Thereafter planning began for the CMRR facility which would serve as a replacement. There is evidence the need for an upgrade is real, since in 2010 federal safety auditors reported the building was 'seismically fragile and poses a continuing risk to workers and the public.'^[4]

Ground was broken on the CMRR project on January 12, 2006.^[5] Construction of the CMRR is proceeding in three phases. The first phase is the construction of the Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building, which is expected to be finished around 2011.^[5] It has an estimated cost of $164 million and will house 'a radiological laboratory, a training center, two simulation labs, and cleared and uncleared office space for some 350 Lab personnel'.^[6] The second phase is the Special Equipment Facility (SPF) and the third phase is the Nuclear Facility (NF).^[7]

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The initial cost of the CMRR project was approved at $745–$975 Million. The total projected cost in 2008 was reported at $2 billion.^[6] In 2010, the total cost of the project was still not finalized but was estimated between $4 and $5 Billion.^[8][9] There is a $4 billion placeholder in the Obama administration's Fiscal Year 2011 budget for the CMRR.^[10] In 2010, a top lab manager suggested that the final price tag probably will not be known until 2014.^[10] The expected completion date is also unknown but it has been reported the project may not be completed until 2022.^[11]

CMRR-NF[edit]

The Nuclear Facility portion was expected to be completed around 2014 but has been delayed. It is a very complex building, featuring NNSA Security Category 1 laboratory space and a total of approximately 306 enclosures, 26 fume hoods and 43 sections of Material Transfer System (MTS).^[12] The Nuclear Facility will contain a 6-metric ton vault that will approximately triple LANL's plutonium storage capacity.^[1] There have been several difficulties in design including earthquake concerns and fail-safe issues regarding plutonium vault design.^[1] In particular, security worries called for the facility to be largely underground, but this led to increased seismic worries, which pushed the excavation requirements from 50 feet (15 m) to 125 feet (38 m) and increased the amount of concrete in the foundation to 225,000 cubic yards.^[8]

Controversy[edit]

Critics argue that the CMRR project is a violation, or has the potential to be a violation, of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty between the US, China, Russia, Britain and France.^[1] Critics also argue that the new facility is unnecessary for maintaining the nuclear stockpile and may be seen as a threatening development because it allows for the production of new types of nuclear weapons.^[9] Critics also cite the spiraling costs (mentioned earlier) as a major problem. Greg Mello, the director of the Los Alamos Study Group (LASG), 'The dramatic cost escalation at CMRR-NF together with the problem of bringing other facilities into compliance with seismic safety requirements has unquantified cost implications and unknown feasibility.' The original cost of the CMRR-NF was estimated at $400 million in 2003 and has grown to a current estimate of $3.7 - $5.8 billion.

Detractors also argue against the un-justified capabilities to produce new plutonium pits, which constitute the core and active component of nuclear weapons.^[13] LANL currently has the capacity to produce 10 to 20 pits a year, but this is expected to come to an end with the shut down of the CMR in 2010. The CMRR will expand this capability, but it is not known by how much. An Institute for Defense Analyses report written before 2008 estimated a “future pit production requirement of 125 per year, with a surge capability of 200.'^[11] The need for pit production is a complex issue, with the government and the military arguing that refurbishment and replacement capabilities are needed. The aging time of pits before refurbishment is needed is still being studied but some believe it is likely around 100 years or more.^[14] The U.S. has about 23,000 pits, of which about 10,000 are in weapons and roughly 15,000 are in storage at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.^[14]

Several protests were held, including a 10-day summer camp in August 2010 called 'Disarmament Summer Encampment' held in Los Alamos and organized by the nuclear abolition group Think Outside the Bomb.^[15] A non-violent civil disobedience style protest on August 6, 2010 resulted in eight arrests.^[16]

On August 16, 2010, the Los Alamos Study Group filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) which states that the original environmental impact statement (EIS) completed in 2003, with a record of decision (ROD) in 2004, is not a legitimate EIS for the current design and is a direct violation of the NEPA. The lawsuit states that the current CMRR-NF project needs to be halted until a new EIS is studied, accessing the need for this facility and its purpose and studying thoroughly all alternatives, including other locations, upgrading existing facilities, or canceling the project all together.^[4][17] NNSA decided to complete a new 'Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement' on the project, but LASG refused to drop the suit. Judge Judith Herrera dismissed the lawsuit on May 23, 2011, saying the case was “prudentially moot” and “not yet ripe”.^[18] NNSA officials—without any public review—revamped the design of the CMRR-NF, using what they describe as a multi-functional “hotel concept” that can be used in the future for a range of unspecified nuclear weapons activities. LANL officials were considering using the 400,000 cubic yards of excavated volcanic ash from construction to cap two old waste disposal sites that contain 14 million cubic feet of nuclear and chemical residues.^[4] The lawsuit claimed this was a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and noted 'The decision to leave 14 million cubic feet of nuclear and chemical waste in shallow unlined disposal pits covered by this material would be a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, with far-reaching impacts.'^[17]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdMello, Greg (20 March 2008). 'The U.S. nuclear weapons complex: Pushing for a new production capability'. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
2. ^ ^ab'Historical Overview'. LANL. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
3. ^'CMRR Project Schedule'. LANL. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
4. ^ ^abcFleck, John (September 23, 2010). 'New Study of LANL Project Proposed'. Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
5. ^ ^ab'Laboratory breaks ground on new CMRR building'. LANL News Bulletin. January 13, 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
6. ^ ^ab'Builders Place Final Beam in First Phase of CMRR Project'. LANL Press Release. July 22, 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
7. ^'CMRR Public Meeting, September 19, 2006 Volume 2'(PDF). LANL. Retrieved 25 September 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}
8. ^ ^abSnodgrass, Roger (18 August 2010). 'Group files suit to halt LANL nuke facility'. The New Mexican. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
9. ^ ^abMalten, Willem (April 17, 2010). 'Los Alamos Lab's CMRR-NF project would send wrong message to world'. The New Mexican. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
10. ^ ^abFleck, John (June 29, 2010). 'Congress Chafes Over Nuke Costs'. Alberquerque Journal. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
11. ^ ^abPein, Corey (August 21, 2010). 'It's the Pits: Los Alamos wants to spend billions for new nuke triggers'. Santa Fe Reporter. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
12. ^'CMRR Project: Nuclear Facility (NF)'. LANL. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
13. ^'Restarting plutonium pit production: no need, high costs (talking points)'. LASG. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
14. ^ ^ab'Plutonium Pit Production — LANL's Pivotal New Mission'. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
15. ^Parker, Phil (August 2, 2010). 'Protest Planned for Los Alamos'. Albuquerque Journal. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 25 September 2010. See also February 28, 2010 CMRR protest pictures here
16. ^'LANL 8 Head to Court in Los Alamos, New Mexico Today'. Think Outside the Bomb Press Release. August 9, 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
17. ^ ^abLobsenz, George (August 18, 2010). 'Greens Sue To Stop New Plutonium Plant At Los Alamos Lab'. Defense Daily. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
18. ^July 1, 2011.Study Group Resumes Litigation againstProposed $6 Billion LANL Plutonium Facility

External links[edit]

Traditional chemical reactions occur as a result of the interaction between valenceelectrons around an atom's nucleus (see our Chemical Reactions module for more information). In 1896, Henri Becquerel expanded the field of chemistry to include nuclear changes when he discovered that uranium emitted radiation. Soon after Becquerel's discovery, Marie Sklodowska Curie began studying radioactivity and completed much of the pioneering work on nuclear changes. Curie found that radiation was proportional to the amount of radioactive element present, and she proposed that radiation was a property of atoms (as opposed to a chemical property of a compound). Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two (the first, shared with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for discovering radioactivity; the second for discovering the radioactive elements radium and polonium).

Radiation and nuclear reactions

In 1902, Frederick Soddy proposed the theory that 'radioactivity is the result of a natural change of an isotope of one element into an isotope of a different element.' Nuclear reactions involve changes in particles in an atom's nucleus and thus cause a change in the atom itself. All elements heavier than bismuth (Bi) (and some lighter) exhibit natural radioactivity and thus can 'decay' into lighter elements. Unlike normal chemical reactions that form molecules, nuclear reactions result in the transmutation of one element into a different isotope or a different element altogether (remember that the number of protons in an atom defines the element, so a change in protons results in a change in the atom). There are three common types of radiation and nuclear changes:

Alpha Radiation (α) is the emission of an alpha particle from an atom's nucleus. An αparticle contains two protons and two neutrons (and is similar to a He nucleus: ). When an atom emits an a particle, the atom's atomic mass will decrease by four units (because two protons and two neutrons are lost) and the atomic number (z) will decrease by two units. The element is said to 'transmutate' into another element that is two z units smaller. An example of an αtransmutation takes place when uranium decays into the element thorium (Th) by emitting an alpha particle, as depicted in the following equation:

(Note: in nuclear chemistry, element symbols are traditionally preceded by their atomic weight [upper left] and atomic number [lower left].)

Beta Radiation (β) is the transmutation of a neutron into a proton and an electron (followed by the emission of the electron from the atom's nucleus: ). When an atom emits a βparticle, the atom's mass will not change (since there is no change in the total number of nuclear particles); however, the atomic number will increase by one (because the neutron transmutated into an additional proton). An example of this is the decay of the isotope of carbon called carbon-14 into the element nitrogen:

Gamma Radiation (γ) involves the emission of electromagnetic energy (similar to light energy) from an atom's nucleus. No particles are emitted during gamma radiation, and thus gamma radiation does not itself cause the transmutation of atoms; however, γ radiation is often emitted during, and simultaneous to, α or β radioactive decay. X-rays, emitted during the beta decay of cobalt-60, are a common example of gamma radiation.

Comprehension Checkpoint

Radiation can result in an atom having a different atomic number.

Half-life

Radioactive decay proceeds according to a principle called the half-life. The half-life (T_½) is the amount of time necessary for one-half of the radioactive material to decay. For example, the radioactive element bismuth (210Bi) can undergo alpha decay to form the element thallium (206Tl) with a reaction half-life equal to five days. If we begin an experiment starting with 100 g of bismuth in a sealed lead container, after five days we will have 50 g of bismuth and 50 g of thallium in the jar. After another five days (ten from the starting point), one-half of the remaining bismuth will decay and we will be left with 25 g of bismuth and 75 g of thallium in the jar. As illustrated, the reaction proceeds in halves, with half of whatever is left of the radioactive element decaying every half-life period.

The fraction of parent material that remains after radioactive decay can be calculated using the equation:

The amount of a radioactive material that remains after a given number of half-lives is therefore:

The decayreaction and T_½ of a substance are specific to the isotope of the element undergoing radioactive decay. For example, Bi210 can undergo a decay to Tl206 with a T_½of five days. Bi215, by comparison, undergoes bdecay to Po215 with a T_½ of 7.6 minutes, and Bi208 undergoes yet another mode of radioactive decay (called electron capture) with a T_½ of 368,000 years!

Comprehension Checkpoint

All radioactive material decays at the same rate.

Stimulated nuclear reactions

While many elements undergo radioactive decay naturally, nuclear reactions can also be stimulated artificially. Although these reactions also occur naturally, we are most familiar with them as stimulated reactions. There are two such types of nuclear reactions:

1) Nuclear fission: reactions in which an atom's nucleus splits into smaller parts, releasing a large amount of energy in the process. Most commonly this is done by 'firing' a neutron at the nucleus of an atom. The energy of the neutron 'bullet' causes the target element to split into two (or more) elements that are lighter than the parent atom.

During the fission of U235, three neutrons are released in addition to the two daughterproducts. If these released neutrons collide with nearby U235 nuclei, they can stimulate the fission of these atoms and start a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. This chain reaction is the basis of nuclear power. As uranium atoms continue to split, a significant amount of energy is released from the reaction. The heat released during this reaction is harvested and used to generate electrical energy.

Nuclear fusion: reactions in which two or more elements 'fuse' together to form one larger element, releasing energy in the process. A good example is the fusion of two 'heavy' isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium: H2 and tritium: H3) into the element helium.

Fusion reactions release tremendous amounts of energy and are commonly referred to as thermonuclear reactions. Although many people think of the sun as a large fireball, the sun (and all stars) are actually enormous fusion reactors. Stars are primarily gigantic balls of hydrogen gas under tremendous pressure due to gravitational forces. Hydrogen molecules are fused into helium and heavier elements inside of stars, releasing energy that we receive as light and heat.

Summary

Beginning with the work of Marie Curie and others, this module traces the development of nuclear chemistry. It describes different types of radiation: alpha, beta, and gamma. The module then applies the principle of half-life to radioactive decay and explains the difference between nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.