The Nation : Top Plutonium Reactor to Be Mothballed

The United States will mothball its largest plutonium production facility for nuclear weapons, the N Reactor at Hanford, Wash., the Energy Department announced. The department said the decision was based on a finding that the government’s plutonium stockpile is sufficient to meet foreseeable demands for new weapons. The immediate effect of the action will be to reduce the department’s operating budget by about $150 million for the next fiscal year and to eliminate about 3,300 jobs at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The decision to mothball the 25-year-old reactor, which has been closed for upgrading, ends a debate over the safety of the unit, which resembles in basic design the Soviet Union’s failed Chernobyl reactor.