To help achieve “American nuclear dominance,” Los Alamos National Laboratory may be expected to produce at least 60 plutonium pits per year — double the previously set minimum.

It’s not exactly clear based on the memorandum — sent by David Beck, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense programs, on Feb. 11 — when the lab might be expected to meet the new 60-pits-per-year minimum. According to the cover letter, the memo lays out a series of objectives across the nuclear enterprise “that Defense Programs believes are achievable by the end of calendar year 2028.”

“Our adversaries are advancing their capabilities in key nuclear domains, eroding traditional sources of the United States’ strategic advantage,” the memo reads. “To ensure continued supremacy of America’s deterrence posture, we must urgently accelerate the modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile and the revitalization of its associated facilities and infrastructure.”

The memo was provided to The New Mexican by the Los Alamos Study Group, a nuclear disarmament advocacy organization, which obtained it from a “trusted source.”

The federal nuclear agency did not respond to requests for comment or additional information this week. LANL referred questions to the NNSA.

Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello said the current national security posture seems to be focused on removing bottlenecks for pit production. He feels it’s an “open question” whether that can be done without running into safety issues or other roadblocks.

But he sees an increased urgency from federal agencies to beef up the stockpile — and quickly.

“The policy is, go fast,” Mello said.

In October 2024, the national laboratory completed its first “diamond-stamped” plutonium pit as part of its new mission producing the trigger devices for nuclear weapons. At a December 2025 town hall, lab Director Thom Mason said while the exact number of pits produced since then could not be released, the lab had met production goals.

Years of delay

LANL previously produced a small number of plutonium pits between 2007 and 2011. In 2007, the lab was the first place to produce a stockpile-quality plutonium pit since the closure of the Rocky Flats plant in 1992, after the main government contractor running the Colorado plant pleaded guilty to several violations of environmental law.

In 2018, LANL was directed to start producing plutonium pits once again. The nuclear security enterprise planned to eventually manufacture pits both in New Mexico and at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Savannah River Site was expected to take on the lion’s share of production: at least 50 pits per year to LANL’s minimum of 30. Between the two sites, the NNSA wanted to see at least 80 pits per year by 2030.

Now, Savannah River appears to be taking a back seat, with the Feb. 11 memo asking the site to support expanded pit production in New Mexico until their own plutonium processing facility is fully up and running. Beck called on involved national laboratories, plants and sites to submit plans to achieve the goals laid out in the memo by March 7.

In 2018, neither site was set up for the large-scale manufacture of pits, according to a 2021 LANL publication.

“Los Alamos’ [plutonium facility PF-4] was designed for research and development and surveillance; the facility at Savannah River was designed for mixed-oxide fuel fabrication (which never happened),” authors for National Security Science, LANL’s national security magazine, wrote. “Changes — such as new equipment, updated buildings, new employees, and 24-hour operations — are necessary to turn these facilities into functional pit production facilities.”

LANL to take front seat

Building up the plutonium processing facility at the Savannah River Site may fall behind schedule, according to a Thursday report from the Government Accountability Office on large National Nuclear Security Administration infrastructure projects. According to the report, as of June 2025, officials were updating estimated project costs and timelines to convert an existing building into the facility’s main plutonium processing site.

Although estimates were still being updated, costs could increase from an estimated

$6.9 billion to $11.1 billion to more than $22 billion, according to the report, with a completion date in fall 2035, which was originally at the high end of the anticipated range of completion dates.

“However, officials told us the completion date may be delayed,” the February report indicated.

That leaves Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“We have said that they will not be satisfied with 30 pits per year,” Mello said. “It’s not enough to do what they want to do with the stockpile … [and] it is now clear that 2035 is the earliest date that Savannah River could make any pits.”

Mello has been skeptical about the ability of the lab to meet pit production goalposts. He’s still skeptical, but between the memo, comments made by federal officials at an annual deterrence summit and an announcement last year that the Department of Energy would lift “burdensome” permitting requirements at national laboratories to kick-start construction projects, the winds could be changing.

“No one’s ever made all these changes, all at once,” Mello said. “And so we have to reexamine our assumptions.”

China, China

The Thursday GAO report references a “30 diamond strategy,” which it described as a plan to “support the fastest path to a production rate of 30 war reserve pits per year at Los Alamos National Laboratory by December 2028” approved by the NNSA in 2024.

To meet that goal, the federal agency planned to change the scope of a handful of infrastructure projects, including the installation of gloveboxes and other equipment, and prioritize certain projects. According to the report, officials said the 30-diamond strategy could increase costs and extend timelines in some areas.

Aging infrastructure has been a concern across the nuclear enterprise. In 2019, LANL reported around 40% of its buildings were built before 1970. PF-4 started operating in 1978.

A January 2023 powerpoint, obtained by Los Alamos Study Group through a Freedom of Information Act, titled “30 Diamonds WHY” said the United States was facing a “grave threat” from a buildup of nuclear forces in China, driving the need for the project.

CNN reported earlier this week that U.S. State Department officials claimed China had conducted an explosive nuclear test in 2020, which they believe was part of an arsenal modernization program, although Robert Floyd, executive Secretary for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, said the organization’s monitoring system picked up no evidence of this.

“LANL, right now is the only place with the capability to build pits,” reads the second slide. “We have to achieve the capability to make Diamond Stamped pits, our country is depending on us to produce these.”