The United States Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announced in October 2024 it had manufactured its first plutonium “pit”—used in the core of a thermonuclear warhead to initiate an nuclear explosion—since the United States largely halted such production in 1989. Under a nuclear arsenal modernization plan launched in 2008, the lab will scale up production to 30 pits per year, with an additional 50 to be produced annually starting in the mid-2030s at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. But the work faces opposition from critics who say it could help fuel a new international nuclear arms race and also risks the health of workers and the environment. In September 30 2024, opponents won a ruling in federal district court in South Carolina when a judge ruled the U.S. Department of Energy failed to adequately consider other options for locating the production facilities. The judge is considering a request to pause production at LANL. The United States halted pit manufacturing in 1989 at the Rocky Flats Plant, near Denver, after an inspection revealed hazardous waste contamination.

Excerpt from U.S. resumes making nuke triggers, Science, Oct. 11, 2024