Swords into Plowshares: Nuclear Weapon Dismantlement, Evaluation, and Maintenance at Pantex

Edwin A. Kjeldgaard, Dean A. Jones, John List, Mark A. Turnquist, James W. Angelo, Richard D. Hopson, John Hudson and Terry Holeman
Additional contact information
Edwin A. Kjeldgaard: Sandia National Laboratories, MS-0718, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185-0718
Dean A. Jones: Sandia National Laboratories
Mark A. Turnquist: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
James W. Angelo: Mason and Hanger Corporation, P.O. Box 30020, Amarillo, Texas 79177-0001
Richard D. Hopson: Mason and Hanger Corporation, P.O. Box 30020, Amarillo, Texas 79177-0001
John Hudson: Mason and Hanger Corporation, P.O. Box 30020, Amarillo, Texas 79177-0001
Terry Holeman: Mason and Hanger Corporation, P.O. Box 30020, Amarillo, Texas 79177-0001

Interfaces, 2000, vol. 30, issue 1, 57-82

Abstract: The end of the Cold War changed the missions of facilities in the US nuclear weapons complex. They ceased production of new weapons and focused on dismantling old weapons and maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of those remaining. The Pantex Plant, operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) by the Mason and Hanger Corporation, is the sole assembly and disassembly facility for dismantlement, evaluation, and maintenance activities for the US nuclear stockpile. We developed a decision support tool, the Pantex Process Model (PPM), to help Pantex plan capacity and deploy resources to meet its new requirements. Using the PPM, Pantex has provided critical input to help the US form and defend positions during arms-control-treaty negotiations. It has changed the way Pantex and the DOE evaluate resource requirements in planning future workloads. It has also led to an innovative cooperative agreement among Pantex, the Transportation Safeguards Division of DOE, and the Department of Defense (DOD) that resulted in Pantex exceeding weapon-dismantlement goals.

Keywords: GOVERNMENT-PROGRAMS; PRODUCTION/SCHEDULING-PLANNING (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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