
The Department of Energy said Friday it wants to do more plutonium chemistry and experiments in an existing building at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as part of a plan to resume the lab’s production of fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits.The move would mean raising the amount of plutonium-239, or its equivalent, allowed in the lab’s Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building: a tenfold increase to 400 grams from the current limit of just under 40 grams, DoE’s National Nuclear Security Administration…