Defense Programs Material Management Plan: Ensuring the 21st Century Infrastructure Becomes a Reality

From 1943 to 1989 the United States nuclear weapons complex produced more than 700 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and approximately 100 metric tons of plutonium for nuclear weapons and non-defense related tasks. The sudden end to the Cold War created a profound shift in the Department of Energy’s (DOE or Department) mission from production and research to environmental cleanup of the Cold War legacies. Attention is now focused on the tasks of remediating hazards, removing excess materials, and closing facilities as quickly as possible while at the same time supporting nuclear nonproliferation goals and the transformation to a smaller more efficient weapons stockpile for the 21st century. As the post-Cold War era evolves, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which was established in 2000, is managing the Nation’s nuclear deterrent and ensuring that it is capable of responding to the challenges of this new century. NNSA has developed a preferred planning scenario that sets out the vision for the nuclear weapons complex of 2030 including a significantly smaller nuclear weapons complex footprint with modernized centers of production excellence for plutonium, uranium, tritium, as well as assembly/disassembly. There will be fewer sites and fewer locations within sites with Category I/II quantities of special nuclear material (SNM). These materials will only be present at production and test sites with Category I/II levels of SNM removed from national laboratories as quickly as possible. Additionally, NNSA is supporting the transformation of the Nation’s nuclear deterrent consistent with the Nuclear Posture Review through concepts such as the Reliable Replacement Warhead. Defense Programs (DP) Material Management Plans (MMP) are being developed to assist the DOE in meeting its future national security, nuclear energy, nonproliferation, and science requirements, even as they simultaneously support the “right sizing” of the weapons complex, plan the disposition of a large and diverse inventory of surplus material, and continue to mitigate environmental, safety, and health issues that result from the legacy of 50 years of material production.