ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTATION FOR THE PLUTONIUM DISPOSITION PROGRAM

In September 2000, the Government of the United States and the Government of the Russian Federation signed an Agreement Concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No Longer Required for Defense Purposes and Related Cooperation. This agreement requires the two countries to each dispose of 34 metric tons (for a total of 68 metric tons) of surplus weapons-grade plutonium in an environmentally safe and timely manner. Before implementing this agreement in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy (the Department) prepared two detailed environmental impact statements (EISs) evaluating the potential environmental impacts of how and where to dispose of the U.S. surplus plutonium, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. NEPA requires Federal agencies to prepare an EIS for all major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. This paper focuses primarily on the environmental documents (including six supplement analyses) that have been prepared in support of implementing the U.S. Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program (the Program). The two EISs allowed the Department to select the technical disposition methods (converting the majority of the plutonium to mixed oxide fuel [MOX] fuel and immobilizing the remainder) and location of facilities needed to implement the Program (the Savannah River Site, South Carolina), and provided the basis for later supplemental NEPA evaluations for changes in Program direction. Each EIS took approximately 3 years to complete and evaluated a large number of alternatives. The NEPA process required the Department to issue draft documents for public review and hold public hearings before issuing the final documents and records of decision. The two EISs are the: (1) Storage and Disposition of Weapons-Usable Fissile Materials Final Programmatic EIS, issued December 1996; and (2) Surplus Plutonium Disposition EIS, issued November 1999. This paper also provides the current status of the Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program.