The South Carolina Environmental Law Project (SCELP) is demanding the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conduct a public environmental review of plans to provide 19.7 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium to private nuclear companies.
SCELP published the letter of demand Sept. 8 on behalf of Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Savannah River Site Watch and a South Carolina resident living near the Savannah River Site. The groups argue DOE and NNSA are required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to do a supplemental programmatic environmental impact statement. In May 2026, NNSA selected five companies — Oklo, Exodys Energy, Shine Technologies, Standard Nuclear and Flibe Energy — to receive the 19.7 metric tons of surplus Cold War-era plutonium.
“There has been an extensive history of DOE/NNSA NEPA compliance throughout the evolution and expansion of its surplus plutonium disposition program,” the letter said. “The purposes, needs, alternatives and conclusions that have been memorialized over the past thirty years remain relevant both to present day concerns as well as informing what has and has not been evaluated previously.”
The letter continued, “[i]n a generally analogous NEPA situation, my clients are concerned that the Department of Energy and NNSA are radically changing course in their surplus plutonium disposition program without preparing a necessary supplemental programmatic environmental impact statement.”
The groups say recent policy changes have fundamentally altered the federal government’s approach to surplus plutonium disposition. For example, a May 2025 executive order terminated the previous “dilute and dispose” program, under which 40 metric tons of surplus plutonium were slated for disposal as waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the SCELP press release said.
The order instead directed DOE to establish the program supplying surplus plutonium for commercial nuclear applications, including advanced reactors and small modular reactors.
Oklo, in a partnership with the European company newcleo, plans to create an advanced nuclear fuel with the plutonium and turn plutonium’s “long-term material management challenge into a domestic energy source,” Oklo said in a May press release. Standard Nuclear plans use the material to make plutonium-based tristructural isotropic – or TRISO – fuel.
Huntsville, Ala.-based Flibe Energy said in May the plutonium aligns with the company’s plans to use materials from spent nuclear fuel and also use the material lithium fluoride thorium reactor technology. Shine and Exodys Energy both look to recycle plutonium into advanced nuclear fuel. Shine also looks to extract critical isotopes from recycling plutonium, the company said in a May company release.
The groups gave DOE and NNSA 30 days to respond, warning they may pursue legal action if the agencies do not undertake the requested environmental review.