Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 28 No. 4
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Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor
Article 2 of 8
January 26, 2024

NNSA publishes final environmental study on disposal of surplus plutonium

By ExchangeMonitor

About two years after it released a draft of the document, the National Nuclear Security Administration published a final environmental review of its plant to dispose of dozens of tons of surplus, weapon-usable plutonium.

The nuclear weapons agency published its final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program (SPDP) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in the Federal Register on Jan. 19.

The document covers 34 metric tons of plutonium, which would be treated at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., before getting buried at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeast New Mexico.

Though the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have cleared one big legal hurdle by completing the environmental review and another by negotiating an agreement to keep WIPP open, obstacles remain to getting rid of the plutonium.

For one, the new hazardous waste permit New Mexico and DOE agreed to gives the state more leeway to slow or stop disposal operations. For another, the surplus plutonium mission competes for glovebox space and personnel at Los Alamos with the higher-priority national security mission of casting new plutonium pits for future nuclear warheads.

Congress, in the latest National Defense Authorization Act, recognized the log jam at Los Alamos and gave pits legal priority over the disposal mission.

Meanwhile, as part of a major legal settlement that followed the NNSA’s decision to scrap the previous method of surplus plutonium disposal at Savannah River, DOE faces a legal deadline to remove plutonium from South Carolina. Any delay to the plutonium disposition program inches DOE and the palmetto state closer to another courtroom showdown.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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