Surplus Plutonium Disposition

On May 8, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Federal Register notice (80 FR 26559) announcing the availability of the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration's (DOE/NNSA's) Final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Final SPD Supplemental EIS) (DOE/EIS-0283-S2, April 2015). Among the proposed actions considered in the Final SPD Supplemental EIS, DOE/NNSA analyzed the potential environmental impacts of alternatives for the disposition of 13.1 metric tons (MT) (14.4 tons) of surplus plutonium for which a disposition path is not assigned, including 7.1 MT (7.8 tons) of surplus pit plutonium and 6 MT (6.6 tons) of surplus non-pit plutonium. At the time the Final SPD Supplemental EIS was issued, DOE/NNSA did not have a Preferred Alternative for any of the proposed actions considered in the Final SPD Supplemental EIS. Subsequently, on December 24, 2015, DOE/NNSA issued a Federal Register notice (80 FR 80348) identifying the Preferred Alternative for disposition of the 6 MT of surplus non-pit plutonium analyzed in the Final SPD Supplemental EIS. In its Federal Register notice, DOE/NNSA announced that its Preferred Alternative is to prepare 6 MT of surplus non-pit plutonium for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, a geologic repository for disposal of transuranic (TRU) waste generated by atomic energy defense activities. DOE/NNSA is announcing a decision to implement its Preferred Alternative for the disposition of 6 MT of surplus non-pit plutonium, as described in DOE/NNSA's Preferred Alternative for Certain Quantities of Plutonium Evaluated in the Final Surplus Plutonium Disposition Supplemental EIS. Shipments of this surplus non-pit plutonium to WIPP, after it is operational,\1\ will be placed in the queue of waste to be shipped to WIPP. This plutonium will be prepared and packaged to meet the WIPP waste acceptance criteria for contact-handled TRU waste and other applicable regulatory requirements. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------