See links below to the Final EIS on Surplus Plutonium Disposition and to the Federal Register notice about that (January 19, 2024). SRS could well be processing 34 metric tons (plus another 6 MT already addressed = 40 MT) of plutonium into transuranic waste (TRU) to be dumped in the Waste Isolation Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. See comments by SRS Watch about the EIS at the end of this post.
January 19, 2024
DOE/EIS-0549: Final Environmental Impact Statement
Final EIS for the Surplus Plutonium Disposition (DOE/EIS-0549)
National Nuclear Security
Administration
Notice of Availability of Final
Environmental Impact Statement for
the Surplus Plutonium Disposition
Program
AGENCY : National Nuclear Security
Administration, Department of Energy.
ACTION : Notice of availability.
SUMMARY : The National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA), a
semi-autonomous agency within the
Department of Energy (DOE), announces
the availability of the Final
Environmental Impact Statement for the
Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program
(SPDP EIS) (DOE/EIS–0549) in
compliance with the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA). NNSA prepared the Final SPDP
EIS to evaluate the potential
environmental impacts of dispositioning
34 metric tons (MT) of surplus
plutonium.
DATES : NNSA will not issue a Record of
Decision (ROD) on the proposal for a
minimum of 30 days after the date that
the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) publishes its Notice of
Availability (NOA) in the Federal
Register.
ADDRESSES : Requests for additional
information related to the EIS should be
sent by email to SPDP-EIS@
nnsa.doe.gov or to Ms. Maxcine Maxted,
NEPA Document Manager, National
Nuclear Security Administration, Office
this SPDP EIS to evaluate alternatives
for disposition of the 34 MT of surplus
plutonium previously designated for
disposition using the MOX fuel program
Both the Preferred Alternative and the
No Action Alternative in the SPDP EIS
use the dilute and dispose strategy, and
both address up to 7.1 MT of non-pit
surplus plutonium that NNSA
previously decided to dispose of using
the dilute and dispose strategy (85 FR
53350). The dilute and dispose strategy
includes processing surplus plutonium
to plutonium oxide, diluting it with an
adulterant to inhibit plutonium
recovery, and disposing the resulting
defense-related CH–TRU waste at the
NNSA’s Preferred Alternative is to use
the dilute and dispose strategy for 34
MT of surplus plutonium comprised of
both pit and non-pit surplus plutonium.
The exact amounts of pit and non-pit
forms of plutonium that compose the 34
MT are safeguarded, so they cannot be
plutonium in pit form and the impacts
of dispositioning 7.1 MT of non-pit
surplus plutonium. The activities that
are part of the Preferred Alternative
would occur at five DOE sites—the
Pantex Plant (Pantex) in Texas, LANL in
New Mexico, SRS in South Carolina, the
Y–12 National Security Complex (Y–12)
in Tennessee, and the WIPP facility in
New Mexico. NNSA has developed four
sub-alternatives for the Preferred
Alternative based on the location of
activities.