Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on surplus plutonium disposition? That’s the call in the new report (April 30) of the National Academies of Sciences on disposal of 48 metric tons of plutonium, via downblending at SRS and dumping in WIPP. In parallel, we need a PEIS on plutonium pit production – for nuclear warheads – before proceeding with any $R$ Plutonium Bomb Plant at SRS.
“RECOMMENDATION 5-5: The Department of Energy should implement a new comprehensive programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to consider fully the environmental impacts of the total diluted surplus plutonium transuranic (DSP-TRU) waste inventory (up to an additional 48.2 MT) targeted for dilution at the Savannah River Site and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Given the scale and character of the diluted surplus plutonium inventory, the effect it has on redefining the character of the WIPP, the involvement of several facilities at several sites to prepare the plutonium for dilution, a schedule of decades requiring sustained support, and the environmental and programmatic significance of the changes therein, a PEIS for the whole of surplus plutonium that considers all affected sites as a system is appropriate to address the intent and direction of the National Environmental Policy Act and would better support the need for public acceptance and stakeholder engagement by affording all the opportunity to contemplate the full picture.”
Full report linked here, from NAS website: https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/disposal-of-surplus-plutonium-in-the-waste-isolation-pilot-plant
Also posted here, on SRS Watch website – might be easier to access here: Downblending report April 30 2020