Plutonium Pondering
The Department of Energy must fully reveal how much surplus plutonium it has already sent from the Savannah River Site (SRS) and other DOE sites to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). And, DOE must reveal how much plutonium it plans to send to WIPP.
The current effort to send more surplus plutonium from SRS to WIPP took shape in 2011.
On January 13, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration issued a statement (https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/nnsa-and-doe-em-complete-first-shipment-downblended-surplus-plutonium-transuranic) that said “The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management completed the first shipment of downblended surplus plutonium transuranic (TRU) material from K-Area at the Savannah River Site to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico in December.” No amount of plutonium shipped was given.
The statement also says that “This shipment marks a milestone as the first shipment to include defense TRU material from NNSA’s Surplus Plutonium Disposition Program. After plutonium is downblended at SRS, it becomes TRU material by definition and can be permanently disposed at WIPP.”
DOE’s plutonium disposal at WIPP merits closer scrutiny. Was the stated shipment in January 2023 the first shipment of downblended surplus weapon-grade plutonium from SRS to WIPP? No, it was not. It was the first DOE shipment from the K-Area and the first shipment to WIPP under the commitment to the State of South Carolina to remove plutonium from the state but that shipment occurred a decade after the first surplus plutonium was shipped from SRS to WIPP.
Full Plutonium Pondering, by Tom Clements, Director of SRS Watch, January 23, 2023, 4 pages, linked here: Plutonium Pondering Jan 23 2023
SRS Watch Powerpoint on SRS and pit production, for Sierra Club meeting in Columbia, SC, January 23, 2023: SRS pit presentation January 23 2023
NNSA presentation on TRU management from pit production & NNSA – from RadWasteSummit 2020 – National Nuclear Security Administration Prioritization Approach, by James J. McConnell Associate Administrator for Safety, Infrastructure and Operations, September 9, 2020. Obtained by SRS Watch via a FOIA request. Doc 1 – Radioactive Waste Summit-NA-50 Briefing-Final 9-4-20-2-1
DOE photos: Plutonium storage drums containing cans of plutonium in K-Reactor at SRS & K-Reactor, where plutonium downblending occurs