The U.S. Energy Department stepped closer yesterday to implementing a plan to consolidate the nation’s nuclear-weapon-grade uranium and plutonium as well as weapon-related research and production facilities (see GSN, Feb. 28).
Officials announced the preliminary approval of an environmental impact study of the plan. It is scheduled to be published Oct. 24 and then must sit at least another 30 days before it can be formally adopted.
The department plans to reduce the number of nuclear-weapon material storage sites from seven to five; bring together uranium manufacturing and research and development operations at the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; consolidate plutonium research and nuclear-weapon core manufacturing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (see GSN, March 13); and focus tritium research and development at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina (see GSN, Feb. 28, 2007), according to a department release.
“The world is changing and we are changing along with it,” Thomas D’Agostino, head of the department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, said in the press release. “The number of U.S. nuclear weapons is shrinking, budgets are flat or declining, and we need a smaller, more secure, more efficient infrastructure that reflects these realities, and yet retains our essential capabilities and enables our work force to perform this vital mission” (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Oct. 9).