The United States Plutonium Balance, 1944 - 2009

Technical Report · Fri Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1132796· OSTI ID:1132796

This report updates the report -Plutonium: The first 50 years- which was released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 1996. The topic of both reports is plutonium, sometimes referred to as Pu-239, which is capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction and is used in nuclear weapons and for nuclear power production. This report updates 1994 data through 2009. The four most significant changes since 1994 include: (a) the completion of cleanup activities at the Rocky Flats Plant in 2005; (b) material consolidation and disposition activities, especially shipments from Hanford to the Savannah River Site; (c) the 2007 declaration of an additional 9.0 MT of weapons grade plutonium to be surplus to defense needs in the coming decades; and (d) the opening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico in 1999.

• Research Organization: US Department of Energy (USDOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Washington, DC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Security
• OSTI ID: 1132796
• Report Number(s): DOE/DP--0137-UPD
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS