DARHT -- an adequate EIS: A NEPA case study

Conference · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:500842

Webb, M D ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

In April 1996 the US District Court in Albuquerque ruled that the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) Facility Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), prepared by the Los Alamos Area Office, US Department of Energy (DOE), was adequate. The DARHT EIS had been prepared in the face of a lawsuit in only 10 months, a third of the time usually allotted for a DOE EIS, and for only a small fraction of the cost of a typical DOE EIS, and for only a small fraction of the cost of a typical DOE EIS. It subject was the first major facility to be built in decades for the DOE nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program. It was the first EIS to be prepared for a proposal at DOE`s Los Alamos National Laboratory since 1979, and the first ever prepared by the Los Alamos Area Office. Much of the subject matter was classified. The facility had been specially designed to minimize impacts to a nearby prehistoric Native American ruin, and extensive consultation with American Indian Pueblos was required. The week that the draft EIS was published Laboratory biologists identified a previously unknown pair of Mexican spotted owls in the immediate vicinity of the project, bringing into play the consultation requirements of the Endangered Species Act. In spite of these obstacles, the resultant DARHT EIS was reviewed by the court and found to meet all statutory and regulatory requirements; the court praised the treatment of the classified material which served as a basis for the environmental analysis.

• OSTI ID: 500842
• Report Number(s): CONF-9705100--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
COMPLIANCE
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
LANL
LAWSUITS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
US NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT