Summary report of the screening process to determine reasonable alternatives for long-term storage and disposition of weapons-usable fissile materials

Technical Report · Wed Mar 29 04:00:00 EST 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/52757· OSTI ID:52757

Significant quantities of weapons-usable fissile materials (primarily plutonium and highly enriched uranium) have become surplus to national defense needs both in the US and Russia. These stocks of fissile materials pose significant dangers to national and international security. The dangers exist not only in the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons but also in the potential for environmental, safety and health consequences if surplus fissile materials are not properly managed. As announced in the Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), the Department of Energy is currently conducting an evaluation process for disposition of surplus weapons-usable fissile materials determined surplus to National Security needs, and long-term storage of national security and programmatic inventories, and surplus weapons-usable fissile materials that are not able to go directly from interim storage to disposition. An extensive set of long-term storage and disposition options was compiled. Five broad long-term storage options were identified; thirty-seven options were considered for plutonium disposition; nine options were considered for HEU disposition; and eight options were identified for Uranium-233 disposition. Section 2 discusses the criteria used in the screening process. Section 3 describes the options considered, and Section 4 provides a detailed summary discussions of the screening results.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, Washington, DC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 52757
• Report Number(s): DOE/MD--0002; ON: DE95010320; NC: NONE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
35 ARMS CONTROL
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
ARMS CONTROL
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPILED DATA
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
IRRADIATION
MIXING
NON-PROLIFERATION POLICY
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PLUTONIUM
SAFEGUARDS
STABILIZATION
STORAGE
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
URANIUM 233
VITRIFICATION