Plans To Announce Detailed Plutonium Information

Specifically
Background
Benefits
Who Are the Key Stakeholders?
Contact
Questions and Answers

The Department of Energy is committed to informing the public on the details of our plutonium production, acquisition, and utilization from 1945 through 1993.

Specifically

The Department plans to declassify and verify the actual plutonium numbers as well as coordinate the numbers with the affected agencies and other involved countries. This information will then be released to the public by a written report including a description of the systems used to track this material and the complex additions and subtractions comprising the plutonium inventories. This release is scheduled for September 1, 1994. The system is called the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System and it is the official record used to maintain compliance with the Nonproliferation Treaty.

As an update to information provided in December 1993, the Department of Energy reconfirms that Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina, produced 36.1 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium and the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, produced 12.9 metric tons of fuel-grade plutonium. The differences between these numbers and those announced in December 1993 reflect rounding to the nearest tenth of a metric ton.
There is an increase of about 1.6 metric tons of weapon-grade material produced at the Hanford Site. The total weapon-grade material produced at the Hanford Site is 54.5 metric tons. (The previous total was announced in December as 53 metric tons - 52.9 metric tons rounded to 53 metric tons.)
The difference in Hanford weapon-grade data results from using data in December extracted from production file documents instead of data from the Department's Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System. These production numbers reflect production as measured during recovery of plutonium from reactor targets rather than theoretical production predicted by reactor physics models.
The Department of Energy plans to hold a stakeholder meeting at the Department of Energy Headquarters for the purpose of answering questions about the data and the system used to track the data. The tentative date is September 15, 1994.

Background

Plutonium was produced to support the United States nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and reactor development programs from 1945 through 1993.
There have been requests for this information to support environmental, health, and safety calculations for independent studies to determine public radiation doses and environmental degradation.
The National Academy of Sciences report by the Committee on International Security and Arms Control, "Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons," dated January 24, 1994, recommended release of this information.

Benefits

As part of the Secretary of Energy's Openness Initiative, the Department of Energy is committed to informing the public on information regarding the total figures for United States plutonium production, acquisition, and utilization from 1945 through 1993. After the process described above is complete, the American public will have information that is important to the current debate over proper management and ultimate disposition of plutonium. The release of this information should encourage other nations to declassify similar information.
The quantities may aid in discussions of plutonium storage, safety and security with stakeholders, regulators, and the public.

Who Are the Key Stakeholders?

Regulators. State agencies; also the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Public. Data will be available for public discussion of plutonium production, acquisition, and utilization.
Public Interest Organizations. Stakeholders include environmental, safety and health groups, historians, archivists, researchers, and scientists and industrial workers, as well as State and Federal personnel. With this declassification, those interested in oversight of plutonium related activities will have additional information regarding plutonium production, acquisition, and utilization. Public interest organizations which have expressed such an interest include (but are not limited to): Friends of the Earth, Military Production Network, National Security Archive, League of Women Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Energy Research Foundation, Environmental Information Network, Greenpeace, Nevada Desert Experience, Oregon Environmental Peace Alliance, Plutonium Challenge, Sierra Club, South Carolina Wildlife Federation, the Augustans, Foundation for Global Sustainability, Tri-Valley Cares, Western States Legal Foundation, Government Accountability Project, Hanford Downwinders Coalition, Heart of America Northwest, Nuclear Safety Campaign, American Fiends Service Committee, Rocky Mountain Peace Center, Citizens for Environmental Justice, and the Energy Research Foundation.
Freedom of Information Act Requesters: Specific requesters will have greater access to the data they seek.

Contact

U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Public Affairs
Contact: Sam Grizzle
(202) 586-5806

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the Press Secretary, Washington, DC 20585

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Why was there an increase of 1.6 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium at Hanford Site since the December 1993 announcement?

A. After thorough review, the Department of Energy concluded that the correct figures are based on the Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System rather than production file documents previously used.

Q. Is there 1.6 metric tons of weapon-grade plutonium missing from Hanford?

A. The plutonium is not missing.

Click

to return to the table of contents for this fact sheet.
Click here to return to the list of fact sheets.
Click here to go to the previous fact sheet.
Click here to go to the next fact sheet.