Critical components of nuclear weapons, nearly all of the current stockpile of U.S. plutonium pits were produced from 1978 to 1989. By law, the NNSA is mandated to manufacture no fewer than 80 plutonium pits per year by 2030 to maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
The PEIS will evaluate the environmental impacts of producing pits using various single-site and multisite alternatives, associated activities at other NNSA sites, and associated waste management and transportation activities.
Notice of intent to prepare the PEIS was published in the May 9 Federal Register.
A settlement agreement: The decision to conduct an environmental review is the result of a 2024 lawsuit and resulting settlement agreement between several advocacy groups and the Department of Energy and the NNSA.
The NNSA had prepared a supplemental PEIS in 2008 that considered the production of 20 plutonium pits a year at a single site, Los Alamos National Laboratory. However, it later altered its plans to increase production to 80 pits per year, with a minimum of 50 being produced at the DOE’s Savannah River Site and 30 produced at LANL.
As a result, the advocacy groups sued the DOE and the NNSA, claiming that the NNSA was required under NEPA to conduct a completely new PEIS for simultaneous pit production at two sites. A U.S. district court found in favor of the plaintiffs, and in January the NNSA agreed to undertake a thorough analysis of the impacts of pit production at NNSA sites throughout the United States, including the generation of new radioactive waste and its future disposal.
The NNSA has also agreed not to install certain equipment or introduce or process nuclear material at SRS until the new PEIS is complete and a record of decision is issued, which could take more than two years.
Public input: The NNSA will hold two initial virtual public scoping meetings on May 27 and 28, as well as subsequent public hearings on the draft PEIS. Comments on the scope and alternatives of the PEIS are being accepted until July 14.
More information can be found here.
