Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today released a comprehensive study that examines opportunities for greater integration in the management of nuclear materials across various department programs. It will serve as a blueprint for future action by the Department. The report also provides the first consolidated account to Congress and the public of the Department of Energy's (DOE) unclassified inventory of nuclear materials and offers a description of how and where these materials are managed.

"It is critical to our national security, health and safety, and environmental protection that we take proper care of our nuclear legacy," said Secretary Richardson. "Currently, more than half of the department's nuclear materials management facilities is over 40 years old. This plan lays the groundwork for how we can address not only an aged infrastructure, but also the complex set of responsibilities related to managing and dispositioning a sizable and diverse nuclear materials inventory."

DOE manages its nuclear materials under eight different programs that have offices in 36 different locations. This legacy follows, in large part, from the Cold War era, during which the department and its predecessor agencies operated facilities to: conduct research on, design, test, and manufacture nuclear weapons; conduct basic science, nuclear engineering research and development, and special isotope programs; and support naval nuclear propulsion. Following the Cold War, new missions and programs were developed to support nonproliferation agreements and research other uses for our nuclear materials leaving behind the current challenge of integrating and managing large amounts of nuclear materials in various forms.

The nuclear materials inventoried in this plan are:

• Approximately 100 metric tons (MT) of Pu-239.
• Excess highly enriched uranium (HEU) in the amount of 174 MT was withdrawn from national security programs, half of which is in the form of metal and the other half in a variety of forms (oxide, reactor fuel, compounds, irradiated fuel and targets, and others).
• Over 4,700 MT of surplus low enriched uranium (LEU) at 28 sites.
• Over 760,000 MT of depleted uranium (DU) at 34 sites.
• Over 1,900 kilograms of U-233 at five sites.
• About 2,500 MT of department-owned spent nuclear fuel stored at four sites.
• An "other materials" group that includes over 50,000 items with over 100 million curies of radioactivity. This includes a wide variety of isotopes with varying chemical and physical forms that are legacies of various national security, nuclear energy, and research and development activities.

In addition to providing an inventory of the department's nuclear materials, the report, A Strategic Approach to Integrating the Long-Term Management of Nuclear Materials(pdf), offers a 25-point, multi-year action plan for increasing integration, coordination and efficiency in managing the nation's nuclear materials. The plan is not designed as a decision-making document, but offers these points as a springboard for future action.

Some of the plan's action items include:

• Revising the department's strategic plan to ensure nuclear materials stewardship is integrated into the department's major missions.
• Performing a qualitative and quantitative projection of the long-term capabilities needed to accomplish the department's nuclear materials management missions.
• Establishing appropriate mechanisms and opportunities for involving the public on issues that could affect them.
• Making decisions regarding excess legacy nuclear materials and whether they should be disposed of or stored for other uses.
• Completing a cost/benefit analysis of alternatives for improving the department's nuclear materials information management and inventory accountability system.

The nuclear materials covered in this plan include fissile materials, which are isotopes capable of being split to create a nuclear explosion, such as uranium and plutonium. The plan also covers spent nuclear fuel and non-fissile materials special isotopes. Surplus nuclear materials are distinguished from wastes according to the relative proportions of radioactive and non-radioactive constituents. Low-level, mixed, transuranic, and high-level wastes are not covered in the report.

Also addressed in the plan is the integrated management of nuclear materials categorized as: national security materials; non-national security materials; excess materials; and surplus materials. National security missions include nuclear deterrence and non-proliferation. Non-defense programmatic use includes research and development and support of nuclear power generation. Excess materials are either declared a national resource to be stored for an undefined future use, transferred for beneficial use, such as medical treatments, or declared surplus and scheduled for disposition.

Some anticipated key outcomes of the plan include integrating facilities and infrastructure planning required for a modernized nuclear materials management complex and integrating program and field nuclear materials information collection, inventory-tracking and decision support systems. In addition, the department will document the costs for managing nuclear materials in pursuit of achieving increased efficiency