STRATEGY LACKING FOR DISPOSAL OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPONENTS

STRATEGY LACKING FOR DISPOSAL OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPONENTS

There is a "large inventory" of classified nuclear weapons components "scattered across" the nation's nuclear weapons complex and awaiting disposal, according to an internal Department of Energy contractor report last year.

But "there is no complex-wide cost-effective classified weapon disposition strategy." And as a result, "Only a small portion of the inventory has been dispositioned and it has not always been in a cost-effective manner."

See Acceptance of Classified Excess Components for Disposal at Area 5, presented at the Spring 2012 Waste Generator Workshop, April 24, 2012. http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/