SPEIS defines nuke complex reform

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The National Nuclear Security Administration has outlined its plan to streamline the U.S. nuclear complex.

The plan "is described in a draft Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement -- SPEIS -- that NNSA will issue in January," the agency said in a statement Dec. 18.

"These needs include facilities that are safer and more secure, consolidating special nuclear materials, eliminating duplicative capabilities, establishing a plutonium capability, and implementing more efficient and uniform business practices throughout the complex," it said.

"I feel a sense of urgency," said NNSA Administrator Thomas P. D'Agostino. "We must act now to adapt for the future security needs of the country, and stop pouring money into an old, Cold War-era nuclear weapons complex that is too big, too expensive, and doesn't offer updated and safer ways of maintaining our nuclear stockpile or that is responsive to other national security needs."

"Over the next several years, the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile will be reduced by nearly 50 percent from the 2001 level, making it the smallest stockpile since the 1950s," the NNSA, an agency of the Department of Energy, said.

"The draft SPEIS evaluates four alternatives to address NNSA's needs: maintaining the status quo, distributed centers of excellence, consolidated centers of excellence, and a capabilities-based complex. The SPEIS also ... would consolidate missions and facilities within the existing NNSA sites. This means that NNSA would eliminate redundancies in missions, capabilities, and facilities," the agency said.

The NNSA said it planned to:

" -- Consolidate special nuclear materials at five sites by the end of 2012, with reduced square footage within those sites by 2017;

" -- Close or transfer from weapons activities about 600 buildings or structures, many by 2010;

" -- Cease NNSA operations of two major testing sites supporting our laboratories by 2015;

" -- Reduce the square footage of buildings and structures supporting weapons missions by as much as one-third, going from greater than 35 million to less than 26 million square feet;

" -- Employ 20-30 percent fewer workers directly supporting weapons missions consistent with a smaller, more efficient complex; and

" -- Dismantle weapons at a significantly faster pace."