The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project was completed in August 1998 and resulted in the book Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 edited by Stephen I. Schwartz. These project pages should be considered historical.
Interactive map guides to the current and historical United States nuclear weapons and naval nuclear propulsion complex are available courtesy of the Office of Environmental Management at the U.S. Department of Energy. You can choose between a basic overview by function or a detailed overview by state and facility (data accurate as of 1996). For information on formerly utilized sites, see the section below on transitional/closed facilities or visit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program
NOTE:
Facility budget data reflect actual expenditures in 2001 (expressed in constant 2002 dollars). Accounting data for stored quantities of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium exclude (for uranium) materials in intact nuclear weapons, materials not in Department of Energy custody (e.g. deployed weapons), and materials in spent fuel and irradiated fuel targets. Both categories exclude materials designated as radioactive waste (including 3,919 kilograms of plutonium). These figures were accurate as of September 30, 1994 (plutonium) and December 1996 (uranium), the last time the U.S. Government chose to release information on these inventories.
Operational Facilities
– Revised August 16, 2002 –
(Ames, Iowa)
ESTABLISHED: 1947
SIZE: 10 acres (435,600 square feet)
BUDGET: $23.1 million (5.6 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 0 [federal]; 375 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Conducts basic research on nuclear materials and nuclear waste remediation
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 15.5 grams of plutonium and 31 grams of uranium-235
CONTRACTOR: Iowa State University (formerly Iowa State College)
Argonne National Laboratory [ANL]
(Argonne, IL [ANL-East], 22 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho [ANL-West])
ESTABLISHED: July 1, 1946
SIZE: 1,704 acres (2.7 square miles) [ANL-E]
BUDGET: $342.8 million ANL-East (9.3 percent defense-related); $71.0 million ANL-West (6.8 percent defense-related) [not including DOE’s Chicago Operations Office] (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 315 [federal]; 3,862 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Conducts research on advanced nuclear reactor technologies.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 1.15 kilograms of plutonium and less than one metric ton of uranium-235 [ANL-E]; 4.0 metric tons of plutonium-239 and less than 10 metric tons of uranium-235 [ANL-W]
CONTRACTOR: University of Chicago and Argonne Universities Association
Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (West Mifflin, Pennsylvania)
ESTABLISHED: 1948
SIZE: 160 acres (0.25 square miles)
BUDGET: $354.8 million [including DOE’s Pittsburgh Naval Reactors Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 67 [federal]; 2,972 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Designs, builds and tests prototype naval nuclear reactors and trains U.S. Navy personnel in their operation and maintenance.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 272 grams of plutonium and approximately 5.5 kilograms of uranium-235
CONTRACTOR: Bechtel National, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Westinghouse Bettis Co. (formerly Westinghouse Electric Corp., Atomic Power Division), 1948-1998
Brookhaven National Laboratory [BNL]
(Upton, Long Island, New York, 60 miles east of New York City)
ESTABLISHED: January 31, 1947
SIZE: 5,300 acres (8.3 square miles)
BUDGET: $383.4 million (9.0 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 33 [federal]; 3,101 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Conducts research on nuclear weapons, nuclear waste remediation, nuclear materials production, nuclear safeguards and security, and verification and control technologies.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: Approximately 41.6 kilograms of uranium-235 (all declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995)
CONTRACTORS: Brookhaven Science Associates (a 50-50 partnership between The Research Foundation of the State University of New York?on behalf of the State University of New York at Stony Brook?and Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio); Bechtel National, Inc.; Duke Engineering and Services; Waste Management Federal Services, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Associated Universities, Inc. (a consortium founded in 1946 by Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, The Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the University of Rochester, and Yale University), 1947-1998
Holston Army Ammunition Plant
(Kingsport, Tennessee, 85 miles northeast of Knoxville)
ESTABLISHED: 1942; began making high explosives for nuclear weapons in 1961
SIZE: 6,020 acres (9.4 square miles)
EMPLOYEES: 475 (as of 11/30/97)
FUNCTION: Sole source (since 1961) of a high explosive (HE) chemical powder used to fabricate high explosive lenses for nuclear weapons (see footnote 16 for further information).
CONTRACTORS: managed and operated for the U.S. Army by BAE Systems Ordnance Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace); Wackenhut Services, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Holston Defense Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman Chemical Company, 1942-December 31, 1998
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory [INEEL] 1
(42 miles northwest of Idaho Falls, Idaho)
ESTABLISHED: 1949
SIZE: 571,800 acres (893 square miles)
BUDGET: $832.0 million [including DOE’s Idaho Operations Office] (72.6 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 393 [federal]; 5,868 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Researches, develops, tests and evaluates naval and breeder reactors, manages high-level and transuranic nuclear waste, and produces plutonium-238 fuel in the Advanced Test Reactor. Fabricates depleted uranium armor at the Specific Manufacturing Capability Project for M1-A1 and M1-A2 Abrams tanks. From 1953-1992, the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP)2 reprocessed spent naval reactor fuel to recover uranium-235 (some of which was fabricated into fuel for the Savannah River reactors beginning in 1968) and krypton-85. Facilities include 52 reactors (3 still operating, 10 operable but currently shut down for lack of funding) and 11 stainless steel high-level waste underground storage tanks. Four reactors (two submarine prototypes and two aircraft carrier prototypes), all inactivated, are at the Naval Reactors Facility maintained by the Navy’s Nuclear Reactors Office.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 0.5 metric tons of plutonium-239 (0.4 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), 26.2 metric tons of uranium-235 (23.4 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), and 40 kilograms of uranium-233
CONTRACTORS: Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC (composed of Bechtel National, Inc. and BWX Technologies); Bechtel Bettis, Inc. [Naval Reactors Facility]; University of Chicago [Argonne National Laboratory-West]; Inland Northwest Research Alliance
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Phillips Petroleum Co., Atomic Energy Division, 1950-1966; American Cyanamid Co. [ICPP], 1953; Combustion Engineering Inc., Nuclear Division [Naval Reactor Facility], 1959-1965; Aerojet General Corp. and Aerojet General Nucleonics, 1959-1965; Aerojet General Corp., 1965-1966; General Electric Company, 1965-1968; Idaho Nuclear Corp. (a jointly owned subsidiary of Aerojet General Corp., Allied Chemical Corp. and [beginning in 1969] Phillips Petroleum Co.), 1966-71; Aerojet Nuclear Co. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Aerojet General Corp.), 1971-1976; Allied Chemical Corp. [ICPP], 1971-1980; Exxon Nuclear Idaho Company [ICPP], 1980-1984; EG&G3 Idaho, Inc., 1984-1994; Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Co. [ICPP], 1984-1994; Rockwell International Corp. [SMC] (Special Manufacturing Capability for M1-A1/A2 tank armor), December 1986-1991; Babcock and Wilcox [SMC] (Special Manufacturing Capability for M1-A1/A2 tank armor), 1991-1994; Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company (composed of Lockheed and Babcock & Wilcox Idaho, Coleman Research, Duke Engineering and Services, NUMATEC, Parsons Environmental Services, Rust International [Rust Federal Services] and the Thermo Electron Corporation [Thermo Technology Ventures]), a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, 1994-1999; Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company [ICPP], 1994-1999; Westinghouse Electric Corp. [Naval Reactor Facility], 1994-1999; Argonne National Laboratory-West [fast breeder reactor program], 1994-1999; Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company [SMC] (Special Manufacturing Capability for depleted uranium M1-A1/A2 tank armor), 1994-1999
Kansas City Plant 4
(12 miles south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri)
ESTABLISHED: 1949
SIZE: 136 acres (0.2 square miles; 113 acres of process buildings covering 3.2 million square feet)
BUDGET: $364.6 million (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 61 [federal]; 3,679 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Produces or procures electronic, electro-mechanical, rubber, plastic and metal components for nuclear weapons, including arming, fuzing and firing systems, radars and coded safety locks known as PALs (Permissive Action Links).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 1.2 grams of plutonium
CONTRACTOR: Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, a division of Honeywell, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Bendix Kansas City Division of Allied-Signal (formerly the Bendix Aviation Corporation), 1949-2000
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory [KAPL]
(Niskayuna and West Milton, New York; Windsor, Connecticut)
ESTABLISHED: 1947
SIZE: 170 acres (0.3 square miles) at Niskayuna; 3,900 acres (6.1 square miles) at West Milton; 10.8 acres at Windsor
BUDGET: $274.2 million [including DOE’s Schenectady Naval Reactors Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 65 [federal]; 2,700 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Designs, builds and tests prototype naval nuclear reactors and trains U.S. Navy personnel in their operation and maintenance. Maintains two operational and two inactive (defueled) test reactors at Niskayuna, NY, and an inactive (defueled) reactor at Windsor, CT (shut down in March 1993).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 1.6 metric tons of uranium-235 and 171.7 grams of plutonium
CONTRACTOR: KAPL, Inc. (formerly Lockheed Martin-KAPL Company, Inc., a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation)
FORMER CONTRACTOR: General Electric Company, 1947-1993
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [LLNL] 5
(Livermore, California)
ESTABLISHED: July 1952
SIZE: 7,321 acres (11.4 square miles)
BUDGET: $1,132.5 million [not including DOE’s Oakland Operations Office] (93.4 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 110 [federal]; 6,403 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Conducts research, development and testing activities associated with all phases of the nuclear weapons life-cycle, as well as research on non-proliferation, arms control and treaty verification technology. Facilities include an explosives test site, a tritium facility, the NOVA laser, the Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation (AVLIS) plant, Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) facilities, the National Ignition Facility (NIF, currently under construction) and the High Explosive Application Facility (HEAF).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 0.3 metric tons of plutonium-239, 0.2 metric tons of uranium-235, and 3.1 kilograms of uranium-233
CONTRACTOR: University of California, Board of Regents
Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] 6
(Los Alamos, New Mexico)
ESTABLISHED: Site selected on November 25, 1942 (code name Site Y).
SIZE: 27,520 acres (43 square miles)
BUDGET: $1,761.3 million [not including DOE’s Albuquerque Operations Office] (81.2 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 70 [federal]; 6,687 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Conducts research, development and testing activities associated with all phases of the nuclear weapons life-cycle, as well as arms control and nuclear proliferation. Facilities include plutonium and tritium processing plants, an eight megawatt research reactor and various laser and high explosives buildings. Until April 1984, Los Alamos had the capability to fabricate and assemble nuclear weapon test devices.7
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 2.7 metric tons of plutonium-239 (1.5 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), 3.2 metric tons of uranium-235 (0.5 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), and more than 1 kilogram of uranium-233
CONTRACTOR: University of California, Board of Regents
Nevada Test Site [NTS] 8
(65 miles northwest of Las Vegas)
ESTABLISHED: Selected in December 1950; first nuclear test on January 27, 1951; last on September 23, 1992; 928 total tests (100 atmospheric, 828 underground, including 24 joint U.S.-United Kingdom tests)
SIZE: 864,000 acres (1,350 square miles)
BUDGET: $581.8 million [including DOE’s Nevada Operations Office] (92.6 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 17 [federal]; 2,345 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Field tests nuclear weapons for development, safety and weapons effects purposes. From the 1959 through 1972 a portion of the site, designated the Nuclear Rocket Development Station (NRDS), was used to test 21 above-ground prototypes of space nuclear propulsion reactors.9 In mid-1993, construction was completed on the $109 million Device Assembly Facility, (DAF), a 100,000 square foot building within a highly secured 22 acre portion of the test site. The facility includes five high explosives containment cells, called “Gravel Gerties,” three weapon assembly bays, two radiographic areas and storage bunkers. In August 2002, the DOE announced that the TA-18 facility at Los Alamos will be relocated to the DAF.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 16 kilograms of plutonium-239 and 217 grams of uranium-235 (does not include significant residues resulting from testing activities)
CONTRACTORS: Bechtel Nevada Corporation; Johnson Controls Nevada, Inc.; Lockheed Martin Nevada Technologies, Inc.; Wackenhut Services, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Test Division of the Santa Fe (later Albuquerque) Operations Office ,1951-1962; Holmes & Narver, Inc., 1956-1990; Fenix & Sisson of Nevada, Inc., 1963-1990; EG&G Energy Measurements, Inc., 1951-1995; Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Co. (REECo), 1953-1995; Raytheon Services Nevada (RSN), 1990-1995
Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc.
(Erwin, Tennessee)
ESTABLISHED: Constructed in 1957; developed naval fuel fabrication process between 1964-1968; awarded contract for the U.S.S. Nimitz reactors in 1968.
SIZE: 66 acres (0.1 square miles)
EMPLOYEES: 380 (as 10/1/97)
FUNCTION: Sole facility (since 1978) to convert uranium hexafluoride into the chemical and physical form used in naval reactor fuel elements.10
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: Unknown
CONTRACTOR: Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc.11
Oak Ridge Reservation [ORR] 12
(Oak Ridge, Tennessee)
ESTABLISHED: Site selected on September 19, 1942 (code name Site X)
SIZE: 35,252 acres (55.1 square miles) [2900 acres/4.5 square miles (ORNL); 1500 acres/2.3 square miles (K-25 Plant); 811 acres/1.3 square miles (Y-12 Plant)]
BUDGET: $1,587.6 million (not including DOE’s Oak Ridge Operations Office) (60.1 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 593 [federal]; 14,046 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Produces weapon components to support to support the activities of the design laboratories and the Nevada Test Site, fabricates materials for the naval nuclear reactor program, and stores (in the Y-12 Plant) highly-enriched uranium (HEU) returned from dismantled weapons. Formerly produced uranium-235 (483 metric tons) and lithium-6 deuteride (442.4 metric tons) for nuclear weapons. Site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 189 metric tons of uranium-235 and 3.0 metric tons of low-enriched uranium at the Y-12 Plant13, 1.5 metric tons of uranium-235 at the K-25 Plant14, and 1.4 metric tons of uranium-235 and 424 metric kilograms of uranium-233 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (84.9 metric tons of uranium-235 declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995)
CONTRACTORS: UT-Battelle, LLC (a joint venture of the University of Tennessee and Battelle Memorial Institute); Bechtel National, Inc.; Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC (a joint venture of Bechtel National, Inc. and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.); BWXT Y-12, LLC (a unit of McDermott International); M-K Ferguson Oak Ridge, Co.; Oak Ridge Associated Universities; Southeastern Universities Research Association; Wackenhut Services, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Built by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company; Tennessee Eastman Corporation, a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak [Y-12 Plant], 1943-1947; Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago [X-10 Plant], 1943-1945; Monsanto Chemical Corporation [X-10 Plant], 1945-1947; Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division (formerly Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corp.) [K-25 Plant], 1943-1984; Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division (formerly Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corp.) [Y-12 Plant], 1947-1984; Union Carbide Corp. Nuclear Division (formerly Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corp.) [ORNL], 1948-1984; Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, formerly Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.), 1984-1998; Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation), 1998-2000; Westinghouse Environmental Management Co., ?-2000; Molten Metal Technology, Inc., 1994-2000
Pantex Plant 15
(17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas)
ESTABLISHED: 1942, to load TNT and other explosives into conventional shells. Site selected for nuclear weapons work in 1950; extensive renovations completed in 1952 and first assembly (of Mk-6 bombs) occurred in May 1952.
SIZE: 16,000 acres (25 square miles)
BUDGET: $340.3 million (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 89 [federal]; 2,920 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Currently evaluates, refurbishes, and modifies stockpiled weapons, fabricates high-explosive components16and disassembles retired nuclear weapons. Formerly assembled weapons. Last new nuclear weapon (W88 warhead) assembled on July 31, 1990.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: Classified. As of May 6, 1999, 12,067 plutonium pits and an estimated 300-400 assembled weapons were stored in protective bunkers called igloos. As of September 1994, there were 66.1 metric tons of plutonium-239 in currently deployed weapons, weapons destined for disassembly at Pantex and those presently stored at Pantex. Of that total, 21.3 metric tons was declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995. An additional 16.7 metric tons of uranium-235 was also declared excess.
CONTRACTOR: BWXT Pantex
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Procter & Gamble Defense Corporation, 1952-1956; Mason and Hanger-Silas Mason Company, Inc. (a subsidiary of Day and Zimmerman since 1999), 1956-2001
Sandia National Laboratories [SNL] 17
(inside Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Livermore, California;
Tonopah Test Range [northwest of the Nevada Test Site], Nevada)
ESTABLISHED: 1945 (in Albuquerque), 1956 (in Livermore)
SIZE: 7,600 acres (11.9 square miles) at Kirtland/Albuquerque; 413 acres (0.6 square miles) at Livermore; 409,600 acres (640 square miles) at Tonopah
BUDGET: $1,180.7 million [not including DOE’s Albuquerque Operations Office] (91.9 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 46 [federal]; 7,576 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Responsible for research, development and testing of all non-nuclear components in nuclear weapons; manufactures neutron generators; develops transportation and storage systems for nuclear weapons; assesses nuclear weapons safety, security and control and helps train military personnel in the assembly and maintenance of completed weapons.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 0.9 metric tons of uranium-235 (0.2 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995) and 8.1 kilograms of plutonium (Livermore)
CONTRACTOR: Sandia Corporation (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation)
FORMER CONTRACTORS: University of California, Board of Regents, 1945-10/31/49; Sandia Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Electric Company, Inc. (later AT&T Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company), 11/1/49-1993
Savannah River Site [SRS] 18
(12 miles south of Aiken, South Carolina)
ESTABLISHED: Site selected on November 22, 1950; operations began on October 3, 1952, with basic plant construction completed in 1956.
SIZE: 198,400 acres (310 square miles; production facilities occupy approximately 16 square miles)
BUDGET: $1,733.1 million [including DOE’s Savannah River Operations Office (97.9 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 556 [federal]; 13,231 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Manages high-level nuclear wastes and refills tritium reservoirs. Processes plutonium-238 for use in radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Formerly produced weapon-grade plutonium (36.1 metric tons), tritium and deuterium for nuclear weapons. Facilities include five reactors, two chemical separation plants, two tritium facilities, 51 high-level waste underground storage tanks, a high-level waste plant (the Defense Waste Processing Facility) and a completed but unopened naval reactor fuel fabrication facility.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 2.0 metric tons of plutonium-239 (1.3 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995) and 24.4 metric tons of uranium-235 (22 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995)
CONTRACTORS: Westinghouse Savannah River Company; Bechtel; Wackenhut Services, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Built and operated by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 1950-1989
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant [WIPP]
(26 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico)
ESTABLISHED: Conceptual work in mid-1970s; construction began on July 4, 1981
SIZE: 10,240 acres (16 square miles)
BUDGET: $208.2 million [including DOE’s Carlsbad Area Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 57 [federal]; 636 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: To assess the feasibility of safe underground storage of transuranic (TRU) waste from nuclear weapons manufacturing processes. The first shipment of waste to WIPP (from Los Alamos National Laboratory) was delivered on March 26, 1999.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: None
CONTRACTOR: Westinghouse TRU Solutions, LLC; L&M Technologies, Inc.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1981-1985; Westinghouse WIPP Company (a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corp.), 1985-2001
Yucca Mountain Project
(65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, adjacent to the Nevada Test Site)
ESTABLISHED: Surface-based studies began in May 1986. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act Amendment of 1987 designated Yucca Mountain as the sole site to be studied as a potential underground repository for high-level radioactive waste.
BUDGET: $141.5 million [Yucca Mountain Site Office only] (0 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 95 [federal]; 1,475 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Designated site for underground geologic storage of some vitrified high-level defense wastes and spent nuclear fuel from commercial power reactors.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: None
CONTRACTOR: Bechtel/SAIC Company, LLC (BSC)
FORMER CONTRACTORS: TESS (TRW Environmental and Safety Systems), 1986-2001; B&W Fuel Company, 1986-2001; Duke Engineering and Services, 1986-2001; Fluor Daniel, 1986-2001; INTERA, Inc., 1986-2001; Morrison-Knudson Corporation, 1986-2001; Woodward-Clyde Federal Services, 1986-2001
Transitional/Closed Facilities 19
Apollo Plant (Apollo, Pennsylvania)
1957-1978
FUNCTION: Formerly converted uranium hexafluoride to naval reactor fuel, manufactured plutonium fuel rod elements for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) reactor at the Hanford Reservation and (as of November 30, 1961) fabricated plutonium-beryllium neutron sources.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC), 1957-1967; Atlantic Richfield Co., 1967-1971; Babcock and Wilcox, 1971-1978
Buffalo Works 20 (Buffalo, New York)
1944-1957
SIZE: 191 acres (0.3 square miles)
FUNCTION: Former site for weapon production, research and development engineering and testing (functions transferred to South Albuquerque Works).
FORMER CONTRACTOR: ACF Industries, Inc. (formerly American Car & Foundry, Inc.)
Burlington AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) Plant 21 (Burlington, Iowa)
1947-1975
ESTABLISHED: Began producing high-explosive (HE) components in 1948; first assembly (of a Mk-4 bomb) occurred in 1949.
FUNCTION: Former site for nuclear weapon fabrication and final assembly (functions transferred to Pantex Plant).
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Ordnance Corps, U.S. Army, 1947-1963; Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., 1963-1975
Clarksville Modification Center 22 (Clarksville, Tennessee)
1960-September 1965
FUNCTION: Warhead component testing and modification (functions transferred to Pantex Plant).
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Mason & Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc.
Dana Heavy Water Plant (Newport, Indiana)
April 1952-May 24, 1957 (on standby until July 29, 1959)
FUNCTION: Produced heavy water (deuterium) used for moderating and cooling production reactors and as a fusion source in early hydrogen bombs.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Designed and built by the Girdler Corporation (under the direction of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company) and operated by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
Destrehan Street Plant (St. Louis, Missouri)
1943-June 1958
SIZE: 45 acres
FUNCTION: Supplied uranium “feed materials” to facilities producing fissionable materials. Currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D).
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Mallinckrodt Chemical Works
Fernald Environmental Management Project 23 (Fernald, Ohio, 17 miles northwest of Cincinnati)
1953-present
ESTABLISHED: Construction began in 1951 and was completed in May 1954; production operations began in 1953 and ceased in 1989.
SIZE: 1,050 acres (1.6 square miles); 136 acres of process buildings
BUDGET: $311.0 million [not including DOE’s Ohio Field Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 55 [federal]; 1,989 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Formerly converted various forms of uranium into uranium metal for use as target and fuel elements in DOE production reactors. Processed depleted uranium for use in artillery shells and tank armor. Currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 3,373 metric tons of depleted uranium and 2,170 metric tons of low-enriched uranium
CONTRACTOR: Fluor Fernald, a unit of Fluor Global Services (known from 1996-1999 as Fluor Daniel Fernald, and from 1992-1996 as Fluor Daniel Environmental Restoration Management Corp. [FERMCO]), a subsidiary of Fluor Corp.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: National Lead Company of Ohio (NLO, a subsidiary of NL Industries, Inc.)24, 1951-1985; Westinghouse Materials Co. of Ohio, 1986-1992
Hanford Reservation 25 (Richland, Washington)
1943-present
ESTABLISHED: Site selected on February 8, 1943 (code name Site W); reactor operations began in September, 1944. Production of plutonium-239 ceased in 1988.
SIZE: 360,000 acres (562.5 square miles)
BUDGET: $1,984.4 million [including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and DOE’s Richland Operations Office] (89.1 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 170 [federal]; 11,137 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Formerly produced 54.5 metric tons plutonium-239 and 13 kilograms of tritium for nuclear weapons, as well as 12.9 metric tons of reactor-grade plutonium. Built and tested advanced reactor concepts. Current work focuses on high-level waste management and disposal and decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). Facilities include nine reactors, five reprocessing plants, 177 high-level waste underground storage tanks built between 1943 and 1976 and a shallow trench disposal site for dismantled and defueled submarine reactor compartments.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 11.0 metric tons of plutonium-239 (1.7 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995) and 0.6 metric tons of uranium-235 (0.5 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995)
CONTRACTORS: Fluor Hanford, Inc. (formerly Fluor Daniel Hanford, Inc.); Numatec Hanford Corporation; Duratek Federal Services of Hanford, Inc.; DE&S Hanford, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke Engineering & Services); Bechtel National, Inc.; Bechtel Hanford Inc.; Bechtel-Washington (Bechtel National, Inc. and Washington Group International; CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc; Battelle Memorial Institute [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory]26
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Built and operated by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 1943-1946; Garrett Corporation, 1943-1946; General Electric Company, 1946-1964; General Electric Company [Hanford Laboratories, Hanford Atomic Products Operation], 1946-1964; Isochem Inc. (a joint venture of the U.S. Rubber Corp. and Martin-Marietta Corp.), 1965-1967; United Nuclear, Inc. (formerly Douglas United Nuclear, Inc.), 1964-1977; Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co., 1967-1976; Rockwell Hanford Operations, 1977-1987; Westinghouse Hanford Co., 1987-1996; ICF Kaiser Hanford Co., 1987-1996; UNC Nuclear Industries, 1987-1996; Bechtel Hanford Inc., 1987-1996; BNFL, Inc. (a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels, Ltd., 1998-2000; ; Lockheed Martin Hanford Corporation, 1996-2000
Medina Modification Center 27 (San Antonio, Texas)
Late 1958-July 1966
FUNCTION: Warhead component testing and modification, weapon repairs and retirements (functions transferred to Pantex Plant).
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Mason and Hanger-Silas Mason Co., Inc.
Mound Laboratory 28 (Miamisburg, Ohio)
1947-present
ESTABLISHED: 1947
SIZE: 306 acres (0.5 square miles)
BUDGET: $113.8 million [not including DOE’s Ohio Field Office] (90.8 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 34 [federal]; 740 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Until October 1994, produced non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons (e.g., detonators, timers, cable assemblies, pyrotechnic devices). Formerly developed tritium reservoirs; currently analyzes, disassembles, and recovers tritium from weapon components. Also assembled and tested plutonium-238 heat sources for radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) used in interplanetary probes, surveillance satellites, and classified military programs. Until November 30, 1961 Mound fabricated plutonium-beryllium neutron sources.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 2.2 kilograms of uranium-235 and 25 kilograms of plutonium
CONTRACTOR: BWX Technologies (formerly Babcock & Wilcox of Ohio), (a wholly-owned subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc.)
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Monsanto Research Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Monsanto Chemical Company (formerly the Monsanto Chemical Company), 1948-1988; EG&G Mound Applied Technologies, a subsidiary of EG&G, Inc., 1988-1997
Pacific Proving Ground 29 (Enewetak, Pacific Ocean)
1947-1958 (on standby to July 1960)
ESTABLISHED: Selected on October 11, 1947; first nuclear test on April 14, 1948 30; last on August 8, 1958.
FUNCTION: Used for above-ground and underwater testing of 66 nuclear weapons (activities gradually transferred to Nevada Proving Ground during the 1950s). Some sites, notably Bikini Atoll, are still undergoing monitoring and decontamination.
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Test Division of the Santa Fe (later Albuquerque) Operations Office, 1947-1949; Holmes & Narver, Inc., 1949-1958
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant [PGDP] 31
(16 miles west of Paducah, Kentucky)
1951-present
ESTABLISHED: Facilities built between 1951 and 1954; production operations for the nuclear weapons/naval nuclear propulsion programs began in 1953 and ceased in 1992.
SIZE: 3,422 acres (5.3 square miles); site encompasses 750 acres (1.2 square miles), including 74 acres of process buildings
BUDGET: The United States Enrichment Corporation does not release budget data for this facility; $104.1 million [DOE funded activities only] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 8 [federal]; 8 [USEC]; 2,101 [contractor] (as of 12/5/97)
FUNCTION: Enriches uranium (formerly for nuclear weapons and naval nuclear reactors, currently for civilian power reactors).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: Unknown
CONTRACTOR: United States Enrichment Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of USEC, Inc.)
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Union Carbide Corporation Nuclear Division (formerly Carbide and Carbon Chemical Corp.), 1952-1984; Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, formerly Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.), 1984-1998; Lockheed Martin Utility Services, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation); Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC (a joint venture of Bechtel National, Inc. and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.), 1998-1999
Pinellas Plant 32 (approximately six miles north of St. Petersburg, Florida)
1957-September 1994
ESTABLISHED: Construction began in 1956; production commenced in 1957.
SIZE: 90 acres (0.14 square miles)
BUDGET: $9.4 million (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 12 [federal]; 5 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Manufactured neutron generators, thermal batteries, lithium ambient batteries, special capacitors and switches and other electrical and electronic components for nuclear weapons. Also manufactured radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), using plutonium-238 capsules provided by the Mound Laboratory.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: None
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Built and operated by the General Electric Company, 1957-1992; Lockheed Martin Specialty Components, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation), 1992-1994
Gaseous Diffusion Plant [PORTS] 33
(Piketon, Ohio, 20 miles north of Portsmouth)
1952-present
ESTABLISHED: Facilities built between November, 1Portsmouth952 and 1956; production operations for the nuclear weapons/naval nuclear propulsion programs began in 1956 and ceased in 1992.
SIZE: 3,708 acres (5.8 square miles), including 93 acres of process buildings
BUDGET: The United States Enrichment Corporation does not release budget data for this facility; $140.3 million [DOE funded activities only] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 14 [federal]; 6 [USEC]; 2,595 [contractor] (as of 12/1/97)
FUNCTION: Enriches uranium (formerly for nuclear weapons and naval nuclear reactors?511 metric tons from 1956-1992?currently for civilian power reactors). Some of this uranium has been purchased from Russia under the USEC’s “Megatons to Megawatts” program.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 23 metric tons of uranium-235 (22.5 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995)
CONTRACTOR: United States Enrichment Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of USEC, Inc.)
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Goodyear Atomic Corporation, 1956-1986; Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, formerly Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.), 1986-1998; Lockheed Martin Utility Services, Inc. (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation); Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC (a joint venture of Bechtel National, Inc. and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.), 1998-1999
RMI Titanium Company Extrusion Plant 34 (Ashtabula, Ohio)
1952-1990
SIZE: 8.2 acres (357,192 square feet)
BUDGET: $16.2 million [not including DOE’s Ohio Field Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
FUNCTION: Formerly extruded uranium ingots into tubes and billets as a step in the fabrication of fuel and targets for the Savannah River production reactors. Production ceased on October 31, 1990. Currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D).
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 1 metric ton of depleted uranium
CONTRACTOR: Owned and operated by RMI Titanium Company (formerly Reactive Metals Inc.), which is jointly owned by the National Distillers and Chemical Corporation and the USX (formerly United States Steel) Corporation
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Bridgeport Brass Company, 1952-1963
Rock Island Arsenal (Rock Island, Illinois)
1947-1951; ~1956-1963 (Davy Crockett)
ESTABLISHED: July 1862; Atomic Energy Commission support began in 1947.
SIZE: 946 acres (1.5 square miles)
FUNCTION: Site apparently produced armored steel casings for Mk-3 and Mk-4 atomic bombs between 1947-1951. Casings were shipped via train to Iowa, where the train was joined to one carrying high explosive lenses from the Iowa Army Ordnance Depot. The train then proceeded to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. From there, the casings were trucked to Sandia Base for storage and eventual assembly into weapons. From about 1956 until 1963, the arsenal also designed and built the non-nuclear components for the Davy Crockett infantry nuclear weapon.
FORMER CONTRACTOR: U.S. Army
Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site 35 (21 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado)
1951-present
ESTABLISHED: Construction began in 1951; production commenced in 1952 and ceased in 1990.
SIZE: 6,550 acres (10.2 square miles)
BUDGET: $695.3 million [including DOE’s Rocky Flats Field Office] (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
EMPLOYEES: 280 [federal]; 3,410 [contractor] (as of 9/30/97)
FUNCTION: Currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). Fabricates and repairs Safe Secure Transporters (SSTs) used to transport assembled weapons, weapons components and special nuclear materials (SNM). Formerly fabricated and assembled plutonium-239 “pits,” uranium-235 (until mid-1965) and uranium-238 components, beryllium components and tritium reservoirs.
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON-SITE: 12.7 metric tons of plutonium-239 (11.9 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), 6.7 metric tons of uranium-235 (2.8 metric tons declared excess by President Clinton on March 1, 1995), and 262 metric tons of depleted uranium.36
CONTRACTOR: Kaiser-Hill Company, L.L.C. (a joint venture subsidiary of ICF Kaiser International Inc., and CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd., and composed of Westinghouse Electric Corp., Babcock & Wilcox Co., Rocky Mountain Remediation Services [a joint effort of Morrison-Knudson Corp. and British Nuclear Fuels Limited], DynCorp Inc., Wackenhut Services, Inc., and Quanterra Environmental Services)
FORMER CONTRACTORS: Dow Chemical Co., 1952-1975; Rockwell International Corp., North American Space Operations (formerly Atomics International Division), 1975-1989; EG&G Rocky Flats, Inc., 1989-1995
Sequoyah Fuels Corporation Plant (Gore, Oklahoma)
1970-1992
ESTABLISHED: 1970
FUNCTION: Parts of the plant are closed and undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D). Currently reprocesses depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF-6) to produce uranium tetrafluoride, commonly known as “green salt.” Formerly processed natural uranium (“yellowcake”) into uranium hexafluoride for use in the Paducah and Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plants.
CONTRACTOR: General Atomics
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Kerr-McGee Corp., 1970-1988
South Albuquerque Works
(Albuquerque, New Mexico, two miles west of Kirtland Air Force Base)
1952-1967
FUNCTION: Former site for weapons research, development engineering, testing, production and fabrication activities as well as operations associated with reactors and space programs37
FORMER CONTRACTOR: ACF Industries, Inc. (formerly American Car & Foundry, Inc.), Albuquerque Division
United Nuclear Corporation Plant (Hermatite, Missouri)
1961-1972
FUNCTION: Formerly converted uranium hexafluoride to naval reactor fuel
FORMER CONTRACTOR: United Nuclear Corporation, Chemicals Division (formerly Mallinckrodt Chemical Works)
Weldon Spring Feed Materials Plant
(Weldon Spring, Missouri, 27 miles west of St. Louis)
1958-1967
ESTABLISHED: Built between 1955 and 1958; operations began in May, 1957
SIZE: 229 acres (0.4 square miles)
BUDGET: $53.0 million (100 percent defense-related) (2001)
FUNCTION: Supplied uranium and thorium “feed materials” to facilities producing fissionable materials (consolidated at Fernald). Currently undergoing decontamination and decommissioning (D&D).
FORMER CONTRACTOR: Mallinckrodt Chemical Works
Sources:
Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, Milton M. Hoenig, Nuclear Weapons Databook, Vol. II, U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1987); Thomas B. Cochran, William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, Milton M. Hoenig, Nuclear Weapons Databook, Vol. III, U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1987); Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project; U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Semiannual and Annual Reports to Congress, 1947-1971; Department of Energy (Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration; Office of Worker and Community Transition); U.S. Enrichment Corporation; Memorandum from Edward G. DeLaney, Director, Division of Facility and Site Decommissioning Projects, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, to Robert E. Lynch, Procurement and Contracts Division, Oak Ridge Operations Office, July 28, 1986; Department of Energy, Plutonium Working Group Report on Environmental, Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated With the Department’s Plutonium Storage, vol. 1, DOE/EH-0415 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, November 1994); Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, Taking Stock: A Look at the Opportunities and Challenges Posed by Inventories From the Cold War Era, vol. 1, EM-0275, (Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, January 1996); Department of Energy, Plutonium: The First 50 Years: United States Plutonium Production, Acquisition, and Utilization From 1944 to 1994(Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, February 1996); Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, The 1996 Baseline Environmental Management Report, DOE/EM-0290 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, June 1996), vols. 2 and 3; Department of Energy, Highly Enriched Uranium Working Group Report on Environmental, Safety and Health Vulnerabilities Associated With the Department’s Storage of Highly Enriched Uranium, vol. 1, DOE/EH-0525 (Washington, D.C.: Department of Energy, December 1996); Department of Energy, “FY 2003 Congressional Budget Laboratory/Facility Table (preliminary),” February 1, 2002.
Notes:
1 Originally known as the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS). From August 1974 until January 28, 1997, the site was known as the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL).
2 Originally designated the Idaho Fuels Processing Facility (IFPF), this facility is now known as the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC).
3 EG&G stands for Edgerton, Germeshausen & Grier.
4 On September 8, 1993, the Department of Energy approved a plan to transfer all defense program activities at the Mound Laboratory and the Pinellas Plant to the Kansas City Plant by the end of September 1995.
5 Founded as the Livermore Laboratory, originally a branch of and co-directed by the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL) in Berkeley, California. In 1958, the laboratory was renamed the E.O. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in honor of physicist Ernest O. Lawrence. In mid-1971, the Board of Regents of the University of California gave the laboratories in Berkeley and Livermore separate independent status and removed the word “radiation” from Livermore’s name.
6 Originally known as the Los Alamos Project, then Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Later renamed Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratory (LANSL). During the Manhattan Project, because the name “Los Alamos” was classified, the site was known by a number of euphemisms, including Site Y, Project Y, Zia Project, Santa Fe, Area L, Shanrgi-La and Happy Valley. Residents of Los Alamos and Santa Fe called it “The Hill.”
7 This function was terminated and transferred to the Nevada Test Site due to serious security lapses at the assembly and storage areas. Los Alamos is currently the only site in the complex capable of producing plutonium pits (in a facility known as TA-55) and has reportedly fabricated a small number in recent years. On February 28, 1996, Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary announced that any future plutonium pit production would occur at the laboratory. TA-55 is currently being modified and upgraded to allow for production of up to 20 pits a year by 2007 (a scaling back of original plans calling for 50-80 pits per year by 2005). Production of an “early development unit” pit (a copy of the kind used in the W88 warhead) was demonstrated in March 1998.
8 Originally known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site was annexed from the existing Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range.
9 Major contractors for this effort, a joint project between the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, were the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Pan American World Airways and Westinghouse Electric Corp.
10 The uranium hexafluoride comes from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
11 The Nuclear Fuel Services facility has had a number of corporate owners throughout its history, including Davison Chemical Co. (a division of W.R. Grace and Company), 1957-1969, Getty and Skelly Oil Co., 1969-1984, and Texaco Inc., 1984-1987. Since 1987, the plant has been owned by a private limited partnership.
12 Officially designated the Clinton Engineer Works in early 1943, after a nearby small town. In 1947, the entire reservation was designated the “City of Oak Ridge.” Oak Ridge is also the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), originally known as Clinton Laboratories, which conducted early, small-scale work on plutonium production and processing prior to full-scale operation of facilities at Hanford. The X-10 reactor (originally known as the Clinton Pile), the first true plutonium production reactor, began operating on November 4, 1943. The site was briefly known as the Holifield National Laboratory, after staff members on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy acted unilaterally in late 1974 and changed the name to honor their retiring chairman, Rep. Chet Holifield (D-CA). Congress, at the behest of the Tennessee congressional delegation and Oak Ridge community leaders, took action to restore the name Oak Ridge National Laboratory to the site in late 1975.
13 This does not include an estimated 600 kilograms of uranium-235 purchased from Kazakhstan and transported to Oak Ridge during October November 1994, as part of a joint Department of Energy Department of Defense operation code- named “Project Sapphire.”
14 Does not include material that will eventually be recovered during decontamination of buildings and equipment or material in waste.
15 Known as the Pantex Ordnance Plant from 1951 until September 1963.
16 High-explosive lenses are fabricated from a chemical high-explosive (HE) powder produced by the U.S. Army’s Holston Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee (the sole producer of HE powder since 1961). Before 1961, this powder was apparently also manufactured at a second facility, the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant in Grand Island, Nebraska. High-explosive lenses were also fabricated at the Salt Wells Pilot Plant near China Lake, California, using ingredients obtained from Holston and possibly Cornhusker. Previous production and assembly of high explosives took place at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base (assembly only), and the Iowa Ordnance Plant.
17 Originally known as Sandia Base and home to Z division, a makeshift branch of the Los Alamos Project, later referred to as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Subsequently known as Sandia Laboratory.
18 Known as the Savannah River Plant (SRP) until April 1, 1989.
19 In addition to the larger and relatively well- known facilities listed here, several hundred smaller sites have contributed to the U.S. nuclear weapons effort since its inception. For example, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) estimated that during the last six months of 1955, some 925 domestic uranium mines were in operation. That figure remained relatively steady until the early 1960s (as production per mine increased) and then declined until mining operations for the weapons program were curtailed in 1970. At peak production in 1961, 26 uranium ore processing plants were in operation. The Department of Energy (DOE) currently oversees the remediation of 24 former uranium ore processing sites and approximately 5,000 vicinity properties through the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project (UMTRA). As of February 1996, surface cleanup at 16 of the 24 sites was completed, but groundwater cleanup had yet to commence. UMTRA’s 1997 budget was $48.2 million. An additional 46 sites in 14 States, once used for research on or processing of radioactive materials, are part of the Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). By December 1997, remediation had been completed at 25 of these sites, with the remainder scheduled to be finished by 2016. FUSRAP’s 1997 budget was $74 million. Effective October 1, 1997, management of FUSRAP passed from the DOE to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
20 The Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, 25 miles north of Buffalo in Lewiston, NY, was used to store waste generated from uranium ore during the Manhattan Project. The 191 acre site is now called the Niagara Falls Storage Site (NFSS). It consists of four buildings and an engineered cell containing 250,000 cubic yards of radiologically contaminated soils and approximately 4,000 cubic yards of radium-bearing residues. Since 1944, NFSS has stored low-level radioactive material from Manhattan Engineer District/Atomic Energy Commission facilities. Current site activities involve the surveillance and maintenance of the containment structure. The adjacent Niagara Falls Storage Site Vicinity Property was not fully remediated until the early 1990s.
21 Known as the Iowa Army Ordnance Plant, then the Iowa Ordnance Plant, from 1947 until September 1963, when control was transferred from the Army to the Atomic Energy Commission.
22 Formerly known as the Clarksville Facility.
23 Formerly known as the Feed Materials Production Center (FMPC).
24 According to a 1986 Department of Energy memorandum, NLO utilized 83 subcontractors and vendors to support its work at Fernald (a partial list from existing records follows). These subcontractors and vendors handled various forms and quantities of radioactive materials (dates in parentheses indicate approximate duration of work, as recalled by the manager of NLO in October 1976; sites in bold were involved in handling and producing large quantities of radioactive material for NLO): Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Corp., Watervliet, New York (March 1952); American Machine and Foundry, Brooklyn, New York (October 1952, July 1953), Landis Machine Tool Co., Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (September 1952); Bethlehem Steel Corp., Buffalo, New York (February 1952); Bliss & Laughlin Steel, Buffalo, New York (September-October 1952); Besley-Wells, South Beloit, Wisconsin (May 1953); Door Corp., Westpoint, Connecticut (January 1955); Oregon Bureau of Mines (Albany Research Center), Albany, Oregon (October 1954-June 1955); Superior Steel Co., Carnegie, Pennsylvania (December 1955-January 1957); Atlas Steels, Ltd., Welland, Ontario (February 1957-November 1957); Armour Research Foundation, Chicago, Illinois (September 1957); Alba Craft Laboratories, Oxford, Ohio (1952-March 1957 [NLO manager only indicated March 1957]); Chambersburg Engineering Co., Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (March 1957); Knoxville Iron Co., Knoxville, Kentucky (October 1957-October 1958); Podbeilniac Corp., Chicago, Illinois (February 1957); Associated Aircraft Tool & Manufacturing Co., Fairfield, Ohio (1956); Magnus Metals, Cincinnati, Ohio (December 1957, March 1958); Simonds Saw & Steel Co., Lockport, New York (February 1952-July 1957); Watertown Arsenal, Watertown, Massachusetts (November 1957); Vitro Rare Metals Co., Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (August 1954-August 1956); Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (December 1956, May 1969); Tube Reducing Corp., Wallington, New Jersey (January 1958); American Bearing Corp., Indianapolis, Indiana (July 1958); Ajax-Magnetherimc Corp., Youngstown, Ohio (October 1958, November 1961); Westinghouse Electric, Bloomfield, New Jersey (May 1958, June 1959); Oregon Metallurgical Corp., Albany, Oregon (November 1958); U.S. Steel, National Tube Division, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, April 1959, February 1960); Sutton, Steele and Steele, Dallas, Texas (November 1959); North Carolina State College, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (1958); Hunter Douglas Plant of Bridgeport Brass, Riverside, California (August 1959); Bridgeport Brass Co., Adrian, Michigan (February 1959); Petrolite Corp., St. Louis, Missouri (September 1959); Heald Machine Co., Worchester, Massachusetts (March 1960, May 1960); Dubois Chemical, Cincinnati, Ohio (May 1960); Pioneer Division, Bendix Aviation, Davenport, Iowa (June 1960, September 1960); American Machine and Metals, Inc., East Moline, Illinois (May 1960); Stauffer Metals, Inc., Richmond, California (April 1961); Ithaca Gun Co., Ithaca, New York (September 1960, August 1961, November 1961); R.W. LeBlond Machine Tool Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (November 1961); American Manufacturing of Texas, Fort Worth, Texas (July 1961, August 1961, August 1961, April 1963); Gleason Works, Rochester, New York (October 1961); Hood Machinery & Chemical Corp., Nitro, West Virginia (1962); Oliver Corp., Battle Creek, Michigan (April 1962); Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio (December 1962); National Lead Company, Nuclear Division, Albany, New York (July 1962); University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (October 1963-November 1969); Cincinnati Milling Machine, Cincinnati, Ohio (October 1963); New England Lime Co., Canaan, Connecticut (June 1963); Charles Taylor & Sons, Cincinnati, Ohio (August 1964, January 1965); Southern Research Institute, Birmingham, Alabama (December 1964, September 1965); University of Denver Research Institute, Denver, Colorado (February 1965); New England Materials Lab., Inc. (Teledyne Materials Res.), Medford, Massachusetts (January 1965, April 1967); Tocco Heat Treating Co., Cleveland, Ohio (April 1967, February 1968); Fenwal, Inc., Ashland, Massachusetts (May 1967, November 1967); Robbins & Myers, Co., Springfield, Ohio (1975).
25 Originally called the Hanford Engineering Works and later shortened to Hanford Works.
26 Known as Hanford Laboratories, Hanford Atomic Products Operation, until the Battelle Memorial Institute assumed control in 1965.
27 Formerly known as the Medina Facility.
28 Originally called the Dayton Engineer Works. On September 8, 1993, the Department of Energy approved a plan to transfer all defense program activities at Mound to the Kansas City Plant and the Savannah River Site by the end of fiscal 1995 and to decontaminate and decommission facilities at Mound. Except for tritium extraction and purification work, all activities associated with maintaining the nuclear stockpile ceased in September 1994. Tritium extraction and purification continued through 1997. On January 26, 1998, the DOE transferred ownership of the site to the Mound Community Improvement Corporation, which has plans to convert it into a technology-based research park.
29 Known as the Enewetak Proving Ground until the spring of 1954, when Bikini Atoll was added. Enewetak Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, consists of some 46 islands (comprising 2.75 square miles of dry land) surrounding a 388 square mile lagoon. It is located approximately 2,380 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. Bikini Atoll is 189 nautical miles east of Enewetak. Control of the site was transferred from the Atomic Energy Commission to the U.S. Navy on July 1, 1960.
30 Before the establishment of the Enewetak Proving Ground, Bikini was the site of two atomic bomb tests, Able and Baker, as part of Operation Crossroads, at that time the largest peacetime military operation ever conducted, utilizing 240 ships, 156 aircraft and 42,000 personnel. The device used in shot Able was dropped from a B-29 bomber on June 30, 1946, while the device used in shot Baker was detonated underwater on July 24, 1946.
31 On July 1, 1993, control of Paducah passed from the Department of Energy (DOE) to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a wholly-owned government corporation. The USEC leases facilities at Paducah from the DOE. The USEC was created by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 in an attempt to transform the DOE’s uranium enrichment enterprise into a profitable business. The USEC was privatized on July 28, 1998. William H. Timbers, Jr., is the USEC’s chief executive officer.
32 Formerly known as the Pinellas Peninsula Plant. On September 8, 1993, the Department of Energy approved a plan to transfer all defense program activities at Pinellas to the Kansas City Plant, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories by October 1995 and to decontaminate and decommission facilities at Pinellas. All work at Pinellas associated with maintaining the nuclear stockpile ceased in September 1994. The Department of Energy sold the plant to the Pinellas County Industrial Council in 1995, and formally returned the site to the community on September 12, 1997. It is now known as the Pinellas Science, Technology and Research Center.
33 On July 1, 1993, control of Portsmouth passed from the Department of Energy (DOE) to the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), a wholly-owned government corporation. The USEC leases facilities at Portsmouth from the DOE and was privatized on July 28, 1998. See footnote 31.
34 Formerly known as the Ashtabula Extrusion Plant.
35 Known as the Rocky Flats Plant until July 11, 1994.
36 Does not include material that will eventually be recovered during decontamination of buildings and equipment or material in waste.
37 The U.S. Air Force took possession of the site in 1967, which was then operated by the General Electric Company to produce jet aircraft engines. General Electric purchased the site in 1984 and is the current owner.
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