- Author
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Title
- Linking Legacies: Connecting the Cold War Nuclear Weapons Production Processes to Their Environmental Consequences.
- Coporate
- Department of Energy, Washington, DC
- Report
- DOE/EM-0319, January 1997, 239 p.
- Keywords
- nuclear weapons | environmental effects | hazardous materials | waste disposal | contamination | management systems
- Identifiers
- contaminated environmental media; surplus facilities
- Abstract
- In the aftermath of the Cold War, the United States has begun addressing the environmental consequences of five decades of nuclear weapons production. In support of this effort, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to describe the waste streams generated during each step in the production of nuclear weapons. Accordingly, this report responds to this mandate, and it is the Department's first comprehensive analysis of the sources of waste and contamination generated by the production of nuclear weapons. The report also contains information on the missions and functions of nuclear weapons facilities, on the inventories of waste and materials remaining at these facilities, as well as on the extent and characteristics of contamination in and around these facilities.