Summary
DOE prepared a programmatic EIS for Tritium Supply and Recycling (DOE/EIS-0161) to analyze the potential environmental impacts of technology and siting alternatives for producing tritium for national security purposes, as well as constructing a new Tritium Extraction Facility at DOE’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina.
DOE announced in 1991 that it would prepare a programmatic EIS on reconfiguring and modernizing its nuclear weapons complex across multiple DOE sites (Reconfiguration PEIS). In 1994, DOE separated the Reconfiguration PEIS into the Tritium Supply and Recycling PEIS (DOE/EIS-0161) and the Stockpile Stewardship and Management PEIS (DOE/EIS-0236).
Based on DOE/EIS-0161, DOE published a record of decision (ROD) in December 1995 that announced the selection of two alternative technologies for tritium production and established a dual‑track strategy that would, within 3 years, select one of those technologies to become the primary tritium supply technology. The other technology, if feasible, would be developed as a backup tritium source. The ROD also announced that a tritium extraction facility would be constructed at SRS.
On September 5, 1996, DOE published notices of intent for two site-specific EISs tiered from the PEIS: DOE/EIS-0270, Accelerator Production of Tritium at the Savannah River Site, and DOE/EIS-0271, Tritium Extraction Facility at Savannah River Site. On January 21, 1998, DOE published a notice of intent for another tiered EIS: DOE/EIS-0288, Production of Tritium in a Commercial Light Water Reactor.
On December 22, 1998, based on DOE/EIS-0161 and the three EISs tiered from it, DOE published a consolidated ROD that selected the commercial light water reactor alternative as the primary tritium supply and announced three tiered decisions that, taken together, comprised DOE’s plans for establishing a new domestic source of tritium to support the nuclear weapons stockpile.