Year
1994
Abstract
The 1990's have brought a change in world-wide attitudes concerning the current and future use of weapons-usable fissile materials. With the ending of the cold war, the United States and Russia have embarked on a dynamic era of transparency and reduction of these materials. Not only are employees and managers of weapons plants interested in how this era will evolve, but the rest of the world is watching too. \"Disposition\" is the name of the game and the major players are struggling to find common denominators for the stabilization, storage, transparency and ultimate removal of proliferation capable nuclear materials. Many initiatives have been activated and a plethora of activities are occurring, including international inspection of weapons surplus materials and bilateral visits to major weapons facilities. The United States has also embarked on an unprecedented path of openness with the public, including true stakeholder impact on the control and disposition process. This paper will summarize some of the Department of Energy activities to date. This paper is intended to be timely and will present the latest information concerning these initiatives. It is from the DOE viewpoint, and although other Federal Organizations have significant impact on the dispositioning of excess fissile materials, their activities will not be discussed. This paper will have a very broad viewpoint and is intended only to give a brief status of a number of ongoing initiatives. Further details of some of the things that I will discuss are being presented by others at this meeting. Those presenters are more intimately involved with the working details of their topics and I hope to acknowledge them and point towards their papers.