In July 2010 IPS released a study indicating that 12.7 metric tons of plutonium was discarded as waste by the U.S. nuclear weapons program. The study was featured in the New York Times a few days later. The amount discarded is more than three times that officially declared by the U.S. government. It was subsequently published in Science and Global Security, a peer review publication at Princeton University. After giving several briefings to federal officials, our study compelled the U.S. government to revisit how it is accounting for this material.

An unused plutonium reactor in Washington State. Photo by Stuart Isett (NY Times)
In response to our study, the Department of Energy announced that it would dig up buried plutonium at the Hanford that had been officially declared “already disposed” some 40 years ago, and dispose of it in the Waste Isolation Pilot Project — a geologic disposal site for these wastes.