Safety Impacts

Plutonium is a radioactive material that poses significant hazards to workers and the public and pits are plutonium triggers that sit at the heart of every US nuclear weapon.

Earthquakes pose a major threat to defense nuclear facilities, and many DOE sites are in locations with elevated earthquake hazards.

Defense nuclear facilities must be prepared to respond to fires, explosions, spills, and other emergencies involving radioactive materials.

DOE sites routinely generate, process, and store solid nuclear wastes. In recent years, DOE experienced two significant events in which waste drums released radiological materials due to energetic chemical reactions involving the waste.

DOE produces the Nation’s nuclear weapons. This work must be conducted with extreme discipline to prevent accidental detonation of high explosives.

DOE is currently investing tens of billions of dollars into replacing and refurbishing its aged defense nuclear facilities that support the nuclear deterrent and the cleanup of nuclear waste.

Nuclear criticality accidents are uncontrolled chain reactions of nuclear materials that can result in fatal radiation doses to workers.

DOE’s defense nuclear complex developed over an 80-year period following the Manhattan Project. As defense nuclear facilities age, safety structures, systems, and components may degrade and not be able to reliably perform their safety functions.

Fires are a major hazard for defense nuclear facilities because they can release radioactive materials into the environment and expose workers and the public.

Transportation of radioactive materials between DOE’s defense nuclear facilities occurs frequently to support its national security and environmental cleanup missions.

Some defense nuclear facilities are no longer operational but still contain significant quantities of nuclear materials that can pose a danger to public health and safety if released.

Despite advanced safety controls and features, people must still perform operations—they can and do make mistakes—which can cause accidents that release radioactive materials impacting the safety of the public and workers.