Preface

This book describes environmental, safety, and health problems throughout the nuclear weapons complex and what the Department of Energy is doing to address them.

Because of the secrecy that until recently surrounded nuclear weapons, many citizens today are unaware of how and where nuclear weapons were made and the resulting problems. Yet a broad public awareness is precisely what is needed now to address and resolve many issues concerning the nuclear legacy of the Cold War. We hope that this book will help foster better public understanding of some of these issues to help hasten progress as the Department moves ahead on resolving these problems.

Chapter I is an overview and a summary. To give the reader some perspective, it includes a brief history of the Department's nuclear weapons complex. Chapter II describes nuclear warhead production from uranium mining to final assembly to give a sense of the scale and complexity of nuclear weapons production and to characterize the sources and varieties of wastes and contamination. Chapters III and IV look at the wastes and the contamination left by the Cold War and the progress and plans for solving these problems. Chapter V provides an international perspective on the legacy of nuclear weapons production. Chapter VI describes the engineering and institutional challenges faced by the Department of Energy as it embarks on new missions. Chapter VII presents some of the long-term issues our nation faces as we come to terms with the legacy of the Cold War. The book ends with a glossary of terms and a list of books and reports that provide additional information about the nuclear weapons complex and the Department's plans for its cleanup.

This book was produced by the Environmental Management's Office of Strategic Planning and Analysis, with the assistance of hundreds of people in Environmental Management and in other offices of the Department of Energy, contractors, and others.

All photographs in [the hardcopy version of] this book were taken by Robert Del Tredici, except for those on pages 21, 40, 42, 54, 59 (items 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11), 68-71, and 75. The photograph on page 75 is courtesy of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

For more information about the environmental management activities of the U.S. Department of Energy, call the Environmental Management Information Center at 1-800-7EM-DATA (1-800-736-3282).

Office of Environmental Management,
Office of Strategic Planning and Analysis (EM-4),
U.S. Department of Energy,
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20585
Telephone: (202) 586-9280.