This Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) was prepared pursuant to a Joint Stipulation and Order approved and entered as an order of the court on October 27, 1997, in partial settlement of the lawsuit Civ. No. 97-936 (SS) (D.D.C.), ''Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC] et al. v. Richardson et al.'' The Joint Stipulation and Order is reproduced at the end of this document as Attachment 1. In the Joint Stipulation and Order, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) agreed to prepare an SEIS to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Stockpile Stewardship and Management (SSM PEIS) (DOE/EIS-0236, DOE 1996a) to evaluate the reasonably foreseeable significant adverse environmental impacts of continuing to construct and of operating the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, with respect to any potential or confirmed contamination in the area by hazardous, toxic, and/or radioactive materials. On September 25, 1998, DOE announced in the ''Federal Register'' the agency's intent to prepare this SEIS for the NIF portion (Volume III, Appendix I) of the SSM PEIS. DOE's need for preparation of this SEIS, consistent with the previously established need for NIF (DOE 1996a, Appendix I), is to determine how the results of characterization studies completed pursuant to the Joint Stipulation and Order should affect the manner in which DOE proceeds with the construction and operation of NIF. On August 5, 1999, DOE issued an amended Notice of Intent to prepare this SEIS, which incorporated changes in schedule resulting from new relevant information. The SSM PEIS addressed alternative plans for DOE's defense program activities related to nuclear weapons stockpile issues at several DOE laboratories, including LLNL. The environmental consequences of construction and operation of NIF were addressed in detail in SSM PEIS Volume III, Appendix I, entitled ''National Ignition Facility Project Specific Analysis'' (NIF PSA). The Record of Decision (ROD) for the SSM PEIS was published in the ''Federal Register'' on December 26, 1996 (61 FR 68014). In the ROD, DOE announced its decision to construct and operate NIF at LLNL. The NIF is an experimental facility that would use laser light to initiate a fusion reaction in very small quantities of hydrogen by a process known as inertial confinement fusion. The start of physical construction of NIF was authorized on March 7, 1997, and groundbreaking for the NIF occurred on May 29, 1997. Construction of the NIF is ongoing; the conventional facilities are over 94% complete and are expected to be completed in late 2001.