U.S. HEU Disposition Program
Robert M. GeorgeHEU Disposition Program Manager
Office of Fissile Materials Disposition
2
The U.S. HEU Disposition Program
• NNSA’s U.S. HEU Disposition Program is a key nonproliferation program that down-blends surplus HEU and uses the derived LEU in commercial and research reactors.
• HEU Down-blenders include:
– Y-12
– Savannah River Site
– Babcock and Wilcox
– B&W - Nuclear Fuel Services
• Nuclear fuel fabricators– AREVA and Wesdyne
3
HEU Disposition Paths
Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion Plant
Uncommitted 2005 Material
~40 MT* ~10 MT
UF6 USEC TransferMaterial
47 MT14 MT
TVA Off-Spec (BLEU)
Material
40 MT
Savannah River Site and Nuclear
Fuel Services, Inc.
Uncom-mitted 1994
Material
16 MT 17 MT
Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations
Div.Y-12
Research
R
eactor L
EU
F
uel F
eed
6 MT
Spent Fuel and
Low Equity
Discards18 MT
Disposal as wasteNFS
* This ~51 MT of HEU is part of the 200 MT additional HEU removed from use as fissile material in weapons in the Fall of 2005; it consists of 20 MT designated for downblending plus an estimated 31 MT (out of 160 MT) that is expected to be rejected for use by Naval Reactors.
Revised 2-5-09
TBD
1994 Surplus HEU Declaration — 174 MT (156 commercially usable + 18 discards)
2005 Declaration — ~61 MT
Disposition Timing
Completed
In progress
2009-2011
Not yet planned
Discards TBD
MO
X R
eserve~7 M
T*
MO
X R
eserve ~5 M
T
TVA(H Canyon
EUDisp.)
RR
F F
eed~
4 MT
*
Reliable Fuel
Supply
TVA(H
CanyonEU
Disp.)
~11 MT
4
USEC HEU Transfer
• The USEC HEU Transfer project, mandated by the USEC Privatization Act, was completed during 2006. – The down-blending was
completed at Babcock & Wilcox in Lynchburg, VA in June 2006.
– A total of 46.6 MT HEU, at an average assay of 43.7%, was delivered and down-blended to make over 800 MT of commercial-grade LEU.
5
TVA Off-Spec “BLEU” Program• DOE and TVA entered an
Interagency Agreement in 2001- With addition of EU Disposition Project
material, it now covers ~45.6 MTU
- TVA is using blended low-enriched uranium (BLEU) fuel in the Browns Ferry and Sequoyah Nuclear Plants.
- Down-blending occurs at two facilities:- Savannah River Site, Aiken, SC –
solutions, alloyed metals, oxides (~22.6 MTU)
- Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, TN – uranium metal, alloyed metals, compounds (~ 23 MTU)
- As of the end of March 2009, 37.5 MTU has been down-blended
Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant
Lead assembly being inspected at TVA’s
Sequoyah Plant
6
TVA Off-Spec Program (Cont.)• BLEU project HEU shipments were
completed in 2008
• 40 MT Down-blending will be completed in fall of 2009 (~95% complete)
• Additional down-blending of EU Disposition Project material will occur 2009 – 2011
• Savings to the U.S. Treasury are expected to be over $255 million.
• This program has won many awards– 2003 Secretary of Energy’s Project Management
Award – SRS Line Item
– 2005 Platt’s Global Energy Engineering Project of the Year – BLEU/Off-Spec Partnership
– 2006 NEI Top Industry Practice (TIP) award – BLEU Project
– Several Other Internal TVA Awards
Broken Button
7
H Canyon EU Disposition Project
• NNSA has identified 20.8 MT of HEU that could result in up to 250 MT of additional off-spec LEU through 2019.
• The HEU would be recovered and down-blended at SRS H CanyonComplex.
• NNSA and TVA have agreed to mutually beneficial terms to add
an initial 5.6 MT of the HEU material to the existing Interagency Agreement.• Options for additional material as funding becomes
available.
Super Kukla Ring size reduction
8
Reliable Fuel Supply Initiative (RFS)• Secretary Bodman announced the RFS
initiative for foreign users who do not pursue enrichment and reprocessing at IAEA’s General Conference in September 2005.
• 17.4 MT of HEU will be down-blended to produce about 290 MT LEU, a substantial majority of which will be used as a stockpile for the RFS program.
• The RFS program will ensure that, in the event nuclear fuel is not available commercially, there will be reliable access to the market.
MTR Type Fuel Element
Cast Metal Slugs
9
RFS General Status
• In June 2007, NNSA awarded a downblending and storage contract to the WesDyne / NFS team.
• To date, NNSA has shipped nearly 14 MT of HEU for the RFS project.
• Processing of the HEU began in March 2008 and over 4 MT has been down-blended to date producing 66 MT of LEU.
• The down-blending program will be completed in 2010.
10
12.1 MTU HEU Downblending Project
• New HEU disposition project similar to RFS.
• HEU will be down-blended during the 2009–2012 time period.
• Project will provide total derived LEU of about 224 MTU— Used in MOX Reserve
• Down-blending and storage contract award and first shipments in FY 2009.
11
Foreign Research Reactor LEU Fuel
DOE/NNSA Supplies 80% of the world’s LEU research reactor fuel with down-blended HEU
• Material is provided in support of the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program, which reduces civil uses of HEU worldwide.
• U.S. surplus HEU (10 MT) is feed material to make LEU fuel (mostly 19.75% enrichment).
• 2.5 MT down-blended to date
• Customers in Europe, Canada, Asia, South America, Australia
RA-6 Reactor, Bariloche, Argentina
CEA OSIRIS
Reactor, France
12
What Does the Future Hold?
• The program has already committed to down-blending projects 161MT of the total 217 MT of surplus, commercially-usable HEU.
• The remaining 56 MT is expected to become available for down-blending from now through 2050.
• Future focus is:
– Continue progress in down-blending HEU to meet nonproliferation objectives
– Proper disposition of derived LEU in a manner that does not adversely impact the commercial nuclear fuel markets
– Develop future projects from unallocated HEU inventories using a viable funding approach
13
HEU Deliveries for Down-blending (Actual and Projected)
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
18,000
20,000
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fiscal Year
Kg
U o
f H
EU
Uncomitted Off-Spec
Uncomitted On-Spec
H-Canyon EU Disposition
12 MTU HEU Project
RFS
Research Reactor
TVA Off-Spec
USEC 50 MTU
UF6 & Other
14
Final thoughts
• Through March 2009 this program has eliminated the proliferation risk from over 121 MTU of HEU.
• Several DOE facilities have been able to eliminate or greatly reduce their holdings of HEU.
• The LEU derived from down-blending the U.S. HEU equates to 1,375 MTU.
• HEU availability for down-blending creates unique challenges.
Top Related