U.S. HEU Disposition Program

Robert M. GeorgeHEU Disposition Program Manager

Office of Fissile Materials Disposition

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.