In a 10-9 vote Tuesday, the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) took a stance against the Energy Department facility’s potential receipt of highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany. The decision, which included two abstentions, will now elevate to DOE headquarters for consideration.
The Energy Department three years ago announced potential plans for the South Carolina site to receive 900 kilograms of the weapon-grade uranium, which is characterized as spent nuclear fuel (SNF), from Germany. The material would come in the form of roughly 1 million graphite spheres, each about the size of a tennis ball.
Once at SRS, the spent fuel would be processed at the H Canyon facility, the only hardened chemical separations plant still in existence in the United States. The final product would be stored at SRS until the federal government secures a long-term repository for nuclear waste.
Under the Atoms for Peace program, the United States has exported 26.3 metric tons of HEU to 52 countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for use at civilian research facilities, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Under the program, the U.S. is supposed to take the material back and dispose of it in a safe manner. That includes the material from Germany.
The CAB recommendation, which originated with the board’s Nuclear Materials Committee, states that “U.S. receipt and processing of the German SNF is not needed for US nuclear nonproliferation goals.” Because of that, the board said it does not understand why the uranium needs to come to SRS.
CAB member Dawn Gillas cast one of nine votes opposing the recommendation because she believes the country should make good on its promise under the Atoms for Peace program.
“We have an obligation as a nation to take this material back,” she said. “It was not a treaty, but it was an understanding and we need to honor that.”
A draft DOE environmental assessment released in January 2016 found minimal risk in transporting the material from Germany to the United States. The full document was expected to be released in July 2016 but has not yet surfaced. The cost of the HEU transfer remains unclear, but Germany would pay for the full project, according to the draft document.
The Energy Department is considering a “no action” alternative, which simply means it would leave the HEU in Germany and let that nation decide what to do with the material. The CAB supports that option in its recommendation: “Germany is a wealthy and stable first-world ally capable of safely and securely managing this SNF.”
CAB member Larry Powell, who supported the recommendation, said he opposes SRS becoming home to additional nuclear materials. The site currently stores about 2,700 bundles of spent fuel that originated from operations at SRS and other DOE facilities In addition, the site stores various amounts of plutonium and uranium produced both domestically and internationally.
Finally, SRS is home to roughly 35 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste, a byproduct of nuclear weapons production during the Cold War era. The material is considered the No. 1 environmental threat in the state, and the Energy Department is struggling to meet timelines for safely getting rid of the waste. “I just don’t want to see any more nuclear materials stuff coming to SRS,” Powell said.
