Purification Facility Remains Shutdown After Chemical Spill
NS&D Monitor
1/9/2015
A Y-12 facility that produces Fogbank for nuclear weapons use remains shutdown following a Dec. 16 chemical spill, and a federal spokesman refused to give a timetable for its return to action. “The Purification Facility remains shut down and is in a recovery mode at this time,” Steven Wyatt of the National Nuclear Security Administration said in response to questions. “No date has been set for resumption of production at this facility.”
The Purification Facility is known to produce Fogbank, a classified substance used in the W76 and other thermonuclear weapons, but it’s not clear if that is the facility’s sole mission. Workers were evacuated on Dec. 16 because of a leak of acetonitrile, a toxic and flammable solvent used in the operations. In an interview a couple of days after the spill, the contractor chief at Y-12 indicated that the restart of the Purification Facility would take place right away. “I think we’re talking about days, not weeks or months or something like that,” Consolidated Nuclear Security President Jim Haynes said.
Backup Fuel Supply For High Flux Isotope Reactor Running Low
NS&D Monitor
1/9/2015
The High Flux Isotope Reactor has operated for six decades at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but never—not even during the startup in the mid-1960s—has its fuel inventory been so low as it is currently. The reactor, which uses highly enriched uranium fuel (93.8 percent U-235) is down to about a half-year of fuel assemblies, and that has ORNL putting a high priority on rebuilding the back-up supply. The HFIR is currently shut down for maintenance, but after refueling for the scheduled restart on Jan. 13, the Oak Ridge will only have six more fuel loads available for use.
Depending on how funding works out for the rest of Fiscal Year 2015, ORNL expects to receive six-to- eight additional fuel elements in coming months, Tim Powers, ORNL’s reactors chief, said in response to questions. “So, at the beginning of the next fiscal year (Oct. 1), the inventory will either be the same or more than the previous year,” Powers said via email. If that happens, it would be the first time in “many years” and “a step in the right direction,” Powers said.
‘It’s Been a Budget Issue’
Ron Crone, the acting associate lab director for neutron sciences who’s departing ORNL for a position at Idaho National Laboratory, said simply, “It’s been a budget issue.” When the reactor first became operational in 1966, the Oak Ridge facility reportedly had a back-up of 28-to-30 fuel loads ready to go and that was maintained for a long time. However, the inventory of uranium fuel for the High Flux Isotope Reactor had been allowed to dwindle over the years to save money or use available funding for other purposes.
ORNL hopes to operate the reactor for decades to come, so the fuel supply is important—especially because the HFIR uses a unique and complicated fuel core. Each fuel load costs a little more than $1.5 million, and that could be viewed as cheap because Oak Ridge National Laboratory doesn’t have to pay for the bomb-grade uranium—which is of priceless value to terrorists and others wanting to obtain weapons capability—for the fuel program.
Fuel Elements Stored at Y-12
The HEU itself is obtained free from the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, which is the nation’s principle enriched uranium repository, but the costs are associated with the manpower in processing the uranium initially at Y-12 and then at the Babcock & Wilcox facility in Lynchburg, Va. According to Crone, Y-12 prepares the uranium as a U3O8 powder, which is then sent to Lynchburg, Va., where the oxide powder is pressed, rolled, stamped, and fabricated into precise uranium elements with aluminum cladding. “HFIR has run over a quarter-million plates, and we’ve never once had a leaking fuel element,” Crone said.
The 85-megawatt research reactor at ORNL has a fuel cycle of only 23 days, so it must be refueled on average about once a month. The back-up fuel elements for HFIR are stored at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, about 10 miles from the lab, until it’s time for reloading. The transfer is reportedly done under high security and low visibility.
