An advisory committee to the Savannah River Site is scheduled next week to discuss an international program that has previously sent, and is expected to continue sending, controversial shipments of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from other countries to the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina.
The SRS Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) will on March 27 hear a presentation from Maxcine Maxted, spent nuclear fuel program manager at SRS, on Atoms for Peace – a program launched in 1953 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Under the program, the U.S. is supposed to take back and dispose of stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) previously sent to other nations to be used for nonmilitary purposes.
The CAB has discussed the issue several times in recent years, and is looking for more clarity on the uranium repatriation program. Several CAB members have expressed interest in learning more about Atoms for Peace, to determine if the U.S., and specifically SRS, is truly obligated to accept the material.
CAB member Larry Powell said the presentation will help explain how and why the Savannah River Site is receiving this material from various other nations. “We need to see how this all affects our programs and ties in to what we’re doing here,” said Powell, who chairs the CAB’s Nuclear Materials Committee.
Under Atoms for Peace, the United States from 1957 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). The agency, “as part of its effort to secure vulnerable nuclear material and prevent nuclear terrorism,” has meanwhile transported an unidentified amount of HEU from 26 countries and Taiwan to SRS.
Once at SRS, the material is processed into a less dangerous form at the H Canyon facility, the only hardened chemical separations plant still in existence in the United States. The final product will be stored at SRS until the federal government secures a long-term repository for nuclear waste.
One of the more controversial issues involving Atoms for Peace in recent years has been the potential receipt of 900 kilograms of HEU from Germany. That issue dates back to 2012 when Berlin asked the Energy Department for assistance in disposing of the material, which was used in German research reactors and is now considered spent fuel. Under the program, the U.S. is supposed to take it back, even though one option DOE is considering is to simply let the material remain in Germany.
A draft environmental assessment released in January 2016 found minimal risk in transporting the material to the United States. The full document was expected to be released last July but has not yet surfaced. If the project proceeds, the HEU would be processed at H Canyon and kept at SRS for the foreseeable future. The cost of the HEU transfer remains unclear, but Germany would pay the full amount, according to the draft EA.
The CAB formally opposed the HEU shipment to SRS in July 2016. In its position paper, the board wrote that the “receipt and processing of the German SNF is not needed for U.S. nuclear nonproliferation and risk reduction goals.” The CAB has no authority on the matter, but does meet and speak as representatives of those who live near the Savannah River Site.
