The U.S. should take another look at its policy of excluding low-enriched uranium from foreign-owned companies from its tritium production efforts, the Government Accountability Office said in a
report released Friday. In a report requested by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), the GAO noted that conditions have changed drastically since the U.S. determined in 1998 that nonproliferation concerns and international agreements prohibit it from using so-called “encumbered” LEU for the production of tritium, which is used in nuclear weapons. Most notably, with the shutdown of USEC enrichment operations in 2013 and the uncertain future of the American Centrifuge Project, the U.S. currently has no way to produce “unencumbered” LEU for tritium production. And DOE currently only has enough “unencumbered” LEU to last through 2030, or even less depending on tritium production rates.
Currently, four foreign-owned enrichment plants planned for the U.S. or already operating on U.S. soil are barred from producing LEU for tritium production. That includes URENCO, which has questioned U.S. policy and argued that it is not prohibited from producing LEU for tritium production because tritium is a “byproduct” material of burning nuclear fuel. URENCO owns Louisiana Energy Services and its Eunice, N.M. enrichment plant, which is the owner of the only operating enrichment plant in the U.S.
The situation gives “new importance to the need for the executive branch to review its position on how the United States will obtain LEU for tritium production,” the GAO said. Currently, the Department of Energy, Department of State and other agencies are examining how to obtain unobligated LEU for tritium production in the future. “By taking steps to coordinate the interagency community to review DOE’s current practice of using unobligated LEU for tritium production, decision makers may have greater assurance that decisions on how to obtain future LEU for tritium production are based on a coordinated understanding of U.S. obligations consistent with international agreements and U.S. nonproliferation goals,” the GAO said.
The GAO noted in its review that two of the three agreements impacting foreign-owned enrichment companies in the U.S. do not explicitly prohibit using LEU for tritium production: the Washington Agreement and the Paris Agreement, which affect the URENCO facility and AREVA’s planned Eagle Rock (Idaho) facility. Only the SILEX 123 agreement, which affects the Global Laser Enrichment facility planned for North Carolina, specifically addresses byproduct material like tritium. “However, DOE interprets and applies these agreements through the lens of U.S. nonproliferation goals, and thus it has consistently used only unobligated LEU for tritium production,” the GAO said. In a response to the report, the NNSA did not say it agreed or disagreed with GAO’s findings or recommendations, but NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said the GAO’s work “highlights the inherent challenges of ensuring an adequate and sustainable supply of LEU for future tritium production, while continuing to pursue non-proliferation policy goals. The Department will continue to pursue effective strategies for addressing these challenges by leveraging the cooperation of our interagency partners to evaluate viable supply options, including a collaborative review of current policies and practices.”
