Klotz SRS Visit Suggests DOE Practicing Pu Dilution and Disposal Techniques

National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz and colleagues were at the Savannah River Site on Nov. 19, where they among other things participated in a mockup of a dilution process for nuclear material at the site’s K-Area. This was in preparation for the possibility that 34 tons of U.S. weapon-grade plutonium will be diluted and disposed rather than reprocessed via the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility method outlined in the 2000 U.S.-Russian Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing has learned.

 

Allen Gunter, senior technical advisor for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Field Office; Sachiko McAlhany, NNSA assistant deputy administrator for fissile materials disposition; and Janice Lawson, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions K-Area facility manager, led a presentation and discussion on dilution and how that work would interact with glove boxes and other dilution equipment, according to sources.

 

The plutonium disposition debate between DOE and the South Carolina congressional delegation and industry has ratcheted up over the last year, after the department ordered several reviews that indicate diluting and disposing, or “downblending,” of the surplus fissile material would cost much less and be more practical than the current MOX method of choice. Over the last year, members of the delegation and MOX contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services have contended that DOE should deliver upon its commitment to South Carolina to complete and operate the facility at SRS, consistently noting that they estimate construction to be approximately 70 percent complete.