The Department of Energy said this week it has not yet decided whether to accept highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Germany at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
There is no schedule for a decision to be made. While Germany would pay for the mission, the total cost and potential technology concerns are being evaluated before the agency rules on the matter, said SRS spokesperson Monte Volk.
The matter has been hotly debated for years, with naysayers and supporters near Savannah River and beyond voicing opinions on the potential receipt of 900 kilograms of nuclear weapon-usable material. In December 2017, a long-awaited DOE environmental assessment said the material could be shipped to SRS and safely processed using site facilities.
Since then, the Energy Department has continued studying the feasibility of treating the uranium using the H Canyon processing facility. “Work is ongoing to mature the technology and develop plans if a decision were made by the Department to accept the material,” SRS spokesperson Monte Volk said via email.
The technology Volk referenced would be needed to extract the uranium. The 900 kilograms of HEU, in the form of spent fuel, is held within about 1 million graphite spheres, each roughly the size of a tennis ball. In 2012, Germany gave $10 million to the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to research the best way to free the spent fuel kernels from the graphite. That work continues, Volk said.
The material dates to 1953 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace program, under which U.S.-made highly enriched uranium was sent to several other countries for research purposes. The material was used to operate German research reactors and is now considered spent fuel. Per the terms of the program, the United States is supposed to take it back, even though one of the options DOE is considering is to simply let the material remain in Germany.
Germany would pay for the entire project if the Energy Department decides to accept the material. That includes shipping the material to Charleston, S.C., then sending it, via railway, about 110 miles to the Savannah River Site. Once on-site, the material would be broken down into a less harmful at H Canyon.
The diluted uranium would then be transported to the site’s liquid waste tank farms, where it would be treated as sludge waste. It would undergo a process known as vitrification, converted into a glassy, form suitable for interim storage on-site until the federal government selects a permanent waste repository. DOE and Germany are evaluating the costs of the work.
“If a decision to accept the material is made, shipment schedules would be coordinated with both sides ensuring the regulatory requirements of both countries are met.,” Volk added.
The Energy Department previously said it would take about 30 shipments over three-and-a-half years to bring all the material to SRS. But Volk said Wednesday that “specifics on shipment dates and numbers cannot be shared” due to safety and security policies outlined by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
