The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in 2019.
Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were paused last year for an extensive maintenance outage to improve processing capabilities.
The upgrades, which were not described in a press release Thursday, should help expedite the removal of plutonium from South Carolina.
“Despite facing challenges resulting from COVID-19 our team was able to meet the commitment date to restart plutonium downblend in the KIS glovebox,” SRNS President and CEO Stuart MacVean said in the release. Along with restarting operations, SRNS is also working to increase staffing from two-to-four-hour shifts, which entails more employee training.
Under direction of the DOE Office of Environmental Management, the glove box work assists the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with its nonproliferation mission through material disposition.
“This is yet another example of NNA missions being completed in DOE-Environmental Management facilities and the partnership that is needed to execute this critical mission,” said Virginia Kay, director of the NNSA’s Office of Material Disposition.
Plutonium downblending is the process of mixing plutonium oxide with a multicomponent adulterant that results in a material that will eventually be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant transuranic waste disposal mine in New Mexico.
The “dilute and dispose” approach replaces DOE’s now-canceled operation Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at SRS, which would have converted it to fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors.
