Savannah River execs outline fiscal 2025 plutonium downblend goals

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site has completed nearly half of the plutonium downblends it scheduled for fiscal year 2025, the site’s interim manager reported earlier this week. 

Managers at the DOE site, located near Aiken, S.C., updated South Carolina’s Nuclear Advisory Council on several production and remediation goals on tap for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, following last month’s passage of a six-month continuing resolution.

 Edwin Deshong III, the nuclear cleanup deputy who is acting manager following the departure last month of SRS manager Michael Budney, told the nuclear council the downblending program is on pace to meet its goal of 30 surplus plutonium downblends this fiscal year. The mission includes the use of inhibitor materials to downblend 13.1 metric tons of plutonium, thereby reducing its ability to be used for weapons. The material is being stored at the site’s K Area, but will eventually be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for permanent disposal.

 Jim Dawkins, the chief operations officer for Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the facility’s management contractor, updated the nuclear council on one of the site’s other plutonium downblend missions. Per an August 2020 settlement between South Carolina and the federal government, the Energy Department must remove 9.5 metric tons of plutonium from SRS by 2037. The stockpile is part of the 34 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium initially intended to be processed through the cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.

 Dawkins said crews exceeded 1 metric ton of downblended material in December, and have completed 61 of the 120 downblends scheduled for fiscal 2025. Additionally, construction has begun on three more plutonium processing lines for the program, adding to the single line being used. “That’ll take us to four processing lines and we’ll be able to increase our processing,” Dawkins said.

Other fiscal 2025 goals at the 310-square-mile Savannah River Site include shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to the WIPP facility. Prior to January’s planned outage at WIPP, the South Carolina site had already sent 13 shipments of TRU waste, material contaminated with radioactive elements during defense-related nuclear wrok. It typically includes protective clothing, tools, rags, equipment, and miscellaneous items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium. The site expects to send another 12 shipments to WIPP once the outage ends.