Equipment testing and staff training is ongoing at a mock-up facility that will recover plutonium from metal cylinders used decades ago in nuclear reactors at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
The $100 million plutonium recovery mission at the 310-square-mile site near the city of Aiken is slated to begin in late fiscal 2021, led by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). Lab officials believe they can recover at least 20 grams of Pu-244, a material in small supply worldwide that can be used in nuclear forensics and to measure amounts of plutonium in other materials. The material is not considered weapon-usable plutonium.
The 20 grams, though seemingly a small figure, is a significant amount. Pu-244 is used by the nanogram, which is one-billionth of a gram. “Because this material is finite and does not occur in nature, the application of 20 grams could be highly significant for decades to come,” said lab spokesman Christian Harris. He added that the material will be sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for further processing and will be used for research purposes and in nuclear forensics – the analysis to determine the source of weapon-usable materials that might be interdicted during smuggling or potentially even used in a nuclear strike.
The Savannah River National Laboratory recently announced completion of the mock-up facility in L Area, where the extraction will be done. The mock-up will first be used to conduct a dry run to ensure the process is viable. Once the trial is complete, any necessary modifications will be made to prepare the operation for full-scale recovery.
Workers will recover plutonium from 65 metal cylinder “targets” that were irradiated decades ago in five nuclear reactors at SRS that produced materials for weapons during the Cold War. The targets were used to capture neutrons to produce isotopes for research purposes. The reactors that housed the targets have long been deactivated.
