The Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee, a centrifuge in Texas, and the national heavy water inventory are among the management challenges the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Office foresees for the agency in fiscal 2018, according to a Nov. 27 special report.
The Inspector General’s (IG) Office fretted that DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had not yet started operations at the new Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Bechtel National is building the facility under a subcontract to Y-12 prime Consolidated Nuclear Security, of which Bechtel is also a member.
The modern uranium facility was once slated to be operational in 2018, but the date has slipped to 2025. Moreover, the plant will not replace all of the enriched-uranium capabilities handled by Y-12’s aging 9212 complex, the IG said.
Elsewhere on the complex, the IG said there was much unplanned downtime in 2014 and 2015 at the Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. Consolidated Nuclear Security is the NNSA’s prime at Pantex, but the agency’s Sandia National Laboratories operates the test lab. The Weapons Evaluation Test Laboratory uses centrifuges and other equipment to ensure nuclear warheads remain functional. Noise and vibration problems, followed by an unrelated fire, kept one large centrifuge at Pantex from being used for testing for almost two years, the IG said.
The IG also said the Department of Energy needs to do some long-term planning to address the NNSA’s inventory of heavy water beyond 2031.
Heavy water is used in various NNSA weapons activities, including manufacture of parts for warhead life extension. However, the U.S. has been unable to produce heavy water since 1996. Current estimates show enough heavy water in the U.S. inventory to supply the agency through at least 2031, but the IG warned that it could take between 10 and 15 years to resume production. Therefore, the IG recommended the NNSA consider obtaining more heavy water if inventories drop below a certain level. What that inventory “trigger point” would be is up to NNSA, the IG said.
The Obama administration decided to buy 32 tons of heavy water from Iran in 2016 under the terms of the multilateral nuclear nonproliferation accord with that country signed in 2015. The purchase went through, but it proved controversial, especially among Republican senators.
The NNSA stores heavy water primarily at Y-12.
