Contract to downblend weapons-grade uranium

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Some 12 tonnes of 'surplus' US highly-enriched uranium is to be downblended and stored under a $209 million contract from the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

 

The contract was awarded under the Reliable Fuel Supply (RFS) program to a team consisting of WesDyne International LLC (a division of Westinghouse) and Babcock and Wilcox subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS).

 

The 12.1 tonnes of high-enriched uranium (HEU) weapons fuel will be downblended to about 220 tonnes of low-enriched uranium (LEU) suitable for power generation at NFS's facility in Erwin, Tennessee. The LEU will then be stored at Westinghouse's fuel fabrication facility in Columbia, South Carolina, for future use in mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.

 

NNSA said that it expects the downblending to begin in 2009 and to be completed in 2012. The NNSA's Office of Fissile Materials Disposition will oversee the effort. The resulting LEU will have a market value of more than $400 million, the NNSA said.

 

As part of the contract, WesDyne and NFS will each receive a small portion of the resulting LEU. The remainder will be stored to support the MOX program for disposing of surplus weapons plutonium.

 

Ken Baker, NNSA's principal assistant deputy administrator for defence nuclear non-proliferation, commented: "This contract to downblend 12 metric tons of surplus US highly-enriched uranium is a clear demonstration of our leadership of nuclear non-proliferation efforts and an important part of our effort to assure a fuel supply to utilities participating in the MOX program for the disposition of surplus weapons plutonium."

 

The contract follows a similar one, awarded in July 2007, under which WesDyne and NFS were to downblend another 17.4 tonnes of HEU. That should be happening now, having been scheduled to start in 2007 and to be completed in 2010. The downblending will result in 290 tonnes of LEU.

 

In 2005, US energy secretary Sam Bodman announced that 17.4 metric tons of surplus HEU would be set aside for the creation of the RFS program. The program is an important non-proliferation effort that responded to President George Bush's call for reliable fuel service mechanisms, including through the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), that enable countries with good non-proliferation credentials to pursue nuclear power generation. This fuel bank will be used only in case of a fuel supply emergency for eligible countries that meet certain non-proliferation criteria.

 

NNSA is responsible for disposing of US HEU that has been declared surplus to defence needs primarily by downblending, or converting, it into LEU. Once downblended, the material can no longer be used for nuclear weapons.