Current DOE Efforts in Nuclear Materials Management

1
Current DOE Efforts in Nuclear Materials
Management

• Patrice M. Bubar
• Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary,
• Office of Integration and Disposition (EM-20)
• National Governors Association
• April 2001

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Topics

• At-risk nuclear materials
• EM efforts to identify and plan for disposition
  of surplus nuclear materials
• DOE corporate nuclear materials stewardship
  initiatives
• Current EM nuclear materials stewardship efforts

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At-Risk Nuclear Materials

• DNFSB Recommendation 00-1/94-1, Remediation of
  Nuclear Materials at the Defense Nuclear
  Facilities Complex
• DNFSB Recommendation 97-1, Safe Storage of
  Uranium-233

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Materials Stabilization Status

• All plutonium in contact with plastic has been
  repackaged solution and residue drums have been
  vented pending stabilization or repackaging ?
  Mitigated risk of hydrogen explosion
• Over 90 of all plutonium solutions have been
  stabilized to a solid form
• Over 50 of plutonium residues have been
  stabilized and repackaged
• All highly-enriched uranium solids have been
  stabilized
• All SNF at Idaho is in the process of being moved
  to improved storage

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DNFSB Recommendation 97-1

• Scope of Recommendation 97-1 (issued 05/97)
  concerns safe storage of Departments 233U
  inventory
• Inventory is primarily at ORNL and INEEL (400kg
  each) with minor amounts at other sites
• 233U is a legacy material from past nuclear
  development programs and presence of certain
  decay isotopes in the inventory creates a
  radiological hazard which makes handling
  difficult
• It is weapons usable but its promise was
  primarily as a reactor fuel

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DNFSB Recommendation 97-1Implementation Status

• Department completed all commitments at LANL,
  INEEL and in process of consolidate small
  holdings
• Major issue concerns integrity of 233U packages
  in storage at ORNL
• Departments plan is to begin package sample
  inspection program in late summer of FY01 remote
  handling system for packages to be used
• Department considering making 233U inventory
  available for commercial processing of beneficial
  isotopes
• would disposition inventory and resolve storage
  problems at ORNL
• provide greater supply of much needed isotopes to
  medical community for cancer research an
  potential treatment

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NUCLEAR MATERIALS DISPOSITION
National Resource
Nuclear Materials Inventory Assessment
National TRU Program
WIPP
National Security Materials
LLW Program
LLW Disposal Sites
Non-National Security Programmatic Materials
NSNFP
Geologic Repository
Surplus Materials
Nuclear Materials Stewardship Program
MD (NN-60)
Characterization/ Inventory/ Disposition Planning
Disposition/Interface Management
Disposal
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EM Nuclear MaterialDisposition Path Analysis
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NMI PROJECT (1998) IDENTIFIED AND ASSESSED 1011
DISPOSITION PATHS
112 Yellow
515 TBD
292 Green
80 Red
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Highlights of Activities to Focus on Identifying
Disposition Paths for Nuclear Materials

• Performed Options Analysis and Trade Studies for
  High Return Nuclear Materials
• Assisting Individual Sites with Analysis of TBD
  Material Streams
• Made Decisions on 3 Major Categories of Materials
• 233U oxides, metals, and fluorides at Oak Ridge
• Mark 18 A Targets at Savannah River
• Am/Cm tank solutions at Savannah River

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3 Recent Decisions on Nuclear Materials - 233U,
Mark 18A targets, and Am/Cm solutions - all
considered as potential National Resources

• 233U at OR - decision was made to make available
  to private sector, via a current draft
  Request-for-Proposals, to extract 229Th decay
  daughter for use in medical research/cancer
  therapy
• Mark 18A Targets at SR contain 244Pu and other
  heavy isotopes - decision was made keep for
  several years while DOE programs (esp. Office of
  Security and Emergency Operations Office of
  Nonproliferation and National Security) seek to
  extract 244Pu
• 241Am/244Cm in tank 17.1 solutions at SR -
  recovery for reuse/commercial sales not deemed
  economical will proceed to vitrify and dispose
  unless a viable use is identified in near term

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Tackle High-Return Nuclear Materials

• Perform Options Analysis
• Pu Storage Study (11/00)
• SRS Canyon Materials Identification Study (2/01)
• Off-Spec HEU Study
• Classified Parts Disposition
• Special Item Disposition
• DU/NU/LEU Trade Study
• Cs-137/Sr-90 Trade Study
• discussed next in greater detail

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Classified Parts Disposition

• Complex-wide Inventory of Classified Parts
  Completed
• Disposition Options Identified. Options Include
• Sanitization with Disposal as TRU waste
• Disposal as Classified TRU waste
• Rocky Flats has a Critical Need to Disposition
  their Classified Waste. No centralized or
  on-site sanitization capability exists.
• DOE is Exploring Disposal of Rocky Flats
  Classified Waste at WIPP

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DU/NU/LEU Trade Study

• Complex-wide Assessment of Inventory shows 300
  TBDs
• Study Considers Disposition Options
• Relatively Pure Material can be kept for future
  blending/reuse
• Contaminated Material is too costly to process
  and cheaper to dispose of
• Study Considers Relative Costs for Storage,
  Reuse, or Direct Discard
• Likely Result is a set of Threshold for Discard
  Criteria
• based on future uses
• to be used by programmatic owners to make
  informed decisions about disposition pathways for
  their materials
• Draft Trade Study is being finalized

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TBD Analysis and Support

• Provide recommendations to Fernald and Rocky
  Flats on disposition paths for TBDs
• Providing assistance to Richland and INEEL in
  FY01 on TBDs
• Performed analysis with recommendation for
  off-site storage location for uranium from
  Fernald Hanford to Portsmouth
• Assisted Mound with de-inventorying all surplus
  nuclear materials

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Continued Activities in FY01

• Consider use of Nuclear Materials Management
  Groups
• Pu
• U
• Heavy (i.e., transplutonium) Isotopes
• Nonactinide Isotopes and Sealed Sources
• Ensure Packaging and Transportation
  Infrastructure Exists to Transport Nuclear
  Materials
• Continue Interfaces with other DOE Programs

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Backup Slides

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Deinventory of Closure Sites (Mound, Fernald,
Rocky Flats)

• Assisted Mound to COMPLETELY de-inventory major
  holdings of surplus nuclear material in October
  2000
• Assistance to Fernald includes
• technology development automation to facilitate U
  repackaging, and
• consolidation of some U to Portsmouth for storage
• recommendations to resolve remaining TBDs
• Assistance to Rocky Flats includes
• classified parts disposition
• disposition of sealed sources
• recommendations to resolve remaining TBDs

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Uranium from Fernald in safe storage at Portsmouth
20
Chemically reactive plutonium scrap/residues in
PFP gloveboxes at Hanford are hazardous to
workers and must be inspected daily.
21
(SRS) Can containing plutonium metal button
showing oxide produced during storage Metal
remaining after removal from can
22
Plastic bottles with plutonium solutions in
Building 771 gloveboxes at Rocky Flats
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Corroding MK-31 targets at Savannah River,
stabilized under DNFSB 94-1 in 1997.
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3013 Container
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U Materials at Fernald

• Up to 1000 metric tons of uranium at Fernald will
  require processing to dispose as low level waste.

Billet In Water
Slag
Fines
Thin Rods
Flat Billets
Crucible Charge
Large Rods
Tubes
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Hanford Material Project

• T-Hoppers
• 700 MTU
• Average enrichment 0.84
• UO3 Powder

Stable materials being moved from Hanford to
Portsmouth by the Uranium Management Group with
coordination from EM-20.

• Uranium Billets
• 200 MTU
• Enrichment 0.20 - 1.25
• Metal

• Fuel Assemblies
• 800 MTU
• Enrichment 0.71 - 1.25
• Finished/Unfinished/Clad Metal

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Integrated Nuclear Materials Management Plan
Action Categories

• Nuclear Materials Stewardship Infrastructure.
  Sustain Nuclear Materials Stewardship processes,
  capabilities, and decision-making infrastructure.
• Integrated Planning for Facilities and
  Infrastructure. Develop integrated strategy and
  plan for modernizing nuclear materials complex.
• Budgeting and Financial Accounting. Build a
  budget and financial accounting system to
  facilitate corporate nuclear materials management
  budgeting and decision making

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Integrated Nuclear Materials Management Plan
Action Categories

• Excess Nuclear Materials Disposition. Complete
  disposition decisions for excess nuclear
  materials.
• Research and Development Coordination. Identify
  and implement opportunities for nuclear materials
  technology information exchanges and RD
  coordination.
• Information Management System Reengineering.
  Undertake corporate nuclear materials information
  management system reengineering and process
  improvements.
• Transportation and Packaging Process
  Improvements. Secure transportation and
  packaging integration and process improvement
  opportunities.

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Recommendation 2000-1

• Boards Recommendation issued January 14, 2000
• Re-emphasized the remaining 94-1 stabilization
  actions
• Departments Implementation Plan issued June 8,
  2000 addressed the nine technical
  sub-recommendations from 2000-1 related to
  stabilization
• Revision 1 of 2000-1 Implementation Plan issued
  January 19, 2001 incorporated several individual
  milestone changes as well as a new baseline for
  LANL stabilization

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DNFSB Recommendation 97-1Recent Developments

• Secretarial public commitment to ensure
  availability of 233U material for cancer
  treatment clinical trials (6/00)
• ORNL EOI (6/00)
• DOE Decision to issue RFP at ORNL(9/00)
• Draft RFP issued for ORNL Inventory (1/01)
  comments are being evaluated
• INEEL began trade studies to examine and validate
  potential beneficial uses of 233U and
  infrastructure to support prospective uses

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EM Nuclear Materials Stewardship Program
Participants

• AL
• Technology
• Transportation
• NISS MG

• SR
• Facility
• Data
• Pu MG

• EM
• Policy
• Cross-Program
• Issues

• ID
• Integration
• Support

• OR
• U MG
• HI MG

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Phases of Surplus Nuclear Materials Disposition
Resolve Policy Issues
Define Problem Identify Issues
Develop Tools to Assist Sites
Implementation
Inventory Nuclear Materials
Tackle High-Return Nuclear Materials
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Achievements of the 1997-99 Nuclear Materials
Initiative Project

• Material Evaluation Teams were formed to
  identify inventories and develop disposition
  plans for ...
• transuranics (plutonium and heavy isotopes)
• uranium
• non-actinide isotopes and sealed sources
• These teams canvassed DOE sites
• Products
• Draft Material Management Plans summary
  reports of teams
• Inventory of Nuclear Materials by Sites
• gt1,000 Disposition Maps for Surplus Nuclear
  Materials Streams
• These maps are (unclassified) HQ repn of
  disposition plans
• a major decision support tool - example shown
  next
• Identified some ways to resolve TBDs shown on
  maps

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Motivation for Corporate Action

• 8 programs with divergent objectives manage
  nuclear materials at or through 36 locations
• Deinventory and close high mortgage, low value
  facilities to facilitate infrastructure
  modernization
• Improve reporting accuracy and completeness of
  nuclear materials inventory data
• Avoid premature shutdown of facilities required
  to disposition excess nuclear materials
• Need to save valuable or unique materials or
  dispose of surplus materials that are expensive
  to maintain
• Improve cross-program cooperation
• Be responsive to external oversight e.g., DNFSB
  94-1 97-1 Congress

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FY00 Accomplishments

• Developed two DOE Storage Standards
• DOE-STD-3013 - for surplus Pu materials packaged
  and stored in a 3013 can - this standard
  jointly developed and owned by DP/MD/EM
• DOE-STD-3028 - long-term storage standard for
  233U
• Assistance to Closure Sites (Mound, Fernald,
  Rocky Flats) on specific TBD issues.
• Report on Consolidated Storage Options for
  Surplus Non-Pit 239Pu
• which sites ship just-in-time to MD/SR, which
  ship in advance
• Contributions to other corporate (NMSI) and EM
  initiatives
• NMSI-SIM business case for data

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Planned Plutonium Flow
result of Plutonium Storage Study
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Major Challenges with Sites and Other Programs

• Improve coordination with EM program offices and
  sites to plan and facilitate implementation of
  nuclear material disposition
• Interface with NN for disposition of
  weapons-usable nuclear materials
• Interface with RW to dispose of DOE spent fuel/
  orphans, decide on transport system, and
  integrate repository receipt schedule
• Interface with DP on transfer of surplus nuclear
  materials and responding to DNFSB Recommendations
  (00-1/94-1, 97-1 97-2)
• Interface with NE on 233U procurement at ORNL
  (97-1), National Resource related issues
• Support corporate level Nuclear Materials
  Stewardship Initiatives
• Determine cost/benefit of Nuclear Material
  Management Groups
• Decide on discard criteria for DU/NU LEU
• Integrate site SNF stabilization activities to
  share lessons learned, improve efficiency, and
  prepare DOE SNF for repository

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Pu Dispositioning via Can-In-Canister
Immobilization
Puck Dimensions 2.6 in D x 1 in H

• Ceramic Form
• Titanate mineral phases
• Fraction of key elements
• 10 wt Pu ( 50 g)
• 20 wt U
• Pu/Hf 1 Pu/Gd 1

Can of Pu-Ceramic Pucks

• 20 in. high by 3 in. OD
• 20 pucks per can
• 1.02 kg Pu per can

No. of Pu Can-in-Cansiter Forms

• Primary phase is pyrochlor
• A B (Ti2O7) where
• A Ca Gd B Pu, U, Hf

• 17 MT case 635 (77 extra)
• 50 MT case 1744 (210 extra)