The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to have BWX Technologies process nearly twice as much high-assay low-enriched uranium as recently planned after more than a metric ton of the material was found at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.
A notice of intent filed May 3 on the government’s contracting website outlines NNSA plans to increase the processing of low-assay, highly-enriched uranium (HALEU) scrap to 3.6 metric tons from two metric tons. BWX Technologies (BWXT) was awarded a contract to process the original amount of uranium in 2020 and ship it to the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Power for use in reactor demonstrations, according to an NNSA spokesperson.
“NNSA has identified quantities of HALEU scrap at the Y-12 National Security Complex that are recoverable by BWXT and have no other use,” the NNSA spokesperson told the Exchange Monitor in an email. “NNSA decided to increase the ceiling on an existing contract with BWXT to process the material into a HALEU oxide.
“The resulting material will be made available to the Office of Nuclear Energy for further distribution to support advanced reactor demonstrations in the United States,” the spokesperson said. “The increase in the amount of material to be processed from 2 MT [metric tons] to 3.6 MT is a result of the identification of additional material as the project has progressed.”
HALEU contains 19.75% uranium-235 by mass, just below what is conventionally considered high-enriched uranium. DOE wants to produce HALEU domestically to help develop new nuclear reactor designs. Aside from finding HALEU where it can, DOE is also funding Centrus Energy Corp. is building a HALEU enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, where it plans to make hundreds of thousands of kilograms of HALEU for the U.S. government.
