Plutonium Pit Production

Two new annual reports released by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) reaffirm agency milestones in its stockpile and nonproliferation operations and highlight infrastructure investments, the proposed termination of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel approach, and departmental reorganizations as recent internal areas of focus. The fiscal 2017 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan noted no significant changes […]

The Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (GP) will provide assistance to the international community on the conversion of plutonium to mixed oxide (MOX) fuel despite a recent shift in White House policy away from MOX and toward alternative plutonium disposition methods. The action plan for the Global Partnership, […]

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday she still expects the Department of Energy to pony up $100 million for missing a plutonium disposition milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). South Carolina sued the federal government on Feb. 9 because DOE had failed for more than a month to […]

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday she still expects the Department of Energy to pony up $100 million for missing a plutonium disposition milestone at the Savannah River Site’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). South Carolina sued the federal government on Feb. 9 because DOE had failed for more than a month to […]

The Department of Energy on Tuesday said it would this year offer another 10 bus tours of cleanup operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state, after the originally planned 15 tours were filled. The added tour dates at the former plutonium production site are Aug. 2, 3, 10, 16, 17, 24, 30, and 31, […]

Russia is prepared to accept a revised U.S. plan for disposal of surplus weapon-usable plutonium, provided it is assured the process could not be reversed, a Russian expert said Wednesday. The United States and Russia in 2000 agreed to each dispose of 34 metric tons of excess plutonium via conversion into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for nuclear […]

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) said they walked away with more questions than answers Tuesday following a presentation on the downblending method of plutonium disposition. Instead of using the incomplete SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) to convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium to nuclear fuel, the Obama […]

About 60 workers, over the past two months, have been laid off at the incomplete Savannah River Site Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) in order to keep construction on track, a spokesperson for plant contractor CB&I AREVA MOX Services said Thursday. The layoffs are a result of severe restrictions on MOX project dollars, mainly because […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s underground storage site for plutonium-contaminated waste have been cleared to return to work in portions of the mine shut down in February after high levels of non-nuclear airborne contamination were found in the facility’s northwestern and southern edges. DOE announced the end of the safety pause in an online note published […]

The Energy Department’s decision to officially ship 6 metric tons of diluted weapon-grade plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., ultimately registered as a pot-sweetener this week as flashier nonproliferation news stole the headlines during the final Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. DOE made the decision Tuesday but did not publish […]

The Department of Energy has yet to post a 2015 award fee scorecard for its prime contractor on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) now under construction by Bechtel National at the Hanford Site, a former plutonium production facility near Richland, Wash. Award fee determination scorecards are public-facing appraisals of a contractor’s performance at a DOE […]

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) said they walked away with more questions than answers Tuesday following a presentation on the downblending method of plutonium disposition. Instead of using the incomplete SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) to convert 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium to nuclear fuel, the Obama […]

Russia is prepared to accept a revised U.S. plan for disposal of surplus weapon-usable plutonium, provided it is assured the process could not be reversed, a Russian expert said Wednesday. The United States and Russia in 2000 agreed to each dispose of 34 metric tons of excess plutonium via conversion into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for nuclear […]

The Energy Department on Wednesday made official its decision to send 6 metric tons of nuclear weapon-usable plutonium from the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., to the agency’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. The official stamp of approval arrives a day before the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit convenes in […]

A Weapons Complex Morning Briefing article Tuesday should have said that highly enriched uranium shipped from Canada will be processed and downblended at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to create low-enriched uranium. That material will then be sent to the Tennessee Valley Authority for conversion into reactor fuel.

Workers at the Department of Energy’s underground storage site for plutonium-contaminated waste have been cleared to return to work in portions of the mine shut down in February after high levels of non-nuclear airborne contamination were found in the facility’s northwestern and southern edges. DOE announced the end of the safety pause in an online note published […]

The Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office estimates it needs a budget of $1.015 million in fiscal 2018 to meet Tri-Party Agreement and other regulatory requirements for the ongoing cleanup of the former plutonium production installation in Washington state. That would be an increase of more than $200 million above the Obama administration’s fiscal 2017 request, […]

A memo from the Sandia National Laboratories posted to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) website offers more, if not new, details about the Energy Department’s dismissal of a consulting firm’s finding that plutonium stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) could go critical in the distant future. The two-page, number-laden memo, dated Feb. […]

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz this week to stop shipments of Japanese weapon-usable plutonium, believed to already be en route, from coming to the Savannah River Site. Haley made her demand following news reports that 331 kilograms of plutonium were being loaded onto two British ships in Japan, will travel […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Monday it could not confirm reports that two British ships have docked in Japan and will be loaded with 331 kilograms of weapon-usable plutonium. After the vessels travel to the U.S. and dock in Charleston, S.C., the plutonium will be trucked to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, […]

A study prepared for the CB&I AREVA MOX Services Board of Governors states that switching from the MOX method of plutonium disposition to a downblending approach could result in a nuclear chain reaction. But the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said a criticality incident cannot result from storing downblended plutonium, and that the study isn’t […]

A study prepared for the CB&I AREVA MOX Services Board of Governors states that switching from the MOX method of plutonium disposition to a downblending approach could result in a nuclear chain reaction. But the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said a criticality incident cannot result from storing downblended plutonium, and that the study isn’t […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is finalizing a record of decision announcing its intent to prepare 6 metric tons of excess plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, agency chief Frank Klotz said this week. Downblending and shipments of large […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is finalizing a record of decision announcing its intent to prepare 6 metric tons of excess plutonium stored at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, agency chief Frank Klotz said this week. Downblending and shipments of large […]

The Department of Energy will need until the mid-2020s to achieve the capacity to downblend significant amounts of plutonium now held at the Savannah River Site (SRS), the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told lawmakers on Wednesday. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz again touted the benefits of […]

A new study prepared for the CB&I AREVA MOX Services Board of Governors states that switching from the MOX method of plutonium disposition to a downblending approach could result in a nuclear chain reaction. But the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said a criticality incident cannot result from storing downblended plutonium, and that the finding isn’t […]

There is no public timeline for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) to finish its assignment to support a plutonium disposition alternative to the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site. Per the fiscal 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, SRNS, the site’s management and operations contractor, was directed to support the preconceptual design […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sparred with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Wednesday over the Obama administration’s decision to shutter the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Mirroring a heated exchange with National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Frank Klotz at a Senate hearing late last month, Graham challenged […]

Those who wish to comment on the controversial, possible transfer of 1 million graphite spheres containing highly enriched uranium from German research reactors to the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., have two more weeks to do so. The Department of Energy announced Thursday afternoon that it is extending the public comment period deadline to […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sparred with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Wednesday over the Obama administration’s decision to shutter the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. Mirroring a heated exchange with National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Frank Klotz at a Senate hearing late last month, Graham challenged […]