The Department of Energy and Belgium’s National Institute for Radioelements have signed a statement of intent on potentially processing highly enriched uranium targets that are residue from the production of Molybdenum-99 for medical use, the National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed late last week. The Department has explored whether the material could be processed in Savannah River’s H Canyon Facility, officials have said. “The Department of Energy (DOE) is in discussions with the Institute for Radioelements (IRE) in Belgium, on the possible acceptance and disposition of U.S. Origin highly enriched uranium contained in solid target material from the production of medical isotopes,” NNSA spokeswoman Shelley Laver said in a statement. “The acceptance of this target material was addressed in existing NEPA documentation and its potential disposition of processing and down-blending to low enriched uranium covered in the Amended Record of Decision issued on March 2013. No decisions of acceptance of the target material have been made at this time by either DOE or IRE.”
The IRE material includes a total of 100 kilograms of HEU that is 90 percent U.S.-origin residing in 560 containers stored at IRE in Fleurus, Belgium, and 62 containers stored at the U.K.’s Dounreay site, former DOE official Jay Rhoderick said in September. The material is stored in stainless steel canisters containing fiberglass filters, which would pose a challenge if it were to be processed in H-Canyon, Rhoderick said.
