The Department of Energy has been tight-lipped about shipment of Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project (CEUSP) materials that include a highly radioactive and fissionable U-233/U-235 mix from the Oak Ridge Reservation to the Nevada National Security Site for burial.
The Department of Energy carried out extended negotiations with the state of Nevada before it began shipments of those materials last year, and it’s still not clear when the high-security transportation project will be completed.
In the meantime, DOE has confirmed that it is making preparations for other U-233 materials in storage at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The department has acknowledged plans to downblend the special nuclear material with depleted uranium to prepare the stockpile – in storage at ORNL’s Building 3019 – for disposal as low-level radioactive waste.
“We are currently preparing for the processing campaign, and depending on funding, could begin processing in the early 2020s,” Mike Koentop, executive officer in the DOE Environmental Management Office in Oak Ridge, said in an email statement. “Once processing begins, we estimate the campaign will take approximately three and a half years to complete and at a cost of approximately $18-20 million annually.”
The DOE official said the year-to-year cost estimate does not include the funding necessary to maintain ORNL’s Building 3019 — where the high-rad materials are being stored — while processing is ongoing.
“After processing, the resulting material will be disposed as low-level waste,” he said. “However, we have not yet determined which disposal facility we will use.”
A couple years ago, DOE transferred depleted uranium from its Savannah River Site in South Carolina to Oak Ridge to prepare for the U-233 processing project. However, Koentop said the Oak Ridge downblending project will no longer need all of the materials previously acquired from Savannah River because the CEUSP materials are being disposed of directly at Nevada.
Therefore, he said, “We will use a portion of the DU for processing and the remainder of the DU inventory will be shipped for disposal starting this year.”
