The Department of Energy’s national laboratories as well as the National Nuclear Security Administration have made use of uranium oxide produced by conversion plants at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio and the Paducah Site in Kentucky.
That was one of the takeaways from an Aug. 20 meeting of the Paducah Citizens Advisory Board, according to meeting materials posted online.
AtkinsRéalis-led Mission Conversion Services Alliance runs plants at Portsmouth and Paducah that convert thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) waste into uranium oxide and usable hydrofluoric acid. DUF6 is a coproduct of the uranium enrichment process.
“Uranium oxide has been provided to several national laboratories, including Oak Ridge and Savannah River,” DOE Portsmouth Paducah Project Office representative Chris Richards said, according to minutes of the meeting. Richards is also DOE DUF6 Program Manager.
“DOE is currently working with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on additional beneficial reuse of the material in support of NNSA missions,” Richards added. “There are other potential uses including conversion of depleted uranium oxide into uranium metal for applications such as armor-related materials and other future uses.”
The seven operating lines at the two former gaseous diffusion plant sites converted their 10,000th DUF6 cylinder in March 2026, Richards said during a presentation.
More than 1,000 containers of DUF6 were converted to oxide form in fiscal 2025, according to the DOE Office of Environmental Management.