One of President Donald Trump’s May 23 executive orders instructs the secretary of energy to replace the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program with one to process excess plutonium for fuel for advanced nuclear technologies.
Trump’s executive order entitled “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” one of four nuclear-themed executive orders released last week, said the program would stop “except with respect to the Department of Energy’s legal obligations to the State of South Carolina.”
The surplus plutonium disposition program is currently part of the DOE’s legal commitment to accelerate the removal of plutonium from the state of South Carolina. The program uses the “dilute and dispose” process to literally dilute plutonium and plutonium oxide into a transuranic waste form and ship it to be permanently disposed of as at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The program involves 13.1 metric tons of surplus non-pit plutonium from the Savannah River Site.
The executive order also calls for recommendations for efficient use of uranium, plutonium and other materials through recycling and reprocessing, as determined in 240 days by the secretaries of energy, defense, transportation, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Other provisions include the expansion of the nuclear energy workforce by establishing apprenticeships in nuclear engineering and providing educational grants in related areas, as well as assess ways to restart closed nuclear power plants as “energy hubs for nuclear microgrid support.”
