The version of the fiscal 2027 Energy & Water Development bill recently voted out of the House Appropriations Committee endorses key Department of Energy projects getting underway at the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash and the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.
At Savannah River Site (SRS) DOE is directed to brief the House Appropriations Committee within 120 days of congressional passage of the final 2027 budget on “the additional investments needed to address H-Canyon facility maintenance, equipment recapitalization, and hiring and training to restart operations.”
The Appropriations Committee said it backs DOE’s decision “to restart the recovery of uranium at H-Canyon, the only chemical separations facility of its kind in the United States, to provide capability to power America’s nuclear future by down-blending recovered HEU [highly-enriched uranium] into HALEU” or high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel. HALEU seems to be the fuel of choice for the upcoming generation of advanced and small modular reactors.
DOE has said it plans to produce about 23 metric tons of HEU for advanced fuel production at SRS H-Canyon.
In its bill report, the committee also said it is recommending up to $5 million be spent in fiscal 2027 “to make Strontium-90 from the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility available for commercial beneficial reuse for national security and scientific applications by 2028.”
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management has been instructed to work with the Pentagon and private industry to identify beneficial uses from Strontium-90 capsules being moved into dry cask storage at the Hanford Site.