The Obama administration, according to multiple news reports, is buying 32 tons of heavy water from Iran as a follow-on to the historic nuclear accord negotiated last year, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory stands to play a key role in storing and selling the material and using a significant amount of it to boost the research capabilities at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS).
Heavy water is a central component in development of nuclear weapons and can be used in some types of nuclear reactors that produce plutonium.
The new deal with the U.S. will reportedly help Iran meet commitments for reducing its stockpile of heavy water and other weapon-making materials.
But it also will help ORNL enhance operations at the SNS. The lab had previously sought to acquire tons of heavy water to augment the production of neutrons for research, but none was readily available. The United States does not currently have a production source.
ORNL will store the heavy water, which is water that contains the hydrogen isotope deuterium, and sell it to qualified buyers through the DOE Isotope Business Office based in Oak Ridge.
No date for its arrival has been confirmed.
ORNL Director Thom Mason said substituting heavy water for light water currently used in cooling systems at the Spallation Neutron Source will bolster production of neutrons and enhance the research potential. By substituting heavy water, the system will generate 10 to 20 percent more neutrons, Mason said, and more neutrons mean better research possibilities.
The overall purchase of 32 tons of heavy water is reported to cost about $8.6 million, and several tons of the material will be used at the SNS. That offers the potential for a huge performance gain for a relatively small cost, the ORNL director said. He called the availability of heavy water from Iran “fortuitous.”
The heavy water will be used in cooling loops around the liquid mercury target, which is struck many times per second by a proton beam to eject the neutrons that are then channeled to research stations for neutron-scattering experiments that explore the structure and properties of materials.
When the Spallation Neutron Source was ready for initial operations around 2006, the Oak Ridge lab made a global effort to acquire the needed quantities of heavy water.
ORNL acquired several tons of heavy water from DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina a decade ago but that wasn’t enough to meet needs. The nearby Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge had its own supply of heavy water for weapons use but declined ORNL’s request for material – apparently due to concerns about meeting its own needs.
Mason said the newly acquired heavy water from Iran will be mixed with quantities in storage from Savannah River and will be introduced at SNS in 2017 – probably sometime between March and July. At that time, SNS operators will replace the “inner reflector plug” that surrounds the target and houses the system that cools the overheated area where the proton beam strikes the target.
SNS heretofore has used light water in the target cooling system, but there are problems because H2O absorbs some neutrons.
The boost in neutron production will enhance the ability to perform new experiments with materials, and it will also allow some experiments to be completed more quickly. That will free up more time with some of the SNS research instruments, which are already oversubscribed, Mason said.
According to lab officials, tests have shown the Iranian heavy water to be of high quality that meets the specifications for use in the Spallation Neutron Source.
ORNL communications chief David Keim said the lab does not disclose specific customers at the isotopes office, but he said there are a number of potential recipients for the heavy water.
“The manufacturing sector uses heavy water as feedstock to produce refined deuterated products, for instance, including deuterated chemical compounds used for scientific and medical research,” Keim said in an email response to questions. “Deuterium gas, produced from heavy water, is used in the optical fibers industry to enhance data transmission capability. Deuterated materials are also used for nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy.
Keim said no decision has been made on how much of the heavy water inventory will be sold.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) earlier this week introduced an amendment to the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that would prohibit future purchases of Iran’s heavy water by the U.S. government. The bill has proved a sticking point in Senate approval of the $37.5 billion legislation.
Cotton’s amendment stalled the progress of the appropriations bill, but it will not, according to multiple accounts, impact the deal signed last week for the 32 tons of Iranian heavy water from Iran.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, is a primary architect of the 2017 energy and water bill. Asked about the senator’s view of the heavy water purchase and potential use in Oak Ridge in his home state, Alexander press secretary Louie Brogdon said:
“Oak Ridge National Laboratory and American companies need heavy water to make fiber optics, microprocessors and support important research in material and biological sciences. Sen. Cotton has raised questions about a serious issue, and Sen. Alexander is working with him and studying it carefully.”
