The National Nuclear Security Administration is consulting with Norway on a study about whether the nordic nation can downblend its own stock of highly enriched uranium and thorium, U.S. and Norwegian officials announced this week.
In 2020, the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency expects to spend only about $50,000 on the effort, which on the U.S. end of things is limited for now to sharing technical expertise from agency’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
“At this stage, NNSA is providing technical assistance to help Norway assess whether the identified downblending approach can be implemented in Norway,” a spokesperson for the the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wrote Wednesday in an email. “While we are confident that it can, neither partner wants to get ahead of the study.”
Norway has fewer than four kilograms of civilian highly enriched uranium to deal with, according to a 2019 report.
The NNSA and Norway announced the effort together on Sept. 21, during the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 64th annual General Conference in Vienna.
NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was the U.S. representative to the conference this year. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, who reportedly has dialed back some of his travel from the Washington region, delegated Gordon-Hagerty for the task last week.
