Plutonium processingAlternative strategy for uranium processing at Oak Ridge
A group of twenty-five experts referred to as the Red Team, assigned to review alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have reached a “strong consensus” on what could be an alternative strategy, but will spend the next two weeks polishing their work before presenting it to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Red Team was instructed to design a way to move uranium processing from Building 9212, Y-12’s Second World War-era center for processing highly enriched uranium, by 2025 and at under $6.5 billion.
A group of twenty-five experts referred to as the Red Team, assigned to review alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have reached a “strong consensus” on what could be an alternative strategy, but will spend the next two weeks polishing their work before presenting it to National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) chief, Bruce Held.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory director Thom Mason was selected by Held to review the uranium operations at Y-12 and recommend possible alternatives to the current UPF concept. Red Team was instructed to design a way to move uranium processing from Building 9212, Y-12’s Second World War-era center for processing highly enriched uranium, by 2025 and at under $6.5 billion.
Knoxblog reports that last week, Red Team spent their second week at Y-12, interviewing staffers and studying the technology and equipment involved in the building’s operations. Mason notes that getting out of building 9212 by 2025 will be challenging due to the enormous amount of work that needs to be accomplished. “That’s what was driving our thinking. What is the pathway that you can execute reasonably quickly in order to reduce the risk (of the existing operations failing and having to be shut down)? Part of the challenge with the UPF as it’s currently configured is it’s large and expensive. Because of that, it takes a long time. You have to keep in the (existing facilities) for longer than you like.”
The final recommendations from Red Team will be a single strategy with multiple components. The strategy will focus on utilizing other facilities at Y-12, such as Beta-2E and Building 9215, both in good shape. Assembly and disassembly would take place in Beta-2E, while uranium machining would occur in Building 9212, although both venues may at some point be consolidated into one facility.
“Now whether or not it’s better, that will be the judgment of the NNSA,” Mason said in an interview with Knoxblog. “Obviously, the UPF concept had a lot of attractive options in terms of the maximum consolidation (of uranium operations), minimum footprint, operational flexibility from getting everything in one facility. And, in some of those dimensions, almost anything else is going to be less optimum. It’s really a question of balancing the risk and the resources and the time. At the end, that’s what we really put the focus on … to move with a certain set of urgency.”
