Beneficial Uses of Depleted Uranium

Conference · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997

OSTI ID:629312

Brown, C ^[1]; Croff, A G; Haire, M J ^[2]

---

1. U.S. Department of Energy, Germantown, MD (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

Naturally occurring uranium contains 0.71 wt% {sup 235}U. In order for the uranium to be useful in most fission reactors, it must be enriched the concentration of the fissile isotope {sup 235}U must be increased. Depleted uranium (DU) is a co-product of the processing of natural uranium to produce enriched uranium, and DU has a {sup 235}U concentration of less than 0.71 wt%. In the United States, essentially all of the DU inventory is in the chemical form of uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) and is stored in large cylinders above ground. If this co-product material were to be declared surplus, converted to a stable oxide form, and disposed, the costs are estimated to be several billion dollars. Only small amounts of DU have at this time been beneficially reused. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has begun the Beneficial Uses of DU Project to identify large-scale uses of DU and encourage its reuse for the primary purpose of potentially reducing the cost and expediting the disposition of the DU inventory. This paper discusses the inventory of DU and its rate of increase; DU disposition options; beneficial use options; a preliminary cost analysis; and major technical, institutional, and regulatory issues to be resolved.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464
• OSTI ID: 629312
• Report Number(s): CONF-970830--1; ON: DE97008555
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
ENRICHMENT
FLUORIDES
INVENTORIES
NUCLEAR FUELS
URANIUM 235
URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE
USES