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Title: CHARACTERIZATION OF SURPLUS PLUTONIUM FOR DISPOSITION OPTIONS

Abstract

The United States (U.S.) has identified 61.5 metric tons (MT) of plutonium that is permanently excess to use in nuclear weapons programs, including 47.2 MT of weapons-grade plutonium. Except for materials that remain in use for programs outside of national defense, including programs for nuclear-energy development, the surplus inventories will be stored safely by the Department of Energy (DOE) and then transferred to facilities that will prepare the plutonium for permanent disposition. Some items will be disposed as transuranic waste, low-level waste, or spent fuel. The remaining surplus plutonium will be managed through: (1) the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (FFF), to be constructed at the Savannah River Site (SRS), where the plutonium will be converted to fuel that will be irradiated in civilian power reactors and later disposed to a high-level waste (HLW) repository as spent fuel; (2) the SRS H-Area facilities, by dissolving and transfer to HLW systems, also for disposal to the repository; or (3) alternative immobilization techniques that would provide durable and secure disposal. From the beginning of the U.S. program for surplus plutonium disposition, DOE has sponsored research to characterize the surplus materials and to judge their suitability for planned disposition options. Because manymore » of the items are stored without extensive analyses of their current chemical content, the characterization involves three interacting components: laboratory sample analysis, if available; non-destructive assay data; and rigorous evaluation of records for the processing history for items and inventory groups. This information is collected from subject-matter experts at inventory sites and from materials stabilization and surveillance programs, in cooperation with the design agencies for the disposition facilities. This report describes the operation and status of the characterization program.« less

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
929107
Report Number(s):
NNP-OPD-2008-00021
TRN: US0803469
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC09-96SR18500
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 49th INMM Annual Meeting
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE; 11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; 29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY; DESIGN; EVALUATION; FABRICATION; INVENTORIES; METRICS; NATIONAL DEFENSE; NUCLEAR ENERGY; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; OXIDES; PLUTONIUM; POWER REACTORS; PROCESSING; SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT; SPENT FUELS; STABILIZATION; WASTES

Citation Formats

Allender, J, Edwin Moore, E, and Scott Davies, S. CHARACTERIZATION OF SURPLUS PLUTONIUM FOR DISPOSITION OPTIONS. United States: N. p., 2008. Web.
Allender, J, Edwin Moore, E, & Scott Davies, S. CHARACTERIZATION OF SURPLUS PLUTONIUM FOR DISPOSITION OPTIONS. United States.
Allender, J, Edwin Moore, E, and Scott Davies, S. 2008. "CHARACTERIZATION OF SURPLUS PLUTONIUM FOR DISPOSITION OPTIONS". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/929107.
@article{osti_929107,
title = {CHARACTERIZATION OF SURPLUS PLUTONIUM FOR DISPOSITION OPTIONS},
author = {Allender, J and Edwin Moore, E and Scott Davies, S},
abstractNote = {The United States (U.S.) has identified 61.5 metric tons (MT) of plutonium that is permanently excess to use in nuclear weapons programs, including 47.2 MT of weapons-grade plutonium. Except for materials that remain in use for programs outside of national defense, including programs for nuclear-energy development, the surplus inventories will be stored safely by the Department of Energy (DOE) and then transferred to facilities that will prepare the plutonium for permanent disposition. Some items will be disposed as transuranic waste, low-level waste, or spent fuel. The remaining surplus plutonium will be managed through: (1) the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (FFF), to be constructed at the Savannah River Site (SRS), where the plutonium will be converted to fuel that will be irradiated in civilian power reactors and later disposed to a high-level waste (HLW) repository as spent fuel; (2) the SRS H-Area facilities, by dissolving and transfer to HLW systems, also for disposal to the repository; or (3) alternative immobilization techniques that would provide durable and secure disposal. From the beginning of the U.S. program for surplus plutonium disposition, DOE has sponsored research to characterize the surplus materials and to judge their suitability for planned disposition options. Because many of the items are stored without extensive analyses of their current chemical content, the characterization involves three interacting components: laboratory sample analysis, if available; non-destructive assay data; and rigorous evaluation of records for the processing history for items and inventory groups. This information is collected from subject-matter experts at inventory sites and from materials stabilization and surveillance programs, in cooperation with the design agencies for the disposition facilities. This report describes the operation and status of the characterization program.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/929107}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008},
month = {Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008}
}

Conference:
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