DOE enrichment plants-safeguards means business
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc., is a full service enrichment plant. Its long enriching cascade can process uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) feeds at almost any {sup 235}U level and can produce UF{sub 6} over the complete spectrum from depleted to very highly enriched uranium. The DOE uranium enrichment program is a government-owned enterprise operating as a business. The operating concerns of the DOE uranium enrichment plants and their safeguards programs have evolved together over the past three decades, and that evolution will likely continue. As the risk associated with possession, processing, and shipment of strategic nuclear material increased, the protection and control of it increased; as the value of the product grew with time, better ways were found to measure and conserve it. In each of these areas, safeguards objectives and the business requirements of the plant are complementary, and the progress made in one area has been reflected by progress in the other. The plant's material control and accountability program has become crucial to such business requirements as quantifying the enriched uranium (separative work units) produced in each monthly period and convincing financial auditors that the multibillion dollar enriched uranium assets located at the Portsmouth plant are properly stated.
- OSTI ID:
- 5493774
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-871110-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 89-028015
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Vol. 55; Conference: 3. international conference on facility operations safeguards interface, San Diego, CA (USA), 29 Nov - 4 Dec 1987; ISSN 0003-018X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
SAFEGUARDS
ACCOUNTABILITY
MANAGEMENT
MODERATELY ENRICHED URANIUM
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PHYSICAL PROTECTION
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
URANIUM FLUORIDES
US DOE
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
ENRICHED URANIUM
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION PLANTS
MATERIALS
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
URANIUM
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
055001* - Nuclear Fuels- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability- Technical Aspects
050501 - Nuclear Fuels- Uranium Enrichment- Gaseous Diffusion- (-1989)