Oak Ridge Today

New Y-12 center provides small orders of nuclear samples

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Workers prepare a shipment in the new NBL Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The center provides special nuclear certified reference materials internationally. (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Y-12)

Workers prepare a shipment in the new NBL Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The center provides special nuclear certified reference materials internationally. (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration/Y-12)

 

A new center at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge will provide small orders of nuclear samples around the globe, including to organizations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“We envision this new facility operating sort of like an Amazon fulfillment center, but for very unique and very small orders of nuclear samples—things you definitely can’t get on Amazon,” said Morgan Smith, president and chief executive officer of Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, which operates Y-12 for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The new center, the NBL Center, officially opened with a June 11 ceremony. The center’s work was previously done at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.

The new facility is operating and made its first shipment, to the IAEA, in April. The IAEA uses the materials to support its international safeguards mission, said Steven Wyatt, spokesperson for the NNSA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. [Read more…]

DOE labs, including ORNL, recognized as international R&D hub by IAEA

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The High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/ORNL)

The High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/ORNL)

 

Federal laboratories in Oak Ridge and Idaho, along with a nuclear research center in Belgium, will make their research reactors, labs, and education and training facilities available to scientists from other countries for training, research, and development, officials announced at the IAEA General Conference in Austria on Monday.

The IAEA is the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The facilities that will make their reactors available are the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK*CEN, the IAEA said.

The institutions received designations as IAEA International Centres based on Research Reactor, or ICERR, the IAEA said.

The reactors include the High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL, the Advance Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory, and the Belgian Reactor 2. [Read more…]

NNSA, IAEA hosting international nuclear material course at ORNL

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the International Atomic Energy Agency are hosting 35 representatives from 30 countries at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from April 26 to May 8 for an international training course on how to account for and control nuclear material.

It’s the 20th International Training Course, or ITC, on State Systems of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material, or SSACs.

NNSA and the IAEA co-sponsor the ITC to educate and train technical experts from around the world on how to properly account for nuclear materials used in their home countries. The first SSAC ITC in the United States was held in Richland, Washington, in 1979.  Since then, approximately 500 participants from 50 countries have completed the training. The ITC supports U.S. obligations under the U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978. [Read more…]

NNSA marks 10th anniversary of Global Threat Reduction Initiative

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Frank Klotz

Frank Klotz

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, GTRI. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, reducing the threat of terrorist acquisition of nuclear or radiological material has been a core mission of NNSA, and it is a mission that will continue into the future.

“The Global Threat Reduction Initiative’s history demonstrates how seriously we take this mission and our commitment to fulfilling President Obama’s nuclear security agenda,” said U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary for Nuclear Security and NNSA Administrator Frank G. Klotz. “However, the threat to national and global security from state or terrorist acquisition of nuclear and radiological materials is far from gone, and our focus now is on addressing the substantial threats that remain.”

GTRI, an NNSA nuclear nonproliferation program, works with partners around the world to reduce and consolidate global stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, and plutonium, and to secure dangerous radiological sources both at home and abroad. GTRI and its predecessor programs have removed and secured more than enough material for 980 nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of radiological dirty bombs by converting HEU research reactors and isotope production facilities to the use of low enriched uranium, or LEU; removing or confirming disposition of HEU and plutonium; and securing nuclear and radiological sites around the world. [Read more…]

U.S., international partners remove last weapons-grade uranium from Hungary

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Highly Enriched Uranium Removed from Hungary

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that all remaining highly enriched uranium has been removed from Hungary. (Photos courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration)

Note: This story was updated at 6:23 a.m. Nov. 6.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that all remaining highly enriched uranium has been removed from Hungary.

There was enough material removed in the multi-year international effort to fuel nine nuclear weapons, DOE said in a press release.

The removal of the highly enriched uranium, or HEU, was coordinated between Hungary, the United States, the Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

Hungary is the 12th country to completely eliminate HEU since President Barack Obama announced an international effort in 2009 to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world, the release said. [Read more…]

Lecture next week focuses on IAEA training program hosted at ORNL

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Michael Whitaker

Michael Whitaker

A lunchtime lecture next week will feature a discussion of a recent International Atomic Energy Agency training program that was hosted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Michael Whitaker, group leader of the ORNL International Safeguards Group in the Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division, will lead the presentation.

The IAEA training program was for more than 40 nuclear safeguards professionals and regulatory officials representing more than 30 nations. They spent two weeks at ORNL to expand their knowledge for conducting their vital work around the world, a press release said. [Read more…]

US, international partners remove last highly enriched uranium from Vietnam

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Vietnam HEU Removal

A worker prepares a special container carrying highly enriched uranium before loading onto a cargo plane for repatriation to Russia. (Photo courtesy NNSA)

Official in the United States, Vietnam, and Russia announced this month that they have removed 11 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, or HEU, from the Dalat Nuclear Research Institute in Dalat, Vietnam.

“With this shipment, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam became the eleventh country from which all HEU has been removed since President Obama’s 2009 announcement in Prague of an international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said in a press release. “The U.S. will work with our international partners to remove the remaining HEU from another country by the end of 2013 in support of this global effort and the goals of the Nuclear Security Summits.” [Read more…]