Savannah River Site Archives

Y-12 honored with DOE sustainability partnership award

Posted at 11:48 am February 5, 2023
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

*Pictured above are Y-12 refrigerant cylinders to be sent for reclamation.Â (Photo by CNS Y-12)*

The Y-12 National Security Complex recently received a U.S. Department of Energy Sustainability Award for Strategic Partnerships for Sustainability.

The Y-12 team was recognized for its efforts to improve efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency of the site through partnerships with other DOE contractors and private companies, a press release said.

Through its sustainability program, Y-12 said it is reducing greenhouse gases, minimizing waste, and improving waste treatment on a large scale.

The partnership efforts for which the team was recognized include Energy Savings Performance Contract implementation, including helping to reuse refrigerant, using additive manufacturing for unique part production, and implementing wastewater treatment process improvements.

[Read more…]

Test reactor could be built at Oak Ridge, Idaho

Posted at 12:08 pm August 6, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign — Photo by ORNL

Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory are being considered as potential sites for a test reactor, where fuels and materials could be tested for new types of nuclear power reactors.

It’s not clear where the test reactor would be built at ORNL, if it’s built there.

The fast-neutron reactor, called the Versatile Test Reactor, would be sodium-cooled and small, about 300 megawatts thermal. It would be based on the GE Hitachi PRISM power reactor. That’s a small module design based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II, which operated for more than 30 years in Idaho, the U.S. Department of Energy said in a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday. (Fast neutrons are highly energetic neutrons that travel at speeds ranging from tens to thousands of kilometers per second.)

The Versatile Test Reactor would be a pool-type reactor and use metal alloy fuels that could include uranium, plutonium, zirconium and other alloying metals. It would not be a power reactor, and it would not generate electricity. It could generate at least 4×10¹⁵ neutrons per square centimeter per second.

Reactor operations could start as early as the end of 2026, DOE said. Fuel for the reactor could be fabricated at Idaho National Laboratory or the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

[Read more…]

(For members) New lithium building a priority as ceiling materials fall in old one

Posted at 1:50 pm April 6, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Building 9204-2 (Beta 2) is pictured above at center at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Part of Building 9204-2E (Beta 2E) is pictured in the top left. (Photo courtesy Consolidated Nuclear Security)

A new lithium processing facility that could be built in Oak Ridge is a priorityÂ for the National Nuclear Security Administration, which has cited worker safety and materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old building now usedÂ at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

As a priority, the new lithium processing facility is right behind the number one priorities: the production of plutonium pits at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and uranium processing at the Uranium Processing Facility, which is now under construction at Y-12, said Charles Verdon, NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs.

NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty cited the materials that have fallen from the ceiling at the old Y-12 building used for lithium processing, 9204-2, or Beta 2, in her response to questions during a budget hearing with the U.S. House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on Tuesday.

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(For members) NRC finds no significant impact from producing tritium at Watts Bar 2

Posted at 12:12 pm February 13, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on Monday that there would be no significant impact from producing tritium for nuclear weapons in a second unit at the Watts BarÂ Nuclear Power Plant in Rhea County.

The project involves the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.

The tritium could be produced in Unit 2 at Watts Bar, which is near Spring CityÂ about 45 miles southwest of Oak Ridge.

Tritium, which boosts the yields of nuclear weapons, is already being produced in Watts Bar Unit 1. The Tennessee Valley Authority has been producing tritium there since 2003.

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Y-12 approved for B61-12 weapons work

Posted at 11:14 am October 21, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on B61-12 Nuclear Bomb.

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on the B61-12 nuclear bomb.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge has been approved to produce a major component of a nuclear bomb known as the B61-12.

The approval wasÂ the final step to authorize the manufacturing and delivery of the first production unit of a component called the canned subassembly. It’s scheduled for March 2019, according to Y-12. A canned subassemblyÂ is the second stage of a modern thermonuclear weapon, and it is part of theÂ nuclear explosives package.

The Y-12 work is part of the B61-12 Life Extension Program, which will consolidate four versions of the bomb into one. The bombs could be carried on B-2A bomber aircraft and F-15Es, several types of F-16s, and PA-200 fighters, and in the future, F-35s and B-21s.

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Twenty tons of uranium could be used to produce tritium for nuclear weapons

Posted at 12:08 pm September 14, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration. SRS is the Savannah River Site.

About 20 metric tons of highly enriched uranium could be “down-blended” to low-enriched uranium and transferred to the Tennessee Valley Authority for use as a fuel to produce tritium for nuclear weapons, according to a public notice published in the Federal Register this week.

The project involves theÂ Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge andÂ Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City in Rhea County, among other sites.

The National Nuclear Security AdministrationÂ and TVA announced in August that they intend to enter into an agreement to â€œdown-blendâ€ highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium in order to help produce tritium,Â a key â€œboostingâ€ component in nuclear weapons.

The highly enriched uranium used for the â€œdown-blendingâ€ will be processed, packaged, and shipped from Y-12, according to the NNSA. Y-12 is an NNSA site, and it is the main storage facility for certain categories of highly enriched uranium. [Read more…]

NNSA, TVA agree to ‘down-blend’ uranium to produce tritium for weapons

Posted at 12:15 pm August 29, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, that they intend to enter into an agreement to “down-blend” highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium in order to help produce tritium, a key “boosting” component in nuclear weapons. The highly enriched uranium used for the “down-blending” is processed, packaged, and shipped from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced last week that they intend to enter into an agreement to “down-blend” highly enriched uranium to low-enriched uranium in order to help produce tritium,Â a key “boosting” component in nuclear weapons.

The highly enriched uranium used for the “down-blending” is processed, packaged, and shipped from the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, according to the NNSA. Y-12 is the main storage facility for certain categories of highly enriched uranium, which can be used in nuclear weapons and in naval reactors.

Low-enriched uranium, or LEU fuel, isÂ used in a commercial power reactor run by TVA at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 near Spring City in Rhea County, southwest of Oak Ridge. Tritium is produced there by irradiating lithium-aluminate pellets with neutrons in rods known as tritium-producing burnable absorber rods, or TPBARs.

The irradiated rods are then shipped to the Savannah River Site, an NNSA production facility near Aiken, South Carolina. The Savannah River Site extracts the tritium from the irradiated rods, purifies it, and adds it to the existing inventory, according to the NNSA’s Fiscal Year 2018 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that has two neutrons and one proton. ItÂ has been described as an essential component in every nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. It occurs naturally in small quantities but must be manufactured to obtain useful quantities. It enables weapons to produce a larger yield while reducing the overall size and weight of the warhead in a process known as “boosting,” the U.S. Department of Energy said in an environmental impact statement about 20 years ago.

But unlike other nuclear materials used in nuclear weapons, tritium decays at a rate of 5.5 percent per yearâ€”its half-life is about 12 yearsâ€”and it must be replenished periodically.

The NNSA, a separately organized agency within DOE, said the agreement with TVA that was announced last weekÂ is for management of the down-blending campaign and the resulting material. It’s separate from an existing interagency agreement forÂ irradiation services thatÂ started in 2000Â andÂ is in effect until November 30, 2035.

â€œWithout this down-blending campaign, we would need to accelerate the development and execution of a strategy to provide LEU fuel for tritium production by nearly a decade,â€ said Phil Calbos, NNSAâ€™s acting deputy administrator for defense programs.

The new agreement follows a determination by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on August 21 that allows the NNSA to continue transfers of enriched uranium from DOEâ€™s inventories in support of national security, the NNSA said in a press release.

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Y-12 part of extending life of nation’s oldest nuclear weapons

Posted at 11:54 pm June 4, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Image from U.S. Government Accountability Office report in May 2018 on B61-12 Nuclear Bomb.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is part of a program to extend the life of B61 bombs, the oldest nuclear weapons in the nation’s active stockpile, federal officials said.

The life extension program, or LEP, for the B61 bombs is the most complex and expensive since the U.S. Department of Energy began stockpile life extension activities in January 1996, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Critical components of the bombs are reaching the end of their operational lives, and the life extension program will result in a bomb known as B61-12. It will consolidate four versions of the bomb into one. The bombs could be carried on B-2A bomber aircraft and F-15E, F-16, F-35, and PA-200 fighters.

A GAO report described the role of six National Nuclear Security Administration sites and laboratories in the LEP. Besides Y-12, the NNSA sites are Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri; Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Savannah River Site in Aiken, South Carolina.

Y-12 is designated as the production site for the secondary.Â All weapons in the U.S. nuclear stockpile are two-stage nuclear weapons, or thermonuclear weapons. The first stage, known as the primary, is a fission device that is the initial source of nuclear energy, the GAO said. The secondary, which is the second stage, is a nuclear stage physically separate from the primary. Together, the primary and secondary are referred to as the weapon’s nuclear explosive package, the GAO said. [Read more…]

For first time in 30 years, Savannah River dissolving spent nuclear fuel from ORNL reactor

Posted at 10:40 pm March 20, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The reactor pool is pictured above in the reactor bay inside the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Thursday, March 15, 2018. Spent nuclear fuel is stored inside the pool. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

For the first time in 30 years, spent nuclear fuel from the High Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been dissolved at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The work is important because it is expected to allow the reactor,Â known as HFIR, to continue its mission, according to theÂ U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management.

HFIR, which uses highly enriched uranium, is one of the world’s most powerful nuclear research reactor facilities. It’s the highest flux reactor-based source of neutrons for research in the United States.Â Flux refers toÂ the rate of flow of fluids, particles, or energy. In HFIR’s case, the flux is measured in neutrons per square centimeter per second. HFIR is used for neutron scattering and isotope production, among other missions.

ORNL will reach its maximum capacity for storing HFIR fuel in fiscal year 2020, theÂ DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM, saidÂ in an “EM Update” electronic newsletter on Tuesday. [Read more…]

Y-12 to build replacement parts for nuclear warheads on submarine missiles

Posted at 5:28 pm January 18, 2018
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

A Trident II D5 missile test launch (Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration)

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge has been approved to build parts for a system being replaced in the W88 nuclear warhead, which is deployed on submarine-launched missiles, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The W88 has been a key part of the nation’s nuclear deterrent since it became part of the weapons stockpile in 1988, the NNSA said on its website Tuesday. But it needs maintenance.

The W88 Alteration (Alt) 370 program will replace the warheadâ€™s Arming, Fuzing, and Firing, or AF&F, subsystem and address other aging issues to maintain its current state of readiness, the NNSA said.

Y-12Â has been approved to build component parts for the W88 Alt 370 nearly two years ahead of schedule. [Read more…]

GAO: DOE has more than 80 percent of U.S. government’s environmental liabilities

Posted at 9:18 pm September 3, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Workers clean 5,700 feet of piping on Alpha-4â€™s west side at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy)

Workers clean 5,700 feet of piping on Alpha 4â€™s west side at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. Alpha 4 was built in 1944. It was used first for enriching uranium as part of the Manhattan Project and later for thermonuclear weapons production. It was shut down in 1987 and will be demolished. (Photo by U.S. Department of Energy)

Note: This story was last updated at 3:20 p.m. September 4.

The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for more than 80 percent of the U.S. government’s estimated $450 billion in environmental liabilities, a federal agency said in a report published this year.

The agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, added the governmentâ€™s environmental liabilities to a high-risk list of federal programs and operations in a report published in February.

Total environmental liabilities for the federal government are estimated at $447 billion. DOE is responsible for about $372 billion of them, or 83 percent, according to a fiscal year 2016 estimate, the GAO said.

Most of DOEâ€™s environmental liability is related to nuclear waste cleanup, the GAO said. Fifty percent of it is at two cleanup sites: the Hanford Site in Washington state and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

The GAOâ€”an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congressâ€”said DOEâ€™s total reported environmental liability has generally increased since 2000. Itâ€™s roughly doubled from a low of $176 billion in fiscal year 1997 to the higher estimate of $372 billion in fiscal year 2016.

â€œIn the last six years alone, EM (environmental management) has spent $35 billion, primarily to treat and dispose of nuclear and hazardous waste and construct capital projects to treat the waste, while EMâ€™s portion of the environmental liability has grown over this same time period by over $90 billion, from $163 billion to $257 billion,â€ the GAO said.

In the past few fiscal years, DOE environmental management has spent about $6 billion per year. The budget request submitted to Congress byÂ President Donald Trump in May asked for $6.5 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, the largest request in a decade.

Oak Ridge has a DOE environmental management program. ItÂ received more than $400 million in funding per fiscal year between 2013 and 2016. The Oak Ridge Office of Environmental ManagementÂ has major cleanup projects at the East Tennessee Technology Park (the former K-25 site), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Y-12 National Security Complex. Cleanup work depends upon funding, but it could continue into the mid-2040s. Although they might be in various stages, projects that are under way now include finishing demolition work at ETTP by 2020, disposing of uranium-233 at ORNL, addressing high-risk excess facilities at ORNL and Y-12, building a Mercury Treatment Facility at Y-12, and shipping transuranic waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. [Read more…]

New DOE plan calls for research, technology to help fight mercury contamination, including in Oak Ridge

Posted at 2:42 am June 7, 2016
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

Y-12 Process Buildings and Mercury Use Area

U.S. Department of Energy officials have released a new planÂ to address mercury contamination at the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and Savannah River Site in South Carolina. ItÂ advocates for research and the development of technologies that could resolve key technical uncertainties with mercury in environmental remediation, the deactivation and decommissioning of facilities, and processing waste in tanks.

The Oak Ridge ReservationÂ and Savannah River SiteÂ bothÂ used mercury in industrial-scale processes.Â At the Oak Ridge Reservation, large quantities of mercury were used at the Y-12 National Security Complex from the early 1950s until the early 1960s. During the peak period of operations, according to estimates fromÂ the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management, or OREM,Â 700,000 pounds of a total 20 million pounds of mercury that were used were released into the surrounding environment.

Ongoing mercury abatement and remediation efforts at Y-12 that began in the 1980s have decreased overall mercury releases to the environment, theÂ DOE Office of Environmental Management, or EM,Â said in a May 31 newsletter.

But elevated concentrations remain in certain water, soil, and facilities, federal officials said. [Read more…]