U.S. HEU Disposition Program

Robert M. GeorgeHEU Disposition Program ManagerOffice of Fissile Materials Disposition

The U.S. HEU Disposition ProgramNNSAs U.S. HEU Disposition Program is a key nonproliferation program that down-blends surplus HEU and uses the derived LEU in commercial and research reactors.HEU Down-blenders include:Y-12Savannah River SiteBabcock and WilcoxB&W - Nuclear Fuel ServicesNuclear fuel fabricators AREVA and Wesdyne

HEU Disposition PathsPortsmouth Gaseous Diffusion PlantUncommitted 2005 Material~40 MT* ~10 MTUF6USEC TransferMaterial 47 MT14 MT TVA Off-Spec (BLEU) Material 40 MT Savannah River Site and Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc.Uncom-mitted 1994 Material

16 MT 17 MT Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Operations Div.Y-12Research Reactor LEU Fuel Feed6 MTSpent Fuel and Low Equity Discards18 MT Disposal as wasteNFS* This ~51 MT of HEU is part of the 200 MT additional HEU removed from use as fissile material in weapons in the Fall of 2005; it consists of 20 MT designated for downblending plus an estimated 31 MT (out of 160 MT) that is expected to be rejected for use by Naval Reactors.Revised 2-5-09TBD1994 Surplus HEU Declaration 174 MT (156 commercially usable + 18 discards)2005 Declaration ~61 MTDisposition TimingCompletedIn progress 2009-2011Not yet plannedDiscards TBDMOX Reserve~7 MT* MOX Reserve ~5 MT TVA (H CanyonEUDisp.)RRF Feed~4 MT* Reliable Fuel Supply TVA (H CanyonEUDisp.)

~11 MT

USEC HEU TransferThe USEC HEU Transfer project, mandated by the USEC Privatization Act, was completed during 2006. The down-blending was completed at Babcock & Wilcox in Lynchburg, VA in June 2006.A total of 46.6 MT HEU, at an average assay of 43.7%, was delivered and down-blended to make over 800 MT of commercial-grade LEU.

TVA Off-Spec BLEU ProgramDOE and TVA entered an Interagency Agreement in 2001With addition of EU Disposition Project material, it now covers ~45.6 MTUTVA is using blended low-enriched uranium (BLEU) fuel in the Browns Ferry and Sequoyah Nuclear Plants. Down-blending occurs at two facilities:Savannah River Site, Aiken, SC solutions, alloyed metals, oxides (~22.6 MTU)Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, TN uranium metal, alloyed metals, compounds (~ 23 MTU)As of the end of March 2009, 37.5 MTU has been down-blended

TVA Off-Spec Program (Cont.)BLEU project HEU shipments were completed in 200840 MT Down-blending will be completed in fall of 2009 (~95% complete)Additional down-blending of EU Disposition Project material will occur 2009 2011Savings to the U.S. Treasury are expected to be over $255 million.This program has won many awards2003 Secretary of Energys Project Management Award SRS Line Item2005 Platts Global Energy Engineering Project of the Year BLEU/Off-Spec Partnership2006 NEI Top Industry Practice (TIP) award BLEU ProjectSeveral Other Internal TVA Awards

H Canyon EU Disposition ProjectNNSA has identified 20.8 MT of HEU that could result in up to 250 MT of additional off-spec LEU through 2019.The HEU would be recovered and down-blended at SRS H CanyonComplex.NNSA and TVA have agreed to mutually beneficial terms to add an initial 5.6 MT of the HEU material to the existing Interagency Agreement.Options for additional material as funding becomes available.

Reliable Fuel Supply Initiative (RFS)Secretary Bodman announced the RFS initiative for foreign users who do not pursue enrichment and reprocessing at IAEAs General Conference in September 2005.

17.4 MT of HEU will be down-blended to produce about 290 MT LEU, a substantial majority of which will be used as a stockpile for the RFS program.

The RFS program will ensure that, in the event nuclear fuel is not available commercially, there will be reliable access to the market.MTR Type Fuel ElementCast Metal Slugs

RFS General StatusIn June 2007, NNSA awarded a downblending and storage contract to the WesDyne / NFS team.To date, NNSA has shipped nearly 14 MT of HEU for the RFS project.Processing of the HEU began in March 2008 and over 4 MT has been down-blended to date producing 66 MT of LEU.The down-blending program will be completed in 2010.

12.1 MTU HEU Downblending ProjectNew HEU disposition project similar to RFS.HEU will be down-blended during the 20092012 time period.Project will provide total derived LEU of about 224 MTU Used in MOX ReserveDown-blending and storage contract award and first shipments in FY 2009.

Foreign Research Reactor LEU FuelDOE/NNSA Supplies 80% of the worlds LEU research reactor fuel with down-blended HEUMaterial is provided in support of the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program, which reduces civil uses of HEU worldwide. U.S. surplus HEU (10 MT) is feed material to make LEU fuel (mostly 19.75% enrichment).2.5 MT down-blended to dateCustomers in Europe, Canada, Asia, South America, AustraliaRA-6 Reactor, Bariloche, ArgentinaCEA OSIRIS Reactor, France

What Does the Future Hold?The program has already committed to down-blending projects 161MT of the total 217 MT of surplus, commercially-usable HEU. The remaining 56 MT is expected to become available for down-blending from now through 2050.Future focus is:Continue progress in down-blending HEU to meet nonproliferation objectives Proper disposition of derived LEU in a manner that does not adversely impact the commercial nuclear fuel marketsDevelop future projects from unallocated HEU inventories using a viable funding approach

HEU Deliveries for Down-blending (Actual and Projected)

Final thoughtsThrough March 2009 this program has eliminated the proliferation risk from over 121 MTU of HEU.Several DOE facilities have been able to eliminate or greatly reduce their holdings of HEU.The LEU derived from down-blending the U.S. HEU equates to 1,375 MTU.HEU availability for down-blending creates unique challenges.