SRS Watch news, July 20, 2017 – news release linked here
Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board: Nuclear Material Shipment to H-Canyon and HB-Line Halted
Note: The news release posted on July 20 was clear in that processing of plutonium liquid in HB-Line would continue and that processing of plutonium from K-Area would cease. Thus, the headline and opening sentence of the release has been changed to clarify that the processing of plutonium oxide in HB-Line “is halting” and “is ceasing.” We await clarification from SRS if processing of plutonium newly shipped from K-Area will continue or not.
Columbia, SC – A plan for management of a variety of nuclear materials at the Savannah River Site reveals that preparation of plutonium oxide for the plutonium fuel (MOX) project is ceasing.
The facility being taken out of production is called the HB-Line. A permanent halt of oxide production in the HB-Line would negatively impact start-up preparations of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) if that troubled project were to somehow continue. HB-Line production of plutonium oxide is being reviewed, according to the document.
HB-Line, which sits atop the 62-year-old H-Canyon reprocessing plant, had been tasked with the mission of purifying contaminated plutonium and processing it into an oxide which could then be fabricated into MOX fuel pellets. The plutonium which has been processed in HB-Line came from containers being stored in the K-Area, where about 13 metric tons of surplus weapon-grade plutonium are stored.
The Nuclear Materials Management Plan FY 2017-2031 for SRS – linked here – was prepared for the Department of Energy by contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. The document is dated June 30, 2017. The cursory plan serves as a basis for receipt and management of a host of nuclear materials.
Also on June 30, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Board reported in a weekly report that “H-Canyon and HB-Line have halted all receipts of nuclear material in order to limit the material at risk.” The halt in shipments is due to the degraded H-Canyon Exhaust Tunnel and its ability to perform its safety role in case of a “design basis earthquake.” The DNFSB stated that the ability of the exhaust tunnel to perform its “safety function is indeterminate” and that the Savannah River National Lab was investigating, with a report “scheduled to be issued in September.”