Marking 10 years since its formation, the DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel Working Group recently toured the Savannah River Site (SRS) and conducted a two-day meeting where its members discussed efforts to focus on going forward.
Office of Environmental Management
May 7, 2024
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Participants at DOE’s recent Spent Nuclear Fuel Working Group meeting are pictured at the Savannah River Operations Office.
AIKEN, S.C. – Marking 10 years since its formation, the DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel Working Group recently toured the Savannah River Site (SRS) and conducted a two-day meeting where its members discussed efforts to focus on going forward.
“As we commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the Spent Nuclear Fuel Working Group, we can look back to great accomplishments, solving spent nuclear fuel problems together, and implementing an effective strategy to manage DOE spent nuclear fuel,” said Bill Hartman of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), who co-chairs the working group along with a representative from the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). “However, we cannot rest on our laurels. We need to continue to identify new game plans to address the challenges ahead with teamwork, consistency and flexibility.”
The working group addresses policy and cross-cutting issues impacting the handling, storage and disposition of DOE-managed spent nuclear fuel.
Participants in the meeting, hosted by the Savannah River Operations Office, represented a variety of entities across the DOE complex. In-person attendees included representatives from EM, NE, Savannah River Operations Office, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), Idaho Operations Office, Idaho National Laboratory, Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Argonne National Laboratory, and staff from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Representatives from the Office of Naval Reactors, Office of Science Oak Ridge Site Office, and EM’s Richland Operations Office, among many others, participated virtually.
Tour attendees learned about the Mobile Plutonium and Mobile Melt Consolidate Facilities, toured H-Canyon Chemical Separations Facility and received an overview of the Engineering Development Lab at SRNL.
Meeting participants summarized and provided results of many ongoing efforts related to spent nuclear fuel. One part of the meeting focused on advanced nuclear reactors and the production of a fuel that is enriched between 5% and 20% with uranium-235, known as high-assay low-enriched uranium. Attendees also discussed infrastructure planning and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) considerations relevant to spent nuclear fuel.
The working group intends to form teams to look into infrastructure planning, NEPA, challenging spent nuclear fuel at SRS and coordination of technology development between programs, among other efforts.
Later this summer, the co-chairs of the working group expect to announce the proposed location and date for the next meeting.
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