NUCLEAR FUEL MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility: Turning Swords into Plowshares The U.S. Department of Energy contracted Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC to design, construct, and operate a Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at its Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The MFFF will convert depleted uranium and excess weapons-grade plutonium stockpiles, equivalent to approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons, into MOX fuel assemblies that will be used in U.S. nuclear power plants by 2018. By James M. Hylko he bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed in July 1991 was an agreement to dismantle 80% of U.S. and then-USSR strategic nuclear weapons in existence. START may have signaled the end of the Cold War, but it also ushered in a new problem: potential uncontrolled access to large stockpiles of surplus weapons-grade (WG), highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium. The challenge was how to safely dispose of these surplus nuclear materials to prevent their future use in nuclear weapons. In 1992, General Brent Scowcroft, then the national security advisor to President George H.W. Bush, requested that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommend disposition options to reduce the potential loss by theft of these materials, particularly the plutonium. (See the sidebar for important differences between each of the nuclear materials. The early work associated with the program focusing on uranium is described in Project Converts Weapons-Grade Uranium to Fuel for Browns in the December 2006 issue of POWER, available in our archives at www.powermag.com.) The outcome of the NAS study was that excess WG plutonium should be as difficult to acquire for a nuclear weapon as the reactor grade (RG) plutonium in spent fuel from civilian nuclear reactors. The selected by the NAS as the best disposition alternative, blends WG plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons with depleted uranium (a byproduct of uranium enrichment) to create mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for irradiation in a commercial nuclear reactor. The plutonium becomes part of the spent fuel, thus no longer making it usable for a nuclear weapon. Nuclear Agreement The current inventories of surplus WG plutonium to be processed are based on the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) originally signed in 2000 by the U.S. and Russia, and reaffirmed in 2007 and 2010. The PMDA commits each country to dispose of no less than 34 metric tons pounds) of excess WG plutonium and irradiate it as MOX fuel in commercial nuclear reactors. The combined amount, 68 metric tons, represents enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons. To implement this agreement in the U.S., the Department of (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), under the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition, contracted the construction of a Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF). POWER recently discussed the project and timetable with Kelly Trice, president and chief operating officer of Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC, which is responsible for the design, licensing, and construction of the MFFF. He described the 17-acre MFFF as a processing and fuel fabrication designed to convert surplus WG plutonium inventories and depleted uranium into MOX fuel assemblies. It is the first facility of its kind in the U.S. Trice pointed out that the completed MOX fuel assemblies will look like standard pressurized water reactor (PWR) and boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel assemblies. He indicated that of the 34 metric tons of plutonium coming from the U.S., 10 metric tons of plutonium oxide are already available for processing and the remaining 24 metric tons from the weapons programs will arrive later in the program. Following irradiation in a reactor, the resulting spent fuel contains WG plutonium in a nonproliferent form. No reprocessing or subsequent reuse of the MOX spent fuel is planned. Once the fuel cycle use is com- December 2012 pleted, the MOX spent fuel will be permanently stored in a geologic repository. The MFFF will be shuttered when the plutonium disposition goals are met. DOE and NRC Licenses Required The contract to build the MFFF at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., was awarded in March 1999 to Shaw AREVA MOX Services LLC. The DOE looked at many sites, but the existing security infrastructure and experience with handling plutonium gave it an edge in the selection process. Licensing of the MFFF is following a two-step process. The first step required submitting a Construction Authorization Request to build at the SRS in February 2001. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued the construction authorization on Mar. 30, 2005. The second stage requires NRC staff review of the license application submitted on Sept. 27, 2006. The license would authorize the possession and use of byproduct and special nuclear material. The NRC review verifies that the structures, systems, and components are constructed, installed, and can be operated properly. MFFF construction officially started on Aug. 1, 2007 (Figure 1). Overall, the concrete structure at the main plant is about 88% complete and 12 of 18 buildings are finished. The Waste Solidification Building, expected to be completed in 2013, is forecasted to treat 150,000 gallons of waste and solidify approximately 600,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste streams from the MFFF for ultimate disposal. In addition to the 2,400 personnel on site, an additional 800 people are employed in 42 states by suppliers to the construction project. Trice noted that both large and small businesses are benefiting from