DOE TO USE SAVANNAH RIVER'S H-CANYON FOR CANADIAN HEU

摘要

The Department of Energy is looking at processing highly enriched uranium solutions from Canada as part of ongoing efforts to maximize the potential of the Savannah River Site's H-Canyon facility. The project would involve the return of the U.S. origin HEU from the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which would pay DOE about $60 million for the project. The possibility comes at a time when DOE is actively seeking a number of new missions for the aging nuclear chemical separations plant. "We've got the facility there and it's operating basically on one dissolver and we can operate it on three dissolvers and we've actually had some discussions with the people over at the [White House] Office of Management and Budget and discussions inside headquarters here on the wisdom of trying to put it to full use," DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga said this week at a meeting of the chairs of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Boards, held in Washington. "If you're going to have it there I think there is a good case to be made for trying to maximize it."