nuclear-news

H-Canyon, US DOE

From Savannah River Site Watch:
“The incident that caused the partial site shutdown occurred on September 3 and involved transfer in the HB-Line – sits atop the H-Canyon reprocessing plant – of 400 grams of weapon-grade plutonium from a single “3013” plutonium storage can into 3 sample cans.

Criticality control procedures were violated by personnel in how the cans were handled, resulting in not only closure of H-Canyon but many other site activities managed by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNL).

Plutonium removed from the 3013 cans (stored in K Aea) is being processed into plutonium oxide for the mismanaged MOX project though it is more likely that such purified plutonium will be discarded at much lower cost as nuclear waste. DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is paying DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which operates H-Canyon, about $20 million/year for oxide production. NNSA must be…