Global Security Newswire

The United States has conducted the 100th shipment of low-enriched uranium, created from surplus weapon-grade material, to a facility in Tennessee for conversion into civilian nuclear power plant fuel, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week (see GSN, Oct. 6).

The shipment, from the Savannah River Site in South Carolina to Nuclear Fuel Services in Tennessee occurred four months ahead of schedule. It is part of an NNSA effort to eliminate stockpiles of surplus highly enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons. Under the effort, the highly enriched uranium is blended down at the Savannah River Site to a lower enrichment level for use in power generation by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“The HEU Blend Down project not only supports our nonproliferation objectives of eliminating nuclear materials declared surplus to U.S. national security requirements, but it also reduces future year security costs. Once this material is downblended it no longer requires the same level of security that HEU does,” NNSA Deputy Administrator Paul Longsworth said in a press release (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration release, Nov. 18).