MANAGING INVENTORIES OF HEAVY ACTINIDES

The Department of Energy (DOE) has stored a limited inventory of heavy actinides contained in irradiated targets, some partially processed, at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The ?heavy actinides? of interest include plutonium, americium, and curium isotopes; specifically 242Pu and 244Pu, 243Am, and 244/246/248Cm. No alternate supplies of these heavy actinides and no other capabilities for producing them are currently available. Some of these heavy actinide materials are important for use as feedstock for producing heavy isotopes and elements needed for research and commercial application. The rare isotope 244Pu is valuable for research, environmental safeguards, and nuclear forensics. Because the production of these heavy actinides was made possible only by the enormous investment of time and money associated with defense production efforts, the remaining inventories of these rare nuclear materials are an important part of the legacy of the Nuclear Weapons Program. Significant unique heavy actinide inventories reside in irradiated Mark-18A and Mark-42 targets at SRS and ORNL, with no plans to separate and store the isotopes for future use. Although the costs of preserving these heavy actinide materials would be considerable, for all practical purposes they are irreplaceable. The effort required to reproduce these heavy actinides today would likely cost billions of dollars and encompass a series of irradiation and chemical separation cycles for at least 50 years; thus, reproduction is virtually impossible. DOE has a limited window of opportunity to recover and preserve these heavy actinides before they are disposed of as waste. A path forward is presented to recover and manage these irreplaceable National Asset materials for future use in research, nuclear forensics, and other potential applications.